Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Developer on the Possibility of a Sequel, Editorial

Eurogamer has published yet another snippet of a conversation they had with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning’s lead designer Ian Frazier, this time concerning the chance of seeing a sequel to the open-world action-RPG. As it turns out, just with any other sequel critical reception and sales are vital:

“[A sequel] is certainly something we would love to do,” he told Eurogamer. “Obviously it needs to succeed well enough to justify that. But we would love to do that.

“[The game universe] is really big. It’s 10,000 years of history. We could be sick to death of the Age of Arcana, which is where Reckoning is set, and be like, okay, we’ll just pick a different time period or pick a different geography in a different area of the world. It’s pretty darn varied, so we have a lot of stuff to choose from to keep it fresh.”

…

“It comes down to units sold at the end of the day, but it’s complicated,” he said. “If the game doesn’t sell that many copies but the critical reception is really good, then our publisher might be like, well, it was the first in a new franchise, we’re going to take a bet and sign you up for another one. If the sales are really good you’re pretty much set no matter what. There’s a pretty big sliding scale there.

“There’s that invisible line where, you sold enough to justify getting a sequel or another project, but not quite enough to get a great budget for it. So it’s like, oh now how are we going to pull it off? “That’s the scary zone. That’s what you don’t want. It’s almost better to flop and go out of business than to have to pull something out of your ass and make it happen.

Meanwhile, EDGE has penned an editorial that heavily criticizes the wealth of EULAs, privacy policies and assorted other hurdles one has to go through before starting to actually play the game:

‘¢ Time to start picking at the cellophane that wraps the game box, tearing off fragments that perniciously stick to my hands in order to get full purchase for a final rip.
‘¢ I jam my thumb into Microsoft’s seal to open the box. Compulsion remains to tear off the two curtains of tattered plastic attached to the covers before placing the disc into the 360’s tray. ‘¢ One good thing about 360’s new dashboard is that at least it starts up highlighting the game in the disc drive. A to start.
‘¢ An update is required. Only 2mb, though.
‘¢ An animation of Amalur’s custom EA logo appears, fierily promising epic and dramatic scale until static 38 Studios and the middleware logos proceed by.
‘¢ Now it’s connecting to EA’s servers.
‘¢ And now checking DLC.
‘¢ A dialog appears to recommend me to install the game to my 360’s hard disk for best performance. Doing so requires me to exit the game. (Press A to continue.) I just want to play the game.
‘¢ And what’s this? EA’s terms of service to approve.
‘¢ Now EA’s privacy policy.
‘¢ And now 38 Studios’ privacy policy.
‘¢ The excitement of EA’s blazing logo long forgotten, I have successfully logged in to something. To what end, I don’t really know. Pressing A to continue.
‘¢ Finally, the main menu. Despite having no save games, the highlighted option is Load Game, so I have to move up to New Game to start. But the Downloadable Games entry is trying to get my attention with a shiny star. Technically, I should be using it to input with my joypad my 25-character Marketplace code for the House Of Valour content that comes with the game. But I still just want to play.
‘¢ 360’s native save game destination chooser screen pops up.
‘¢ And, back in Amalur’s styling, a warning not to switch off while saving (A to continue).
‘¢ A loading screen and then a cutscene. We seem to be getting somewhere.
‘¢ And now character selection. What’s come so far has given me almost no feel of Amalur’s world. Making a permanent choice between four races with entirely alien names, like Almain and Dokkalfar, is bewildering. But I do, based on quality of facial tattoos.
‘¢ The cutscene continues.
‘¢ Time to enter my character’s name, jarringly using the 360’s native text input interface. I can’t remember how to do capitals; “bubsy”.
‘¢ And now, after many presses of A and three fully digested and understood terms and conditions, we’re finally playing. What game was this again?