Just when you thought you’d heard the last of the tragic saga of 38 Studios, the company that went bankrupt after releasing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning in 2012, a new chapter has begun to unfold. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed fraud charges on Monday against the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, the state agency that loaned the studio $50 million to finance its games, and Wells Fargo, the bank that underwrote bonds invested in the loan.
According to The Associated Press, the SEC charges asserted that the organizations knew 38 Studios would need at least $75 million to complete “Project Copernicus,” the unnamed Kingdoms of Amalur MMORPG, but did not disclose to investors that their investment would not cover the full cost of the game’s development. The developer re-located from Massachusetts to Rhode Island in 2010 after receiving a $75 million loan guarantee from the RIEDC. The agency issued $75 million in bonds to cover that investment, $50 million of which went to the developer, and $25 million going to cover expenses related to issuing the bonds and establishing other funds.
The charges also suggested that Wells Fargo should have disclosed that it held a potential conflict of interest in representing both RIEDC and 38 Studios.
“An underwriter’s ‘skin in the game’ is material information to investors,” LeeAnn Ghazil Gaunt, chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit said in an official statement. “We allege that Wells Fargo failed to fully disclose its own economic interest in this bond transaction.”
In addition to the two organizations, the SEC has filed lawsuits against three individuals named in the charges for having direct actions related the fraud. Two former RIEDC executives, Keith Stokes and Michael Saul, who have both agreed to pay $25,000 penalties. Peter Cannava, whom the charges refer to as the “lead banker” for Wells Fargo related to the transaction, has not yet agreed: Cannava’s attorney called the charge an attempt to “scapegoat a mid-level banker instead of focusing on the mistakes of Rhode Island politicians.”
The SEC filing is just the latest in a long line of lawsuits related to the loan and 38 Studios’ bankruptcy, which has left the state of Rhode Island on the hook for $89 million in debt. To date, the RIEDC, now called the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation, has recovered $17 million through legal action against Wells Fargo, members of 38 Studios’ executive board, and others related to the deal.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.