Information Kingdoms of Amalur IP Heads to Auction

[Mastermind]

It's pretty rare for an EA game to outright flop. Usualy they sell multiple millions of copies, just not as much as they were hoping for.

IIRC kingdoms didn't flop, they just had grossly unreasonable expectations for it.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

I was just thinking about this game today, thinking about the art at least, about the only good thing in that game really. Wouldn't mind seeing the art assets of that game made into an RPG that doesn't suck.

 

[MrBuzzKill]

very well-known major IPs like Call of Duty, Elder Scrolls, etc.

On a side note, I wonder how much the Elder Scrolls IP is worth... or Diablo... or even Arcanum for that matter. There doesn't seem to be a way to know unless something like this happens.

 

[SwiftCrack]

Acanum would probably raise even less than this turd.

 

[hakuroshi]

It's pretty rare for an EA game to outright flop. Usualy they sell multiple millions of copies, just not as much as they were hoping for.

AFAIK it did sell enough to profit EA somewhat. After all they did not finance the development.

 

[Irxy]

I was just thinking about this game today, thinking about the art at least, about the only good thing in that game really. Wouldn't mind seeing the art assets of that game made into an RPG that doesn't suck.

It looked just like wow and dozens of similar low poly/heavy fx cartoonish stylised crap.

 

[Athelas]

I feel kinda bad for these guys. I mean, Amalur wasn't really any worse than the average Bioware RPG which never fails to garner critical and commercial success.

It being government-funded probably explains why everything about the game was so toothless and dull.

 

[Infinitron]

It being government-funded probably explains why everything about the game was so toothless and dull.

It wasn't "government funded" in the PBS sense. 38 Studios took a loan from the Rhode Island government to fund their MMO. They used a small amount of that money to buy Big Huge Games and fund the completion of their single player RPG, which was previously known as "Ascendant" and was going to be published by THQ. The game was also converted to 38 Studios' Amalur setting.

I don't know how much of it was actually done before that - perhaps tibermoon could tell us?

 

[Kem0sabe]

Whats so great about the ip that would tempt anyone to buy it? The lore and world design are bad even for Salvatore's low standards.

 

[Metro]

Like I said on the other thread, they've been saying this for well over a year. Hopefully they get off their ass and finally do it so I can get my 90% off Steam sale!

 

[Echo Mirage]

Salvatore really was scraping the bottom of the barrel on KOA. Must be so damn nice to get paid by wizards of the coast to leaf through the manual of generic fantasy to lift ideas from for the next hack job and get paid for it.

 

[Metro]

Whoever buys this is just looking to cash in on the Steam sales so they'll lowball it bigtime. Maybe EA will toss some money at it so they can sell the Steam version, too. Maybe Derp Silver in case they want to start another shitty arpg IP and hand it off to one of their developers. I would be amazed if the bidding topped $1 million and probably closer to $250,000.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Land is optimistic about the sale: "The bulk of the game and intellectual property I don't believe is stale because the artwork is current, the tech used to develop the artwork is current, the concept is a current concept." Sliwinski warns that the fantastical world of Copernicus may be outdated as the industry shifts into the next generation.

I know this guy is just the bankruptcy receiver, not the guy who greenlighted government funding, but this sentence alone speaks volumes. The state apparatus hasn't got the faintest clue about the gaming industry. We've known that for years - states alternating between moral panic and bandwagon-hopping in a manner that only serves to emphasise that they know fuck all about gaming has been a running joke since the 80s (and bizarrely, they seem to be as far behind now as they were then - even when they grant R18+ ratings every government spokesperson who mentions games still makes it abundantly clear that they think the market is one of kids and a handful of basement-dwelling man-boys, even though a momentary look at widely available data on gamer demographics shows the 'average' gamer is a pretty 'average' adult).

But this is one of the best punchlines to that gag yet. 'We'll be able to sell these assets for a decent sum, because they were made recently and the parts are still in good order so it can't have depreciated much yet - that's how cars work anyway, games are basically the same as cars aren't they? What do you mean it's nonsensical to talk about the currency of the artwork and tech as though they have a significant market value separately from the IP as a whole? You can take parts out of cars and sell them separately, why wouldn't these almost new textures sell for a good price on the 2nd-hand texture market? I'll speak to my 2nd-hand texture dealer, he'll set you straight! Wait....what do you mean there aren't 2nd-hand texture dealers? How do people buy used games then?

