38 Studios auction fails to find buyer for Amalur sequel and MMO

The 38 Studios auction took place this week, and Rhode Island failed to find a buyer for both the rights to make a Kingdoms of Amalur sequel, and the spin-off MMO Project Copernicus.

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The liquidation auction for 38 Studios properties took place this week, and found no buyer for the rights to produce a sequel to Kingdoms of Amalur or the MMORPG Project Copernicus. Also left without buyers were rights for the Big Huge Games Engine, Catan

GameSpot reports that some assets did sell. The games and intellectual property for Rise of Nations and Rise of Legends sold in one lot, and another successful lot included the Big Huge Games trademark.

The proceeds for those two raised $320,000, in addition to the $1 million already raised from liquidating office equipment from the Rhode Island and Maryland locations. That's still far from the estimated $100 million in debt the state of Rhode Island suffered from 38 Studios' bankruptcy. The state claimed that more than 20 parties expressed interest in the auction, though, and still plans to negotiate to sell the remaining assets.

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  • reply
    December 13, 2013 12:15 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, 38 Studios auction fails to find buyer for Amalur sequel and MMO.

    The 38 Studios auction took place this week, and Rhode Island failed to find a buyer for both the rights to make a Kingdoms of Amalur sequel, and the spin-off MMO Project Copernicus.

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      December 13, 2013 12:25 PM

      Man thats too bad, I would have loved a sequel to kingdoms of amalur...

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      December 13, 2013 12:38 PM

      The NYTimes longform on that studio was super interesting to read.

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      December 13, 2013 1:20 PM

      100 million. Holy fuck. How can you not be a fiscal conservative after stories like this.

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        December 13, 2013 1:24 PM

        How can you not be a fiscal conservative after stories like this.

        Gee, I dunno! It's almost as if the way government taxes & funds things is really complex and diverse across across local, county, state, and federal lines.

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          December 13, 2013 1:38 PM

          Na, this is pretty much how it usually goes. See: Quantitative Easing, Iraq War, Freddie May, Fannie Mac...

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            December 13, 2013 2:29 PM

            Well, that certainly is an exhaustive list. You've reformed me!

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              December 13, 2013 3:13 PM

              Good, now make sure you stop voting for Red team/Blue team based on some mislead sense of cultural identity.

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                December 13, 2013 3:40 PM

                hahahahaha I have no idea what the fuck you're on about, and I don't think you do, either.

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                  December 13, 2013 3:51 PM

                  Obama isn't really a progressive, Bush isn't really a conservative, they both work for Goldman Sachs, wake up and smell the fascism.

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                    December 13, 2013 3:55 PM

                    If you want to describe the problems inherent in the collision of business interests in American politics, then "oligarchy" is probably a more apt descriptor than "fascism". Though I'm befuddled how we got here after your initial point, but whatever. Rage against the machine, bro!

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        December 13, 2013 1:45 PM

        I don't think we'll see any more state "economic development corporations" giving out millions of dollars in loans to game developers for huge projects.

        I have to admit being miffed at Governor Patrick letting 38 studios move out of Maynard, Massachusetts back in 2007, but in hindsight, that was a good move. MMOs seemed like almost a sure moneymaker back then, but WoW was the only one raking in the money, and then the whole MMO market fizzled.

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        December 13, 2013 2:23 PM

        It's easy, a single bad outcome does not mean an entire practice is bad.

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        December 13, 2013 3:13 PM

        i try to base all my policy decisions on a single instance of poor decision making

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          December 13, 2013 3:21 PM

          Yeah, you're right, they should just keep at it until something sticks. Obama should invest 1 billion in developing the next Puzzles and Dragons, cuz, you know, jobs and stuff.

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            December 13, 2013 3:26 PM

            now you're getting it, extrapolate to each extreme as much as humanly possible from individual examples. Now you're a true conservative.

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              December 13, 2013 3:36 PM

              Keyword: examples. After you see example after example of incredibly poor investment decisions, you will see how they merged into the incredible clusterfuck we find ourselves in now. I guess first you have to be skeptical that most problems can be fixed by government intervention.

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                December 13, 2013 3:39 PM

                it's funny the kind of examples one hones in on when you've already formed a belief that you're looking to confirm

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                  December 13, 2013 3:54 PM

                  Examples confirmed reality. Not saying all government is bad. I like bike lanes and police, when they're not planting cocaine on a black teenager.

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      December 13, 2013 1:54 PM

      One of the worst news items of the year, I am very sad by this news I had my hopes up hard core for Kingdoms of Amalur 2 and thought for sure it be sold easily.

      I am sad :(

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        December 14, 2013 1:37 AM

        I'm sure it will sell, It just depends on how much RI wants to let it go for.

        I'd be willing to bet this "auction" had to meet a certain bottom bid for assets, one that RI most likely put too high.

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      December 13, 2013 2:47 PM

      RISE OF NATIONS SEQUEL...YESSSSSSSSS!

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        December 13, 2013 3:29 PM

        maybe now we'll get a steam release of RoN???

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        December 13, 2013 4:10 PM

        It's a tablet / mobile game

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      December 13, 2013 3:27 PM

      [deleted]

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      December 13, 2013 4:05 PM

      Fuuuuuck I wanna see a Rise of Nations sequel so bad.

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      December 14, 2013 8:50 AM

      God, this just sucks.

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