Curt Schilling on 38 Studios

Curt Schilling, the former baseball star and founder of failed venture 38 Studios, has revealed details about how the company failed in an interview with Boston Magazine.

Schilling's first love was MMOs. Project Copernicus was the working title of the game that was due to be released in June, 2013. "If it wasn't an MMO, I wouldn't have done it. If you look at the game space now, if you want to build something that's a billion-dollar company, the only game to do that with is an MMO."

Schilling had aspirations of being "Bill Gates rich." He later added: "I believed with every ounce of my being that everything was going to work itself out. I'm $50 million in at this point, so I'm not going to walk away."

To his credit, part of the problem was Schilling's desire to treat his staff well. The company spent huge sums of money on staff perks. By trying to look after his employees, it created a misleading atmosphere at the studio: "We never had that sense of urgency or panic. I think there was a sense of invulnerability - I don't want to say invulnerability, but I think we were comfortable."

The studio eventually failed, because of over $150 million owed to a variety of investors, including Rhode Island taxpayers. Staff were unpaid, and lost medical benefits, and many of them didn't find out that the company was in serious trouble until they found out through the media.

Schilling added: "I never doubted I was going to do it. My whole life was spent doing things that people didn't believe were possible, because God blessed me with the ability to throw a baseball. And I carried that same mentality into everything I did here."