THQ Nordic acquires Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning IP

THQ Nordic has acquired the intellectual property known as "Kingdoms of Amalur," which it obtained from 38 Studios LLC. The related MMO, Amalur, has also been acquired (it was known as "Copernicus" while in development, though that effort was scrapped a long time ago).

According to the announcement, the acquisition is being handled by THQ Nordic AB, which is based in Sweden, while daily operations (including sales and distribution, as well as evaluation of the financial merits of sequels and new content and such) will be handled by THQ Nordic GmbH in Vienna, Austria.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, despite being a generally good game, has a troubled past that touched a lot of lives... particularly taxpayers in the state of Rhode Island. The game was the creative brain child of Todd McFarlane (the creator of the "Spawn" comics), bestselling fantasy author R.A. Salvatore (known for numerous works, including the "Dark Elf" trilogy) and Ken Rolston (lead designer on Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion).

Though Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning did okay critically and remains semi-beloved by fans, its sales in 2012 failed to set the world on fire. Electronic Arts lost interest in the franchise and 38 Studios ceased to exist as an entity that could make games.

As noted above, the game's history is a lengthy one, and it falls outside the scope of this particular article. We published a few relevant stories at the time everything was unfolding, however. You can check those out from the game profile page if you want more info.

Today's announcement didn't outline just what THQ Nordic expects to do with the franchise, but based on the company's recent activity with other acquisitions (such as Darksiders and other original THQ properties), we should probably expect a remastered version of the game to come to consoles and PC, with development to perhaps begin on a proper sequel if sales of the remaster point in a positive direction. Which maybe will happen this time around. The industry isn't quite the same place it was 6 years ago.

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dirtsheep Sep 8, 2018

Well, this is welcome news. I remember playing Amalur, and liking it quite a bit, and being hopeful for the franchise, and then having it drop off the face of the earth.

Maybe Honest Gamers should become a home to a series of articles called something like, to quote your article, "Electronic Arts Lost Interest...." How many studios would such an article include? How many games? In my mind, at least, such a list would be more easily described as something like, "Everything except that piece of crap Madden...."

But ah...my biases are showing.

Thanks for the good words. I always thought this series could have gone somewhere with some DLC, with some good support, etc. There was a lot on offer in this big game world.

honestgamer Staff Sep 8, 2018

Thanks for reading. As for EA, I think it's easy to forget--or demonize the company for the reality--that shareholders are the executives' first priority. If games aren't making money, as Kingdoms of Amalur wasn't, that's bad news. As gamers, the best we can do is hope that if some other studio is cranking out great stuff and we want to see more of it, EA doesn't buy that studio. It generally spells the end.

dirtsheep Sep 8, 2018

You're correct of course to point out that the company cares about the shareholders more than it cares about their customers (though actually that's an odd thought, isn't it? Good shareholders would of course want their company to respect their customers, which is, after all, where the profits come from). But you sound sort of resigned about it. "As gamers, the best we can do..."

But surely that's not true. How about something like, "As gamers, it's our money that EA is playing Monopoly with. If we don't show up, they won't be able to play Monopoly for much longer."

If Honest Gamers, and others, start documenting how badly EA has corroded this thing that we love so much, we can affect this culture that cares more about capitalism than it cares about the thing that it claims to be working for: gaming and gamers.

Don't buy the next EA game. If enough people do that, we will come out on top. One thing we'll learn is a bit of delayed gratification. As your article points out. Wait a few years, and the sharks will come to feast on the corpse of EA, buying up the properties, and hopefully treating them with more care than EA did.

I'm picking on EA here, because it is such a primary bad actor in our field. But no doubt there are other companies who don't give a rip about this thing that we care about, all the while claiming to. Anybody ever hear about a company called Microsoft? Lionhead Studios: RIP.

But we don't have to be victims. It's our money they're after, and we can teach companies to be a lot less cynical about their profit motive, and treat us as customers with a lot more respect.

honestgamer Staff Sep 8, 2018

But the problem is this: what EA is doing is working for gamers more than it isn't. We wouldn't be buying their games if we didn't feel we were getting our money's worth, not in the long term. As for me, I only rarely ever buy an EA title. If you take a look at my game collection page on my blog, you'll find I own a lot of games but very few from that publisher. And I don't buy much from Activision, either. And Microsoft barely publishes anything these days. And Ubisoft? I actually like most of what Ubisoft does. Genuinely like it. So I'm prepared to vote with my wallet--and do--but I'm also not going to pass up those games I really want, provided I can afford them. I think most gamers are the same way. As far as Kingdoms of Amalur goes in particular, I don't blame EA for not continuing to support a franchise when--essentially--gamers spoke with their wallets and said it wasn't something they were prepared to meaningfully support at that time.

JedwardRandy Sep 9, 2018 edited

ea did nothing wrong with amalur
the game didn't sell so they didn't buy the ip from rhode island
ea is completely innocent in this, like a baby seal
we should boycott Nintendo for not making startropics 3

the bad practice is when big publishers buy studios and shut them down after a failed game
that works for publisher wallets in short term but it cannibalizes the industry, not healthy for long term future
that did not happen here

JoeTheDestroyer Staff Sep 10, 2018

What Jedward said. Especially the part about StarTropics 3. WTF Nintendo?

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