Gone but not forgotten

Those that have been paying close to attention to the video game industry over the past couple of weeks will no doubt be familiar with the closure of Big Huge Games. The developer behind the likeable Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was forced to shut down last week following the emerging financial troubles of its parent company 38 Studios.

News has since emerged that Big Huge Games had started pre-production on a sequel to the action RPG. The title was supposedly being shopped around to publishers after EA, who published the first title, decided to pass on the sequel due to “executive politics”.

The developer was supposedly hoping to improve on the sequel’s visuals, decrease loading times and expand combat animations. All considerations were conceived in direct response to feedback from the original game.

Unfortunately, the title is unlikely to ever see the light of day. Should Big Huge Games reform under a different banner, it would still not have access to the Amalur brand. Its best hope would be to create a different property with a similar feel — a move that, while not impossible, is unlikely to ever get off the ground.

[source joystiq.com]