IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Skyrim Players 'Won't Know' They Want Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Posted December 2, 2011 by James Brightman

Skyrim is in the hands of millions of players right now, and for some, it's already considered Game of the Year. Bethesda created a game that can be played endlessly and for many, many months - so should the team behind 38 Studios' Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning be concerned even though their game launches a few months later, in early 2012?

Ken Rolston, the man behind Reckoning (who's intimately familiar with the Elder Scrolls as the lead on both Morrowind and Oblivion) told IndustryGamers in a recent interview that he's not worried because games of high quality will always stand out, and Reckoning will ultimately find its audience.

"I suspect that they won’t know that they want something else," Rolston said of the Skyrim players. "That’s always the challenge when you make something that hasn’t been made before, and usually it’s opinion leaders who will stray outside or color outside the lines and say, 'Hey! This is cool. You should be playing this.' I think that’s the way, very often, revolutionary products work and we’re intending to be revolutionary in that sense. But I think anybody who works in the industry and who is concerned about releasing a product into the current bloodbath of blockbuster releases, it would be disingenuous to say that I didn’t notice, but at the same time it’s absolutely true that I don’t feel uncomfortable at all."

While Rolston is a true veteran and isn't feeling the pressure, some of his colleagues might. 

"I know our game is wonderful, because I play it and actually I feel a lot more emotional concern for the younger people working here who haven’t been everywhere and done everything, who might really care about that stuff and really - this is their first game, so this is a big deal for them. From my point of view, a really good game always finds its audience, and role playing games more so than others because they have long shelf lives, because when you start playing them, you’re going to end up playing them forever unless they’re terrible. So I think I probably just have a far too adult and mature attitude about the whole thing," Rolston added.

Reckoning is slated for release in February. Are you picking it up?

James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer ever since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz.