Curt Schilling, the former baseball star turned video game developer, has revealed that a sequel for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was almost ready to go into development at 38 Studios before a number of comments from the Governor of Rhode Island caused partners to pull out of the project.
Speaking to the Boston Magazine, the executive admitted that 38 Studios and its subsidiary, Big Huge Games, were in deep financial trouble in early 2012 and they were unable to meet a loan repayment set for early May.
Possible partners included Nexon, an MMO specialist, and another unnamed Chinese company.
But Schilling was sure that by that date he would be able to find a publisher for
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning 2 by that time, with a deal expected to be made with Take Two, the publisher that also delivers Rockstar titles to the market.
Unfortunately, comments that Lincoln Chaffee, the Governor of Rhode Island, has made on May 14 forced Take Two to drop the deal.
The publisher has stated that “we do not comment on rumors and speculation.”
Schilling has also commented on Copernicus, the MMO that Kingdoms of Amalur was paving the way for, saying that, “The game wasn’t fun. It was my biggest gripe for probably the past eight to 12 months.”
Apparently, the project delivered unsatisfying combat even though the graphics were impressive.
After the failure of payment in May, 38 Studios went into bankruptcy, with Schilling himself claiming that he lost most of his fortune.
A number of developers from the company have since moved to developer Epic Games and the Rhode Island government holds the rights to the Kingdoms of Amalur intellectual property.
Electronic Arts was rumored to be interested in a sequel, but it’s unlikely that it will ever get made, given the poor sales of the original release.
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