Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning Expansion Announced

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, the new and improved version of 2012s Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, was announced last month. The game’s publisher, THQ Nordic, has revealed the release date and plans for a completely new expansion.

The release date for Re-Reckoning is set for just a couple of months from now on September 8, 2020. The game will be available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One simultaneously and pre-orders are currently open. THQ Nordic has only revealed the existence of the new Fatesworn expansion for Re-Reckoning. There is no word yet on whether the expansion will be a stand-alone story or build on the ending of the original Kingdoms of Amalur.

THQ Nordic also announced Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning will be released in three editions, Standard Edition, Fate Edition, and a Collector’s Edition. The Standard edition will cost $40, the Fate Edition which includes the new expansion content will go for $55, and the Collector’s Edition will be $110.

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The original Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has gone down in gaming history as a cautionary tale of hubris, and unreasonable expectations. The original development studio for the game, 38 Studios, was founded by former Major League Baseball player Curt Schilling and was partially funded by the government of the state of Rhode Island. The game was supposed to lay the groundwork for an MMORPG set in the fictional Amalur universe. The project included popular fantasy writer R.A. Salvador who produced a 10,000 history for the universe and comics artist Todd McFarlane who worked on visual designs for the game. When it was released, Kingdoms of Amalur was met with positive reviews and sold quite well for a new intellectual property.

Sales numbers were not high enough to meet the expectations of Lincoln Chafee who was Governor of Rhode Island at the time. Chafee declared the game a failure a few months after release claiming that the game needed to sell 3 million copies to ‘break-even’. For context, Kingdoms of Amalur sold roughly 330,000 copies in week one while Dishonored, another new IP in 2012, sold about 460,000. Shortly before Chafee announced the game’s supposed failure sales were reported at around 1.2 million. Led by Chafee, the state of Rhode Island revoked funding for the project which led to 38 Studios almost immediately filing for bankruptcy and lay-offs for the entire staff of the studio.

Lucky for the developers of Re-Reckoning, their publisher is based in Austria and not Rhode Island.