Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Dev Defends Online Pass

38 Studios founder says they'd "go away" without an online pass.

Curt Schilling (yes, the former MLB pitcher - he's a hardcore gamer), founder of 38 Studios, recently defended his company's use of an online pass for their soon-to-be-released game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - even though the game has no online gameplay whatsoever. The online pass merely unlocks additional content.

On the game's official forum, Schilling said the move is to "reward early adopters" and "REWARD fans and and gamers who commit" to the game and the company. He says that if everyone interested in the game didn't take a chance and buy the game new, waiting to buy it until the game hit the bargain bin, that his small studio would go out of business.

He goes on to say that 38 Studios "MUST make a profit to become what we want to become. THE ONLY way we do that is to make games that you CANNOT WAIT TO BUY." He says the extra content gained from the online pass is your reward for buying the game new and early.

It seems like he's talking out of both sides of his mouth here. Putting extra content on an online pass does not translate to a quality game, as what he said seems to point to. In other words, making a quality game that I "cannot wait to buy" is not the same as putting extra content in a prepackaged online pass to entice me to buy the game early.

I appreciate Schilling's obvious enthusiasm for the gaming company he founded, but like it or not business is merciless; if you put out a substandard game, no online pass will make you so much money that it will save your company. That being said, the Reckoning demo was pretty cool, though it is a slow starter like many RPGs.

EA also put out a new trailer for the game:

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