Mon, May 14, 2012 | 08:32 BST
Titan Quest sequel shelved for Kingdoms of Amalur
Former Iron Lore staffer Arthur Bruno has said Titan Quest 2 was on the cards, but was thrown over for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
In an interview with IncGamers, Bruno said Crate planned to begin work on a sequel to the dungeon crawler almost immediately.
“They were fully expecting to do a sequel and were laying the groundwork for it when THQ basically said they weren’t interested in another PC-only game and wanted to see a new, multi-platform IP,” Bruno revealed.
Iron Lore “changed course”, working on a multi-platform game with action combat and a third-person perspective, “sort of like Oblivion meets Gears of War”. Tellingly, Bruno compared the lost game to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, “but in a darker, grittier setting”.
“We were all set to begin development with THQ when [it] suddenly pulled the plug and decided to buy Big Huge Games instead,” Bruno said.
“From what I heard, once BHG got Ken Rolston to sign on, THQ basically wet [its] pants and couldn’t buy them fast enough.”
Iron Lore couldn’t find another publisher before its funds ran out, and eventually folded. THQ ran into financial trouble, selling off Big Huge games to 38 Studios, which partnered with EA to release the finish Kingdoms of Amalur: reckoning.
Meanwhile, Bruno and a handful of other Iron Lore veterans founded Crete Entertainment. The indie recently ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund Grim Dawn, which is built on Titan Quest’s source code.
Thanks, StrategyInformer.
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Posted in: RPG
Tags: 38 studios, Arthur Bruno, big huge games, crate entertainment, grim dawn, iron lore, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
10 comments
#1
Patrick Garratt
14/05/12, 8:41 am
Boo. Titan Quest was awesome.
#2
mojo
14/05/12, 9:13 am
lol.
Bad decision. fail
TQ was awesome.
TQ2 would have been awesome too.
Grim Dawn will be truely terrific
#3
GwynbleiddiuM
14/05/12, 9:13 am
He was too modest to mention that kingdom of Amalur was a Big Huge Waste of time.
#4
back_up
14/05/12, 9:27 am
good
#5
Telepathic.Geometry
14/05/12, 11:42 am
Kingdoms of Amalur’s a great game.
#6
Old MacDonald
14/05/12, 1:02 pm
Heh, so THQ ended up losing both games.
Some weird errors in the in the article, though. “Bruno said Crate planned to begin work on a sequel to the dungeon crawler almost immediately.” – this would be Iron Lore, not Crate. “Iron Lore veterans founded Crete Entertainment.” – now, _this_ would be Crate (not, er, Crete). Also “release the finish Kingdoms of Amalur: reckoning.” – finishED and capital R in Reckoning.
#7
DSB
14/05/12, 1:47 pm
The way I understood it the Kickstarter wasn’t so much a matter of neccesity, as it was about being able to make the game to a higher standard.
It is another story of THQ dropping the ball though. If Grim Dawn does well, Crate can buy them up.
#8
tribes33
14/05/12, 8:08 pm
I didn’t like Kingdoms of Amalur at all.
But the good thing is that we still go Grim Dawn in the making, I hope it will be as great of a game as Titan Quest.
#9
Noodlemanny
14/05/12, 8:16 pm
I really like Kingdoms of Amalur. No its not perfect by far with many problems but I still really enjoyed it… I still haven’t finished it though. Witcher 2 stopped me in my tracks and Max Payne 3 is just around the corner. Looks like I’ll never complete it.
#10
OlderGamer
14/05/12, 8:45 pm
KoA was fantastic.
But the thing is TQ was way beyond just a good game. As I get ready to play Diablo III, I keep thinking how amazing diablo III would be if the game had an advanced char development system like TQ:IT.