A Kingdoms of Amalur remaster probably can't happen unless EA agrees

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Though THQ Nordic purchased the intellectual property, it says EA still has the publishing rights to the original game.

Last week, publisher THQ Nordic surprised us when it scooped up the nearly-forgotten intellectual property rights to Kingdoms of Amalur from now-defunct 38 Studios. It's exciting news for fans of the 2012 action RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, as the series has sat idly in purgatory since its developer 38 Studios declared bankruptcy shortly after its release.

But don't get too excited just yet. What THQ Nordic intends to do with their new acquisition remains to be seen, but at least one of those options—any kind of remaster or re-release—will likely require a green light from EA. As THQ Nordic told Eurogamer in an email, "EA still has the publishing rights to Reckoning."

Even though THQ Nordic now owns the rights for Amalur (including the massive amount of backstory penned by novelist R. A. Salvatore), EA still has rights regarding the release of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and will need to cooperate with THQ Nordic on any projects dealing with that particular game.

"At this stage we 'only' acquired the intellectual property," THQ Nordic told Eurogamer. "Given our track record, we know what the burning questions (remaster, remake, port to current-gen systems etc.) are, but we decided do not answer those specifically as we tend to put our heads together first and then do our homework, and only start to talk about anything once we feel confident and very familiar with the franchise."

While that doesn't necessarily rule out a sequel or the resurrection of the ill-fated Kingdoms of Amalur MMO, it may take some negotiating before more is done with the property at all. Fortunately for us PC folks, Reckoning is still available on Steam and what few recent reviews it has seem to indicate it still holds up pretty well.

Steven Messner
Steven Messner

With over 7 years of experience with in-depth feature reporting, Steven's mission is to chronicle the fascinating ways that games intersect our lives. Whether it's colossal in-game wars in an MMO, or long-haul truckers who turn to games to protect them from the loneliness of the open road, Steven tries to unearth PC gaming's greatest untold stories. His love of PC gaming started extremely early. Without money to spend, he spent an entire day watching the progress bar on a 25mb download of the Heroes of Might and Magic 2 demo that he then played for at least a hundred hours. It was a good demo.