THQ Nordic announces Kingdoms of Amalur acquisition

THQ Nordic is continuing its quest to snap up fondly remembered but currently dormant intellectual property (IP), announcing that it has reached a deal with 38 Studios for the rights to role-playing franchise Kingdoms of Amalur - including the abandoned massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) project Copernicus.

Born from Nordic Games' acquisition of the THQ brand and selected assets back in 2016, THQ Nordic has been splashing the cash ever since: In November 2016 the company announced it had acquired Novalogic IP including shooter franchise Delta Force; in February this year it picked up Koch Media, Deep Silver, and Volition in one fell swoop; and just last month announced it had acquired the rights to the TimeSplitters franchise. Now it has another name to add to the list: 38 Studios' Kingdoms of Amalur.

Released in 2012, the action role-playing game (ARPG) Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was generally well received though failed to make an impact commercially against the likes of the Elder Scrolls series. Designed by R. A. Salvatore, Todd McFarlane, and Ken Rolston - the latter having been lead designer for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - the game used a flexible class system dubbed 'Destiny' which allowed users to tweak the character to match their particular play style. The game also spun off a massively multiplayer project, Copernicus, which was cancelled prior to public release.

THQ Nordic's ownership of the rights, though, may not be as smooth sailing as some of its previous transactions. 'If someone of you out there has a good contact to Redwood City, California (@EA),' the company wrote in its official press release for the acquisition, 'we would appreciate it, if you share with us, so we can discuss further steps with our colleagues there.' Such a request suggests both that THQ Nordic believes that Electronic Arts, as the publisher of the original game, may still have some say in its future exploitation and that it is not yet in discussions regarding same.