10 Biggest Risks In Video Games (That Didn't Pay Off)

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - AKA the best RPG no one bothered playing - has an incredibly interesting backstory.

Originally conceived as an MMO, Amalur had 10,000 pages worth of story content and world building constructed by fantasy author R.A Salvatore.

Then there's the involvement of Curt Schilling, a former baseball pitcher who loved him an MMO. He wanted to make his own title, so alongside Salvatore, they approached the US State of Rhode Island for a loan, promising that their team would make loads of jobs in the area. The state obliged, and Schilling was gifted with $75 million for the game and his studio.

Following on from this loan, Schilling enlisted Grant Kirkhope (Rare's legendary composer) to make the music and even hired rapper Ice Cube to promote the game.

Despite being more than a decent game with hours of content, great combat and a cool fantasy world to explore, Amalur is considered a massive commercial failure. It needed to sell 3 million copies just to break even, and only achieved sales of 1.2 million.

38 Studios, the developers, then couldn't pay back the state-funded $75 million loan, and were forced to shut down their studio in the same year that Amalur released.

THQ Nordic then retained the rights to the IP, and it received a second chance in 2021 when it re-released as Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning.