Report: EA passed on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning sequel

A sequel to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was in "pre-production" before developer Big Huge Games was effectively shut down late last week.

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A sequel to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was in "pre-production" before developer Big Huge Games was effectively shut down late last week due to parent company 38 Studios' financial struggles. As expected of a sequel, it would have built upon the base established by the first game. Improvements were sought in graphics, more branching quests, and no loading screens.

While the collapse of 38 Studios has received much more mainstream attention due to its use of tax dollars, Reckoning didn't touch any of that money, a former employee explained. "Reckoning was developed with EA publishing money, NOT Rhode Island tax dollars," a source told Joystiq. "It had nothing to do with the $50 million dollars from RI. That money went directly to the MMO project."

Electronic Arts was approached about the sequel, but apparently declined to pursue it on the basis of "executive politics." 38 Studios was shopping the title, and was in "advanced talks" with a publisher before the company's collapse. Schilling recently blamed Rhode Island for scaring off potential investors in an Amalur sequel.

Because the Amalur IP, tech, and code will likely be owned by the state of Rhode Island after the dust settles, the rights will need to be repurchased for any further pursuit of a sequel. However, according to Joystiq, "the state's asking price to release assets is too high." As the controversy over Schilling's handling of 38 Studios continues to brew, it seems unlikely that Reckoning 2 will ever see the light of day.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 29, 2012 11:30 AM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Report: EA passed on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning sequel.

    A sequel to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning 2 was in "pre-production" before developer Big Huge Games was effectively shut down late last week.

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      May 29, 2012 12:09 PM

      The state wouldn't know what to do with any of it anyway. So 50 million into an MMO that never even got near launch. Wow.

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        May 29, 2012 12:14 PM

        50 million in the last year alone. They have been working on Capernicus for years before that.

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          May 29, 2012 12:17 PM

          Christ. How is that even possible?

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            May 29, 2012 12:17 PM

            Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if some shady shenanigans didn't come to light at some point.

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              May 29, 2012 12:25 PM

              one of the terms of the deal was to bring 400 jobs to Rhode Island. 400 is entirely too much for just about any first time studio to handle, yet they agreed to it because dollar signs. The whole thing was a mismanaged flustercuck from the beginning.

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                May 29, 2012 12:30 PM

                to put it in perpsective, from 2006-2010, they were running with 160 employees. They were expected to triple in size in the span of two years. There was no way that would be maintainable for a MMO that has no expectations of beating WoW.

                • Ebu legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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                  May 29, 2012 2:09 PM

                  Most MMOs seem to think that they'll be one ones to topple WoW. :/

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                    May 29, 2012 2:20 PM

                    Thing is, if anyone MMO was going to topple WoW, it would have been Star Wars, and that didn't so to think that your unknown mmo is going to take on WoW is laughable.

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                      May 29, 2012 3:19 PM

                      Nothing really needs to topple WoW. If it makes money, who cares? (Of course, the number of failed MMO projects over the years is quite impressive...)

                      • Ebu legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
                        reply
                        May 29, 2012 3:52 PM

                        I think the failures come in large part because they do specifically try to topple WoW. They go with the same gametype, the same playstyle, trying to lure people over. But unfortunately WoW, for all its flaws, has years of content built on that a new release can't hope to match.

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      May 29, 2012 1:51 PM

      I'm sure glad the state gave this money to the studio instead of investing in existing businesses

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        May 29, 2012 1:53 PM

        ummm..... the studio was an existing business.

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          May 29, 2012 1:57 PM

          I am hoping for a timeline of this company. financials as well. strange stuff. mf global grade weird.

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          May 29, 2012 2:02 PM

          Not really, it was an existing business in another state, RI gave them 75 million to bring the company to RI and arbitrarily triple it's size.

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        May 29, 2012 2:03 PM

        HMM How about the state not invest at all????

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      May 29, 2012 3:23 PM

      I hope Big Huge Games gets the chance to make another game similar to Reckoning -- it's a fun game.

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      May 30, 2012 3:30 AM

      People who are excited about new MMO's are mostly people that are bored of WoW. So when you copy WoW your not going at the right target audience. People who like WoW will continue to play WoW its already has a all the tools in place to mask the fact that your server isempty most of the time with.

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