Ben-DutkaWell, the assets have to be worth something .
According to The Providence Journal , the state of Rhode Island will attempt to sell off the video game assets of now-bankrupt 38 Studios. A state lawyer has confirmed that "unnamed parties" have expressed interest in obtaining the assets for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning .
Some time ago, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said the Amalur IP isn't worth more than $20 million, which is unfortunate, because Rhode Island was left with $130 million in debt when 38 Studios went down. But every little bit will help, right? Additionally, the report says the legal battle pitting the state of RI against 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling and various executives will begin on Wednesday. It involves the controversial $75 million the state shelled out to bring the developer to RI. As we all know, that really didn't work out.
Let's not forget that Kingdoms of Amalur wasn't a bad game at all and in fact, it went on to sell over 2 million copies. However, considering that 38 Studios was a train-wreck of a company, they needed to sell at least double that just to break even…that right there should tell you something about the management of that company.
Related Game(s): Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
It'd be cool to see someone advance the IP, but RI probably won't get much cash for it.
I know 38 Studios was completely messed up, but whats with all these companies that say a game is a failure if it isn't the best selling game of the year.
Perhaps they are poorly managed studios as well. All new IPs are risky so it's nuts to expect it to sell 4 million copies in the first place.
I loved Kingdoms of Amalur. It is still the best action rpg I have ever played. Best battle system I have played in a long long time too. I hope a great company picks this up.
OK. I take that back. It is tied with Dragon's Dogma. Damnit both are so good you could not put a gun to my head and make me decide which one I would want while stuck on an island.
Both ARE great! Finally, a couple devs figured some gamers actually want fun combat to go along with the epic, open fantasy world.
Hopefully someone will pick it up and continue on with it. I really liked Reckoning and would like to see more games set in that world.
It would be cool to see someone pick this up. But what I wish more for is that mmo they were working on to not have become just a thought. I really would have liked to try that one!
I thought Amalur was a great action RPG, and the engine underneath look to be pretty darn good, so it should make quite the framework to build other RPGs on too (I assume the sale includes not only the IP but also the code).
Last edited by Beamboom on 5/20/2013 1:22:07 PM
I'm sure next time whoever gets it will drop the engine and use something simple like unreal 3.
What do you know of the complexity of the current engine?
A lot of mechanics are in place in that engine for an RPG now, an excellent battle system and graphically it looks great, so unless it's horribly coded – and I see no reason to believe that – it should give a developer a head start into making a new rpg IP.
Hmmmm.
I hope whoever gets it can build upon it a lot more.
It was one of those games were I really wanted to like it, but I just couldn't get into it. The dialogue with every NPC was SO boring.
Yeah the dialogues were horrible. Also the characters, for the most part, were just plain uninteresting. The different factions were so one-dimensional too, and the conflict in that universe were riddled with cliches.
But that is, in short, what the fantasy genre in general is for me… 😀
i wish the guys who did dragons dogma would buy this, those 2 games would meld really well together!
the combat in kingdoms was so much better than every action adventure game out there!
but the world and story, the budget ambitious values is what let it down.
felt more like a ps2 game.
bring it up with crapcoms epic flamboyant style, and the dark supernatural spiritual nature of dragons dogma would be the best suited paring since peanut better and jelly!