THQ Nordic’s remaster of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will launch on Nintendo Switch on March 16, the company announced on Tuesday.
Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning, as the new version is called, first launched in September for PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One in September 2020. It’s a remaster of the 2012 role-playing game by 38 Studios, whose bankruptcy shortly after the game’s launch became a political scandal for the state of Rhode Island.
Amalur is expanding its borders and heading into the unkown territory of… Nintendo Switch on March 16th, 2021.
Return to the Faelands and forge your fate. Uncover the secrets of Amalur and rescue a world torn apart by a vicious war – finally on-the-go! #ReReckoning pic.twitter.com/xRpPZGafnY
— Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning (@ReckoningGame) January 19, 2021
THQ Nordic bought the rights the Kingdoms of Amalur franchise in 2018. This remaster is developed by Kaiko, which previously delivered Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition and Darksiders: Warmastered Edition for THQ Nordic in 2015 and 2016.
Praised as a deep, high fantasy role-playing game, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was a critical success for publisher Electronic Arts when it launched on PlayStation 3, Windows PC, and Xbox 360 in February 2012. But even in selling 1.2 million copies over its first 90 days, the game made nowhere near enough money to cover the loan that Rhode Island issued to 38 Studios.
38 Studios, founded by the former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, was ultimately liquidated at the end of 2013. After the sale of the company’s assets, and civil lawsuit settlements with Schilling, banks, underwriters, and other 38 Studios investors, Rhode Island taxpayers ended up paying about $28 million on the state bonds that had given the studio $75 million to relocate to Providence.
The rights THQ Nordic now controls are for the Amalur franchise; the original game’s publishing rights are still retained by EA. 38 Studios had been at work on an MMO code-named Project Copernicus when it went bust. THQ Nordic picked assets for that up as well in its 2018 acquisition.
