From computers to swords, assets of Schilling's failed video game company being sold off in RI

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The remnants of former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling's defunct video game company — from graphic animation equipment to model airplanes he is said to have made and kept in his office — are being sold off at the company's former Providence headquarters.

The second of two auctions of 38 Studios' assets began Tuesday morning at the company's old office building downtown, where Schilling and nearly 300 employees used to work. About 2,100 lots are slated to be sold off during an auction expected to run at least a full day.

Hundreds of potential bidders showed up for the start of the auction and some snatched up items including lamps, a wheelchair and swords used to create sound effects for video games.

The auctioneer joked that he hoped the event would raise $75 million — the amount of a state loan guarantee given to the company by Rhode Island in 2010 — but the actual amount is likely to be far less.

Rhode Island lured 38 Studios from Massachusetts with the $75 million loan guarantee approved by the Economic Development Corp. in 2010. The company filed for bankruptcy in June, likely leaving the state on the hook for some $100 million related to the deal, when interest is factored in. Rhode Island is by far 38 Studios' biggest creditor.

"We're trying to raise as much money as we can," auctioneer Sal Corio told reporters during a Monday preview of items.

A room that once served as the employee gym is now filled with computer monitors tagged and ready for bidding, which can be done in person or online. Another has hundreds of computer towers, all wiped clean and reloaded with operating systems. There's office furniture galore — including Aeron chairs — along with a 38 Studios sign, several prints autographed by Schilling, figures of characters from the game "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning," and a ping pong table.

One lot consists of all manner of random items left at employees' desk after they were laid off in May, including a "Green Monster" piñata and what looked like an animal cage.

38 Studios' intellectual property, including an unfinished video game that Schilling hoped would be a blockbuster, will be sold off in a separate auction in a few months.

The bidding is expected to raise more than last week's auction at Big Huge Games, a gaming studio in Maryland bought by 38 Studios in 2009. That one grossed $180,000, according to 38 Studios receiver Richard Land.

Corio said he hopes Tuesday's auction doesn't primarily attract those seeking memorabilia.

"We don't have the bloody sock," he said, referring to the famous sock an injured Schilling wore on his team's way to the World Series title in 2004.

Schilling may have to sell or part with the bloody sock himself to cover millions of dollars in loans he guaranteed to 38 Studios.

News from © The Associated Press, 2012