38 Studios’ Copernicus fails to deliver, as auction grosses $320K

PROJECT COPERNICUS, the 38 Studios game in development when the company declared bankruptcy last year, failed to attract an
PROJECT COPERNICUS, the 38 Studios game in development when the company declared bankruptcy last year, failed to attract an "acceptable offers" in a Dec. 10 auction of 38 Studios' intellectual property assets. Above, screenshots of the Project Copernicus massively multiplayer online role-playing game. / COURTESY 38 STUDIOS

PROVIDENCE – A Dec. 10 auction of 38 Studios’ intellectual property assets grossed $320,000, but no “acceptable offers” were made for the 38 Studios video game under development when the company declared bankruptcy, according to a statement from 38 Studios receiver Richard J. Land.

Of the more than 20 interested parties that initially expressed interest in the 38 Studios assets, five actively participated in the auction conference call. Two lots were sold – one consisting of the “Rise of Nations” and “Rise of Legends” real-time strategy games developed by 38 Studios affiliate Big Huge Games in the mid-2000s, and the other consisting of the Big Huge Games trademark.

The social media and game-development platform codenamed “Helios” developed in-house by 38 Studios and Big Huge Games also failed to receive any acceptable bids, according to Land’s statement.

In June, Land told Providence Business News that he could not estimate the worth of the “Kingdoms of Amalur” mythos represented in Project Copernicus, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game that Curt Schilling hoped would join the ranks of popular MMOs like “World of Warcraft.”

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At the time this article was posted, Land had not returned calls for comment on what an acceptable offer for the under-development game, codenamed “Copernicus,” would have been. However, in an email statement issued Friday afternoon, he said he would “continue to engage in negotiations with interested parties to sell the remaining assets.”

Other assets not sold included the intellectual property rights to the “Kingdoms of Amalur” fantasy universe; sequel rights to “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning,” the sole 38 Studios game brought to market before the company failed in June 2012; the “Big Huge Games Engine” technology; and “Rise of Nations: Tactics,” a new title in the “Rise of Nations” series that the auctioning company Heritage Global Partners only discovered a month before the auction.

The $320,000 grossed from the auction will go toward paying off 38 Studios’ creditors, of which the state of Rhode Island is the largest, with an estimated liability of $89 million.

Land sold 38 Studios’ physical property – including computers, electronics, furniture and memorabilia – in two auctions last year that brought in $830,000. Of that amount, $400,000 came from leased equipment that went back to the leasing company.

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