14 DAY TRIAL // The layoffs at 38 Studios that took place later last week mean that a planned patch for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will never be delivered to players, despite the fact that it was pretty close to being feature complete.
Ian Frazier, who is the lead designer that worked on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, has stated on the official forums on the game that, “I wanted to apologize for the lack of a patch for Reckoning. It’s something we very much wanted to do, but various issues outside our control (which unfortunately I’m not at liberty to disclose) prevented us from doing so for a long time."
The developer detailed, "Finally we received clearance to do a PC-only patch, which wasn’t ideal (we wanted to do a patch on all platforms) but it was better than nothing."
Frazier says that the planned patch would have added a number of new features to the game, including two difficulty modes for gamers who wanted a tougher experience and a new camera mode designed to show off more of the game world.
He added, "I am deeply sorry that we were unable to get a patch out the door sooner, before this catastrophe struck – you supported us, and you deserve the support yourselves." "While I consider Reckoning a very strong game and not especially buggy, that’s not the same as saying that it’s perfectly balanced or bug-free, and it kills me that I’ll never get the chance to correct any of its issues", the developer further said.
Some analysts have suggested that companies that are interested in the game world that 38 Studios and Big Huge Games have created for Kingdoms of Amalur might be able to buy it for as little as 20 million dollars (15.8 million Euro).
A new developer and publisher team might continue the development of the MMO Copernicus and would probably also offer a patch for Reckoning.