Amalur Sequel was Almost Financed by Grand Theft Auto Publisher

July 24, 2012 by Alex Co

Take-Two Interactive, publisher of Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne and more, was almost set to bring Amalur’s sequel to life.

In an instance that I'm sad didn't happen, Take-Two Interactive was originally set to finance Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning's sequel. Yep, the same Take-Two who publishes Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead and more.

So what happened? Former 38 Studios boss Curt Schilling states that he was "close to a pact" with Take-Two and that the deal was all but finalized until the publisher got cold feet due to Rhode Island Governor's Lincoln Chaffee's public statements.

Sadly, the Amalur IP is now the owned by the Rhode Island government and from what reports are saying, it won't be seeing the light of day anytime soon due to the state's steep asking price for the license.

One good thing that came out of this is that most of 38 Studios' subsidiary — Big Huge Games — is now shacked up with Epic Games and now is now called Epic Baltimore. Hopefully, they can develop the next best thing; and that's Amalur's spiritual successor.

How do you think an Amalur game would fit within Take-Two's portfolio? Can you imagine the possibilities if Rockstar was given free reign over it?

Source: Boston Magazine (via IGN)