38 Studios’ Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was met with some pretty decent reviews and appeared to be doing quite well for itself. In fact there have also been hints that suggested that the game would be turned into an MMORPG with the codename “Project Copernicus”. Well if you enjoyed the game and you were looking forward to the MMO, you will be disappointed to hear that 38 Studios will be shutting its doors, with its Rhode Island office and its subsidiary Big Huge Games in Maryland closing down too. According to a notice that was given to its employees:
“The Company is experiencing an economic downturn. To avoid further losses and possibility of retrenchment, the Company has decided that companywide layoff is absolutely necessary. These layoffs are non-voluntary and non-disciplinary. This is your official notice of lay off, effective today, Thursday, May 24th, 2012.”
For those unfamiliar, the closure had to do with the $75 million loan that it received from the Rhode Island Development Corporation development fund. The idea was to help create 450 jobs in the state of Rhode Island, but apparently 38 Studios had only managed to employ 379 people, 288 of whom were employed at the studio on Rhode Island.
Its first payment of $1.125 million was due on the 1st of May which 38 Studios had failed to do so. This led to the Rhode Island governer, Lincoln Chaffee and other officials to visit the studio to review its financials which they claim was in the interest of protecting the Rhode Island taxpayers. At this moment, there is no word on what will happen to the Kingdoms of Amalur franchise, but if Project Copernicus was something you were looking forward to, safe to say you shouldn’t expect it to arrive anytime soon, if at all.
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