[5 minutes later] Will you STOP going on about this 'fun' bullshit! There's no formula for quantifying fun under any version of the standard accounting rules. Our spreadsheets don't even have a column for it! You might play these games sonny, but I know BUSINESS and if it isn't part of the standardised accounting rules it's irrelevant to the product's value.'

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Auction will be invitation only?

 

[Azrael the cat]

I seriously doubt anyone's crazy enough to pay $90 million, or anywhere close to that, for the IP when the first game was pretty much a failure on all fronts. We'll see, though.

Are they sending it to auction? If so, who's up for a Codex fundraiser to put in an official prestigious Codex bid once they remove the reserve price (the company is in receivership, so if the reserve price isn't met, they'll have to make it an open auction - everything must go, so they can't sit on it just because they're pissed that nobody wants to pay their price)?

It would be a long-shot, but I'm not sure that I'd COMPLETELY rule out the possibility that none of the publishers will be interested. If the Codex could raise $10,000 we could be in for some lulz if the auction fails. We've raised a fair few grand for kickstarter games - surely we can raise even more for undermining the economic, judicial and political processes, while bathing in schadenfreude at the gaming industry, particularly if it nets us an outside shot at getting our own franchise, complete with tech, to turn into our own monocle crpg multi-headed penis hitting ass and leg simulator. And while its an ultra long-odds outside shot, nobody would have to pay up on their pledges unless we actually WON.

DU? Codex fund to bid on Kingdoms of Amalur's fetid corpse? Perhaps we could even join forces with rpgwatch and NMA (telling rpgwatch that we're bidding with the intention of making a faithful sequel of course; I'm not sure that they can be trusted with lulz).

 

[Curious_Tongue]

It'd be worth money on Steam and GOG.

Not AAA publisher money, but good money.

 

[Gurkog]

Why would the Codex want this shit IP? It would be better to buy the Arcanum IP.

 

[Duraframe300]

Why would the Codex want this shit IP? It would be better to buy the Arcanum IP.

How would you even buy the arcanum ip. It's an activision property.

 

[Gurkog]

Make them an offer they can't refuse.

 

[tuluse]

How would you even buy the arcanum ip. It's an activision property.

I assume the same way you buy most things. You give the other party money in exchange for their good or service.

 

[Brother None]

Hmmm

/checks wallet

How would you even buy the arcanum ip. It's an activision property.

I assume the same way you buy most things. You give the other party money in exchange for their good or service.

I assume Duraframe means it's probably not for sale. Which...it probably isn't.

 

[FrancoTAU]

The problem is that big gaming companies rather stockpile IPs than sell them for a couple hundred K each. They'd rather have a couple million less in the bank account than have to explain why they let one go that actually went on to be successful.

 

[tuluse]

I assume Duraframe means it's probably not for sale. Which...it probably isn't.

It's not like Activision is doing anything with the IP. I don't see why they wouldn't sell it given a fair price.

10k is probably not what they would consider a fair price though.

 

[Lhynn]

Well, tbh arcanum property shouldnt even be that expensive. I mean, it has little brand recognition outside of our little circle, it has no intrinsic value, just a bunch of things done right that could be replicated with time and effort.

You could just make Troicanum of the dark arts and steamthinggies. you borrow some of the awesome ideas like magic and technology being opposites or orcs with a dagger being overkill in the first couple hours and actually make a better game than arcanum ever was.

 

[Brother None]

It's not like Activision is doing anything with the IP. I don't see why they wouldn't sell it given a fair price.

10k is probably not what they would consider a fair price though.

As a matter of policy publishers don't sell IPs unless they have very specific reasons to. Sure they wouldn't say no to a big offer but it'd have to be a significant offer, not a piddling few hundred K. That's a drop in the bucket to them and it could come back to bite em in the ass if the IP is successful down the line. So yeah, that's why you don't generally see IP sales like that, publishers would rather sit on them unless they're toxic or they get a great offer or the publisher itself is dying.