Project Copernicus
38 Studios spent years and public loan money building an Amalur MMO, but the company collapsed before its enormous fantasy world could open.
Quick facts
- Existence state
- Never Born
- Peak stage
- full production started
- Research confidence
- high
- Last verified
What it was
A cancelled massively multiplayer role-playing game developed by 38 Studios in the Kingdoms of Amalur universe.
The MMO was intended to turn Amalur into a long-running online world supported by a large internal studio.
Existence timeline
Curt Schilling establishes the company behind Copernicus.
Teams build lore, tools and online systems.
Public financing supports the studio's relocation.
Hundreds work toward a planned 2013 launch.
Payroll and debt failures halt the studio.
The unfinished MMO is shown after bankruptcy.
Why it ended
38 Studios defaulted on its obligations and entered bankruptcy in 2012, ending production.
Last confirmed trace
Gameplay reels, environment footage, concept art and bankruptcy records document the unfinished world.
What it left behind
Copernicus remains one of the clearest warnings about financing a studio around a single unreleased online project.
How we classified it
The proposed archive unit never reached ordinary public access in the form being documented.
The strongest verified milestone maps to full_production_started under Arrival Score V1.
Sources & verification
Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Sources are linked so readers can inspect the evidence directly.