The lengthy post-mortem of Project Copernicus and 38 Studios never seems to end, does it? While the answer to “What went wrong?” is multi-faceted at the very least, a new report floating around shows that there were serious red flags about the studio’s ability to pull off a project of this scope well in advance of the studio’s collapse.
Apparently the Rhode Island Economic Development Corportation contracted IBM to do an assessment of 38 Studios prior to the EDC granting the infamous $75 million loan. While the assessment showed many strengths, there were also at least 19 concerns listed. These include confusion over a unified vision, no economics team, decisions being made in a vacuum, goals that were too large, and “opaque financial communications.”
Considering that running out of funds tanked the project, this last mention is particularly damning.
