A 38 Studios employee corroborates, pointing out some of what he says are Chafee's most egregious acts of misinformation: Calling a private loan effectively cosigned by the state "taxpayer money" makes it appear that the state has already paid the cost, instead of being responsible for it in the event of failure.
And the highly-publicized
million-dollar payment wasn't a loan payment as Chafee claimed, states the employee: "It was actually a weird extra fee to the board he was on, which had nothing to do with payments and interest -- [which was] already handled by setting aside a full third of the loan for that purpose," he adds. "This made it seem like we had somehow burned through all $75 million, including the money set aside to do this."
Chafee also publicly claimed 38's first release, the single-player RPG
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, "failed," artificially deflating its sales numbers and suggesting it was a commercial flop -- which it wasn't. It's true that the game didn't sell enough to fulfill a clause whereby publisher Electronic Arts would start paying a cut to the studio, but employees say potential profits for
Reckoning were never part of the budgeting plans for 38.