Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

[Wolvieboy17]

All those employees better sue.

 

[KALEL114]

The game is on sale now at Amazon for $39.99. I would have jumped on it before all this came out, but not now.

 

[The Squirrel]

I bought this game full priced barely a week ago!

 

[socool]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...s-of-amalur-reckoning-2-was-in-the-works.aspx

38 Studios’ Big Huge Games was doing pre-production work on a sequel to last year’s new IP before the studio let all employees go last week.

Joystiq reports that, though Big Huge Games team could still be saved, it is unlikely that work could continue on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning 2. The intellectual property is owned by 38 Studios, but could soon be in possession of Rhode Island.

Work being done on the sequel included improving graphical quality, removing loading times between zones, more combat animations, more branching quests, and greater player impact on the world of Amalur.

Joystiq’s source, who has chosen to remain anonymous given that the there is a minuscule chance the project could be saved, says “We had a good base to work from, and it was going to be all about improving everything. We listened carefully to fans and critics and were going to implement everything we possibly could.”

It is possible a spiritual successor to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning could become a reality. Big Huge Games did this previously when it was purchased by 38 Studios from THQ and converted its previous project into the Kingdoms of Amalur IP.

Hopefully Curt Schilling can pull out a miracle and this won’t be the last we hear of Amalur.

 

[jacobed]

Those improvements sound great, I really wish this mess didn't happen. I loved the first one

 

[Wolvieboy17]

I reckon if the first one had been co op it would have made at least twice as much money

 

[The Squirrel]

You know what? Frack your co-op. Co-Op is not the be all end all of video games. I just don't think it was able to match Skryim/Mass Effect 3.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

You know what? You're right, co-op isn't the be all and end all of games. But this game had a bland story, uninteresting world and repetitive fetch quests. What it had going for it was a large game world, fun combat and lots of stuff to collect, all things which are a lot more fun to do in co-op. The fact that it was so reminiscent of Fable just made it seem like more of an oversight, and the fact that Schilling's plan was to eventually launch an Amalur MMO, he should have tried to catch a multiplayer market early.

 

[zenith16]

no it's not that it wasn't a match. alot of people even like better then sky rim. It was that it wasn't promoted at all. does any one remember seeing it on tv other then game sites like game trailers, Ep/reveiews on the run , or anything G4. it cause of that. it was just word of mouth and certain places saying it was good but marketing was low. the only promoting were the devs working on it them selves and it was in place like Game Informer and the like(other mentioned up top). but out side of that none.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

This game had a lot of marketting, including a tie-in with Mass Effect 3, one of the biggest releases of the year.

 

[zenith16]

online on the game sites but other then that out side those sites of it in north America, in channels like CBS Abc and others it didn't . it just didn't . I don't know what went down where your at, but here it was barely shown other then where game review show's show that stuff. Mass effect on the other hand......

 

[Wolvieboy17]

There was plenty of Marketing in australia, and Australia is hardly a main money source for the games industry, so I assume there was a similar level of marketing in the UK and other places.

Also, it was all over the xbox dashboard for like 2 months, which is right in front of it's core demographic. Marketing can't always be the thing to blame when a game isn't a success, sometimes a game just doesn't have the pull or the appeal to bring new people in.

I know it was off my radar for a while because of the title. Everytime I saw "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning", because of the subtitle I just assumed it was a sequel to a franchise i didn't know about so wasn't interested (assuming since I didn't know the first one, the second one wasn't worth knowing).

The way the game was branded was kind of odd. It was made to look all serious and brooding but was quite cartoonish.

 

[zenith16]

The only marketing there was for us in north America was the games news and review sites sorry. and it's link to ME3 through those sites. But that's it man. you can ask others from up here. It wasn't heavy handed as it usually is with most titles. As commercials go tv and radio wise. those stations I mention like abc never aired them.

 

[Master Chief]

Amalur is basically a single player MMO so yeah, co-op would have fit. That said though EA didn't give a s**t about marketing this game, they were dumping all their promo cash into ME3.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

A lot of people got on board with that play the demo to unlock ME 3 content. I think that was a good idea

 

[zenith16]

while it was remember the Demo wasn't all that it could be and it turned some people off (socool one of them )and we found out through joystiq, game informer and GT (markus) that EA forced the dev's to put out a demo and it was another smaller team doing that demo. It 's why I keep saying not all demo's are Representative of the actually games . Amalure turned out better then it's demo. It's obvious there was some thing wrong between 38 studio's and EA. And the shilling had to borrow money from the state which is always overly costly. it's why I don't like taking loans they say it's your right up here bank / governments, but they ruin your life when you do that.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

I liked the demo once you left the dungeon. You got 20 mins of free roam

 

[Master Chief]

A lot of people got on board with that play the demo to unlock ME 3 content. I think that was a good idea

They did do little things but this game definitely needed more commercial exposure to reach a broader audience. It might not have helped them move 3 million copies, but it would have helped.

The picture they used on the dashboard showcased a sword and shield epic when Skyrim was still very fresh in people's minds, and they cross-marketed with ME3 which is a very different game. Compare that to the insane number of ME3 commercials and trailers and you can see how little EA cared about pushing the game.

 

[zenith16]

I liked the demo once you left the dungeon. You got 20 mins of free roam

yeah well there were still alot of people turned off and it made news that 38 had to explain the deal and markus Beers of GT had to confirm that they warned him after they spoke to him on invisible walls. alot of people hada bad reaction to that demo. and it's been put up in the tread too article wise and socool's reaction with the demo formerly to the actual game.

 

[The Squirrel]

You know what? You're right, co-op isn't the be all and end all of games. But this game had a bland story, uninteresting world and repetitive fetch quests. What it had going for it was a large game world, fun combat and lots of stuff to collect, all things which are a lot more fun to do in co-op. The fact that it was so reminiscent of Fable just made it seem like more of an oversight, and the fact that Schilling's plan was to eventually launch an Amalur MMO, he should have tried to catch a multiplayer market early.

You're probably right. I just have a knee jerk reaction to co-op.

 

[zenith16]

You're probably right. I just have a knee jerk reaction to co-op.

Video

play video
Watch: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning's R.A. Salvatore

X-Play
3 / 5
Blair Herter gets face time with fantasy genre maestro R.A. Salvatore, taking a look at his contributions to everything from Dungeons & Dragons to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and talking...
Posted: Apr 18, 2012 | 4,390 Views | 02:39
source: Xplay
just thought you should know who wrote the story for the game and that his was more liked then what happened in DA 2 or any thing bioware had been made to make their writers put our of late story wise thanks to their boss's(I mean the publisher when I say this) .

 

[X Knight]

I was really excited for this game, but the demo really turned me off ( same with the ME 3 demo ).

now, with this development, I'm glad I didn't rush out to buy this full price. maybe if it gets really cheap down the line, I'll consider picking it up.

 

[The Squirrel]

It's a fun game so far. But now that the price will probably drop (if it hasn't already) I do regret getting it at full price.

 

[Soapy]

"Epic Baltimore" rises out of the ashes of Big Huge Games

 

[Wolfwood]

Wow, that's amazing news for those guys. Nice bit of news to lead in to E3 with.