38 Studios: Kingdoms of Amalur

At least some of the waiting is over for fans of 38 Suudios (the company founded by former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling with fantasy author R.A. Salvatore and comic legend Todd McFarlane) as Marketwatch.com has announced the title of the company’s first game: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

Kingdoms of Amalur is, in fact, the game known previously only as Project Mercury being developed by Big Huge Games, which was purchased by 38 Studios a while back, beginning immediate development on the game which will be released for the PS3, XBox 360 and PC.

Said Lead Designer Ken Rolston in the Marketwatch article:

"In Reckoning, we started with Bob and Todd's exceptional Kingdoms of Amalur game setting and imagery," said Ken Rolston, Lead Designer at Big Huge Games, a subsidiary of 38 Studios. "On that foundation we built the open-world exploration, vast narrative and character customization fans expect from the best RPGs. And we've added something new that we've always wanted from the genre -- a fast-paced, graphically stimulating action combat experience with fluid control and immersive, discoverable gameplay fans haven't seen before in other fantasy RPGs."

While it is unclear exactly what this means in terms of the game’s relationship to the company’s highly anticipated and highly secretive MMORPG, there are at least a few tidbits of information that players can chew on until Kingdoms of Amalur’s official reveal at this week’s Comic Con:

First, we know that Kingdoms of Amalur is a companion project for the MMORPG. When the big names behind 38 Studios first started to talk about their studio, one of the things that we learned was that the trio planned to create not just an MMO, but an honest-to-goodness fantasy franchise. When Big Huge games was acquired and Project Mercury was announced, we were told that in that vein the single player game would take place in the same universe as the MMO.

So, in all likelihood, we now know that the game world for Copernicus is going to be called Amalur. We’ll keep any other speculation to ourselves at least until the game’s trailer debuts on July 22nd.

In the meantime, let us know what you think about 38's announcement on our forums.