Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is the first game to come from the relatively new 38 Studios. It is an ambitious project to jump straight into the triple-A world, thanks in part to former baseball player Curt Schilling, and Schilling is adamant that his choices will help the game succeed.
The studio, particularly Schilling, took some time to speak on the official studio forums to address the recently announced Online Pass, and why it was the right thing to do.
"It's clear the intent right?,” said Shilling, in a rather no-nonsense tone. “To promote early adopters and [sic] much more important to me, reward fans and gamers who commit to us with their time and money when it benefits the company.
“Every single person on the planet could wait and not buy Reckoning, the game would hit the bargain bin at some point and you could get it cheaper. 38 Studios would likely go away.”
Schilling is notorious for being rather upfront with fans in the baseball community, and he has made it clear to gaming fans that he is here to do what he believes is right for a newly formed studio working in the triple-A space.
"That's just how business works," he wrote. "We must make a profit to become what we want to become. The only way we do that is to make games you cannot wait to buy! If we do that, and you do that, we want to reward you with some cool free stuff as a thank you.
"You can totally disagree with this and I am sure many do, so we'll agree to disagree. This is not 38 trying to take more of your money, or EA in this case; this is us rewarding people for helping us! If you disagree due to methodology, ok, but that is our intent.
"The industry is in a very odd place. The data coming in on used game sales is not saying the things many thought it should, or would. But companies are still trying to figure out how to receive dollars spent on games they make, when they are bought. Is that wrong? if so please tell me how."
The ambitious game currently has an available free demo, and is set for release on Feb 7 on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
[Thanks GameInformer]
