The online video game in the works when former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling’s company sputtered into bankruptcy last year is heading to the auction block.
Heritage Global Partners on Friday began formally marketing the “massively multiplayer online” game and other intellectual property belonging to 38 Studios. Prospective bidders will be vetted ahead of an auction tentatively scheduled for November.
Richard Land, the court-appointed receiver for 38 Studios, and Nick Jimenez, executive vice president at Heritage, declined to estimate the worth of the game, code-named “Copernicus,” which went unfinished when the company ran out of money and laid off all its employees.
“There was a lot of work put into it and a lot of work was completed, but it was a huge undertaking,” said Land. “I do believe that ‘Copernicus’ has significant value.”
Land said multiple parties expressed interest even before the auction house went live Friday with a 38 Studios page on its website, a YouTube trailer for the game and information about the other assets being sold off.
Said Jimenez: “I would hope we get companies that are interested in doing something with the games that would help complete the vision of the business.”
The economic development corporation is suing Schilling, former 38 Studios executives and some of its own former officials in an effort to cover taxpayer losses. The lawsuit alleges fraud, negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, among other things, and claims the defendants concealed that 38 Studios would run out of money by last year.
The receiver already staged two public auctions to sell off 38 Studios items, including desk chairs, graphic animation equipment and even model airplanes the former pitcher was said to have built and kept in his office.
Land said the net from the auctions at the old 38 Studios headquarters in Providence and Big Huge Games in Timonium, Md., which 38 Studios acquired, was about $400,000.
By ERIKA NIEDOWSKI Associated Press