Curt Schilling speaks out about losing $50 million in 38 Studios closure

Curt Schilling, former MLB pitcher and founder of the recently bankrupted game development firm 38 Studios, gave his first interview about the company's closure since all of its employees were laid off in late May.

Curt Schilling, former MLB pitcher and founder of the recently shuttered game development firm 38 Studios, gave his first interview about the company was bankrupted earlier this month.

"One of the going concerns from Day One," Schilling explained during the Dennis and Callahan sports show on WEEI in Boston (via the Boston Globe), "is we needed to raise capital. We tried for a long time to do that and it didn't come to fruition."

Nearly all of the company's funding came from three sources, Schilling explained: About $5 to $10 million from investors, a $75 million guaranteed loan from the state of Rhode Island, and $50 million of his own assets, earned during his MLB career. In an interview in late May, Schilling said he could possibly lose his substantial investment in the company entirely. In today's interview, he confirmed that he was indeed "tapped out."

"I put everything in my name in this company," Schilling said. "I believed in what we built. I never took a penny in salary. I never took a penny for anything."

Schilling recalled telling his family about the loss of his considerable wealth nearly a month ago, explaining "38 Studios was probably going to fail and go bankrupt, and that the money that I had earned and saved during baseball was probably all gone. And that it was my fault. And that they might start hearing some things in school and things like that. And let's be clear: We're not talking about a terminal illness or somebody dying. But it's a life-changing thing.

"It's not a conversation I would wish on any father, or on anybody," Schilling added. "But I had to do it, and explain to them that part of growing up is being accountable. This was my decision to do this, and I failed. And life would probably start to change and be very different for us."

Schilling was equally upset about the short shrift given to the employees of 38 Studios, many of which were rehired by Epic Games and reformed into a new studio, Epic Baltimore.

"The employees got blindsided," Schilling said. "They have every right to be upset. I always told everybody if something were going to happen, you‘re going to have a month or two of lead time, and I bombed on that one in epic fashion."