I found these articles this morning after I woke up, and after reading, I wanted everyone to hear about this information. As we all know, 38 Studio's borrowed $75 million bond (plus interest) from the state of Rhode Island. Repaying the state back in full by 2020. According to information from Rhode Island's Channel 12 WPRI, Rhode Island taxpayers would be stuck paying $112.6 million. From information that the channel has dug up, $23.4 million of the $75 million was set aside as a reserve to pay back the bonds. So not all of said $75 million was spent and tied up into Studio 38 games. Also, it should be noted that none of the money borrowed from Rhode Island was, according to former Big Huge Games employee's, spent on the creation of Kingdoms of Amalur, Reckoning. It was only used on 38 Studio's MMORPG, Project Copernicus.
The fate of Amalur should 38 Studio's default on their loan payments to Rhode Island, is all intellectual property goes to Rhode Island. According to updated documentation released by the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC) released recently, showed that 38 Studio's put up all IP's, both current and even just thought up and on paper, as collateral.
According to the documents released by RIEDC, 38 Studio's IP rights and other items were pledged as collateral to RIEDC and assigned to a trustee, which Joystiq.com has confirmed through pulling up Uniform Commercial Code documentation. All proceeds made from sales of collateral would go to the bondholders.
But here's the kicker, should 38 Studio defaults on it's payments to Rhode Island, all collateral put up by 38 Studio's would be possessed by the state of Rhode Island in order to pay back said loan. Should this happen, RIEDC, not being a game developer, would then turn around and do the only thing it can do, auction off the collateral and try to make up for as much of the loss as possible, according to Joystiq.com's Mark Methenitis. Methenitis also said that should RIEDC put it up for auction, all collateral will go the highest bidder, and if it sells for more then what is owed, the profits would go to 38 Studio's.
Sadly, it is unlikely that the Kingdoms of Amalur IP will sell for $100 million alone. Nor will Project Copernicus sell for that much, or even for the $50 million borrowed from Rhode Island that was put into the MMORPG.
This however does mean something for us fans. Recently, core members of Big Head Studios found a new home, at Epic Games. Epic President Dr. Mike Capps announced recently the opening of a new game studio in Baltimore, Maryland, to house a number of former Big Huge Game employee's.
While the some of the core developers of BHG are staying together, others have gotten jobs at different gaming studios, such as Zynga East and Zenimax Online.
What does that mean for us, the fans of Amalur? Well, combined with the possiblity that the Amalur IP could be put up for sale auction style in the next year, if the former BHG staff want to and manage to convince Capps, we could see a revival of Amalur by it's original creators. That is not saying that another game studio couldn't make a good Amalur game, look at Fallout 3.
Who knows, what will happen. But this Amalur fan hopes to see a few more DLC's for Kingdoms of Amalur:Reckoning, as well as a sequal.