ABSTRACT
The collapse of video game development company 38 Studios took just under two years and promised to cost an already struggling state millions before all was said and done. The company, founded by baseball legend Curt Schilling, benefited from regional politics, economic decline, and perhaps most crucially, fundamental misunderstandings about the nature of the video game industry. As such, it offers a useful case study about both the nature of creative industry policy in the United States and how it intersects with the video game industry. At the time of Carcieri's first meeting with Schilling, Rhode Island already had incentives in place for both film and video game production. In Rhode Island, funds could be granted via a quasi-public body, the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC). The example of Rhode Island's loan to 38 Studios bears all the hallmarks of creative industry policy in the United States, particularly its pitfalls.
