Amalur developer's MMO "Project Copernicus" release date outed by governor

You may have heard that there's a bit of a kerfluffle going on in Rhode Island these days with their pride and joy, 38 Studios appearing to be in a heap of financial trouble. For the most part it's a ho-hum story about monetary policy and governmental lending practices. Not exactly thrilling stuff. But things took a turn for the interesting today.

Rhode Island state governor Lincoln Chaffee was giving a press conference on the matter, and happened to mention that the 38 Studios MMO currently titled only Project Copernicus, would be arriving in June 2013.

Presumably, that was the release date before everything hit the fan over at 38 Studios. Just yesterday they reportedly weren't able to make their payroll, opting instead to try their best to make their loan payment. Which, for obvious reasons, will probably impair their ability to continue normal development. Even if they weren't in heaps of trouble, June 2013 would be an extremely difficult target to miss (practically every MMO is hit with at least one delay before release.)

38 Studios still owes the state of Rhode Island $75 million which they have to pay back by the end of 2013. They're reportedly seeking private investors to come in and save the day.