Big Huge Games has finally released Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the RPG they’ve been working on for more than half a decade, having launched it in the US two days ago and launching it in Europe tomorrow, February 10. However, they’re already thinking of a sequel- and given the resources, time and work they’ve put into this IP, I don’t blame them.
BHG says it wants to work on a sequel for sure, but EA will only give them the green light if Reckoning gets good sales. “[A sequel] is certainly something we would love to do,” the game’s lead designer Ian Frazier told Eurogamer. 
“Obviously it needs to succeed well enough to justify that. But we would love to do that.
“[The game universe] is really big. It’s 10,000 years of history. We could be sick to death of the Age of Arcana, which is where Reckoning is set, and be like, okay, we’ll just pick a different time period or pick a different geography in a different area of the world.
“It’s pretty darn varied, so we have a lot of stuff to choose from to keep it fresh.”
He notes that that cannot happen unless Reckoning garners proper sales and feedback by fans and critics. However, there might be an Amalur 2 even if the first game doesn’t sell very well. It’s a little complicated.
“It comes down to units sold at the end of the day, but it’s complicated,” Frazier said. “
If the game doesn’t sell that many copies but the critical reception is really good, then our publisher might be like, well, it was the first in a new 
franchise, we’re going to take a bet and sign you up for another one. If the sales are really good you’re pretty much set no matter what. There’s a pretty big sliding scale there.
“There’s that invisible line where, you sold enough to justify getting a sequel or another project, but not quite enough to get a great budget for it. So it’s like, oh now how are we going to pull it off? “That’s the scary zone. That’s what you don’t want. It’s almost better to flop and go out of business than to have to pull something out of your ass and make it happen.
“I’ve been there, man. At my last studio it was like, this is not possible. Not a place you want to be.”
Stay tuned to GB for more updated. We’ll have our official review of Amalur up very soon.
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