Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios lays off entire staff, gaming industry rallies to help

Approximately 400 employees working for former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling were notified yesterday they would soon be out of a job.

Since then, their fellow gaming industry professionals have rallied to find them new jobs as soon as possible.

The news broke yesterday that 38 Studios, the studio behind the game Kingdom of Amalur: Recoking, would be laying off all employees at its Rhode Island studio and at the Maryland subsidiary Big Huge Games, The Verge reported. As of March 15, 379 full-time staff worked for the company.

38 Studios' troubles have been ongoing for some time now; the company moved from Maryland to Rhode Island with the promise of a $75 million loan guarantee from the state, in hopes it would create high-paying jobs, The Boston Globe reports. The studio missed the May 1 loan payment to the state of $1.1 million and was unable to meet its May 15 payroll, ultimately emailing employees the following on May 24 (as quoted by Joystiq):

"The Company is experiencing an economic downturn. To avoid further losses and possibility of retrenchment, the Company has decided that a company-wide lay off is absolutely necessary. These layoffs are non-voluntary and non-disciplinary. This is your official notice of lay off, effective today, Thursday, May 24th, 2012."

Since then, others in the gaming industry have gathered together to show support for those impacted by the layoffs, offering up information on job openings across the U.S., Canada and globally.

The hashtag #38studios, in addition to condolences for the laid-off employees and their families, began marking job openings and contact information for those with jobs to offer. #38jobs also began popping up, helping connect the former 38 Studios employees with new openings:

Freelance journalist Alex Rubens started a Google Doc shortly after the news broke, offering a croudsource solution for helping the laid-off employees find jobs. The #38Jobs document has grown to over 2000 job listings at 120 companies as of Friday at 12pm EST, highlighting any openings close to Rhode Island.

The outpouring of support is not unheard of for members of the video game industry. The close-knit community rallied to aid the family of developer Brian Wood, who died in a car accident in 2010. Fans and fellow industry professionals flooded Erin Wood's email inbox with prayers, thoughts and donations for her and her unborn child.

(Image courtesy of Reckoning)