Rhode Island taking possession of 38 Studios' IP

The Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. and Bank of New York Mellon Trust Co. have been given court approval to take 38 Studios' assets. These assets include the former studio's intellectual property, which Rhode Island and BNY Mellon Trust plan to sell to recoup money still owed on 38 Studios' $75 million loan. BNY Mellon Trust was the trustee on the loan.

Bloomberg reports that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath granted the bank's request, after the agency and bank claimed they needed to take action soon before its intellectual property is "irretrievably lost." They claim it will take weeks to preserve the existing data and move it to new servers.

If Rhode Island does find a buyer for the IP, we may still see more games in the Kingdoms of Amalur series. EA has already expressed interest in publishing such a title. The Amalur MMO, code-named Copernicus, might find it more difficult to tempt an interested party. Besides the growing struggles of the MMO genre in general, the former head of the studio has said it simply "wasn't fun."