Back in May, it was reported that Curt Schilling's post-career business venture — the gaming company 38 Studios — was under heavy financial duress, and filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter.
A month later, it came out that the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI were launching simultaneous investigations into the company's business dealings — the studio cost the state of Rhode Island about $100 million — which apparently concluded in late September with the announcement that Schilling would not face criminal charges. The former World Series hero could yet face financial charges and criminal prosecution at the state level, however.
All that was on the backburner on Monday, however, when numerous items salvaged from the company were shown to potential bidders in Maryland in advance of the company auctioning off all of its assets on Tuesday. Everything from computers to a hand-recognition security system to Xbox and Wii consoles were on display, according to the Associated Press.
The company's intellectual property, including the rights to an unfinished game, will be sold in a future auction. There doesn't seem to be a good guess as to how much money the auctions will bring in, but it's expected to be well short of the $75 million the company received in loans from the state of Rhode Island — 38 Studios is liable for about $150 million in various dealings, and its total assets were valued at about $21 million in court filings.
But hey, if you're in the market for an excess of Xbox controllers, 38 Studios' loss could be your gain.
"If you want to buy 25 Xbox controllers, you can buy 25 Xbox
controllers," said Sal Corio, an auctioneer who is handling the bidding.
Likewise, there's no word on the fate of the infamous bloody sock from
the 2004 World Series, which was listed by Schilling as collateral on
loans taken out.
