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The gaming industry is full of companies that came to an unfortunate end, and the tale of 38 Studios is another tragic tale of a developer that came to a premature end. Curt Schilling formed the company with the goal of creating an ambitious new MMORPG codenamed Copernicus and relocated the studio from Maynard, Massachusetts to Rhode Island after securing a $75 million loan guarantee from the state’s Economic Development Council, but after releasing its first title earlier this year, the company ran into financial difficulties and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in June.

38 Studios first and only released title- Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - was developed by subsidiary Big Huge Games and released back in February. The action RPG sold an estimated 1.3 million copies and was met with fairly positive reviews. But the game sales were not enough to help keep the company afloat. And despite the downfall of 38 Studios, publisher EA would still like to one day see a sequel to the action RPG get made, and according to EA Labels President Frank Gibeau, they wouldn’t mind being a partner for the endeavor.

“We built a good business there and hope there’s a sequel to it someday,” Gibeau told Videogamer. “We’d love to be a partner for that.”

38 Studios is currently in the process of having its assets liquidated, but who may be interested in picking up the gaming IP is unclear for the moment. But according to a recent report from WPRI, Copernicus was said to be nearly 75% complete at the end of May, so it’s possible that a developer/publisher may be willing to pick up the property and continue development at some point.

Source: The Videogamer