When the Open Beta phase for End of Nations was put on indefinite hold only to be followed by the layoff of some 30 developers at Petroglyph Games the outlook went from glib to morbid. No matter the sad news neither company ever announced that the MMORTS was canceled. Players held out hope that the title’s impending release would stave off cancellation. Their prayers have been answered.

Publisher Trion Worlds announced that the company would be taking the development in-house to finish the game. According to Community Manager Myll Erik, the company is “still moving full steam ahead with the game.”

Myll goes on to discuss some of the improvements that have been made to the game since closed beta testing ended a few months ago. Changes include easing of “the learning curve for new players, a revamped UI system, advancements in player strategy, and most importantly a more polished overall game.”

How’s that headline for you?

We’ve a double-dip of NCSoft related news for you this morning, coming from NCSoft itself and relentless continuation of the #SaveCoH campaign. We’ll start off with the official, because it makes the other news have more of an impact. NCSoft has clarified earlier reports on the status of its Seattle based offices. Originally reported as a closing, NCSoft Public Relations Director Lincoln Davis clarified the rumor to PC Gamer as a “realignment.”

“NCsoft is realigning internal publishing resources to better suit the needs of our game development studios,” Davis told PC Gamer. “As a result of the realignment, several employees and contract positions were affected. This was a very tough decision to make and wish the best for all NCsoft employees in their next ventures.”

NCsoft Seattle, more appropriately NCSoft West, is the Western publishing arm for the South Korean company, working closely with the teams of Guilds Wars 2, WildStar, Lineage and Aion.

The Korea Times brings more bad press for NCSoft, picking up on the #SaveCoH campaign. In a new article, noted fantasy author Mercedes Lackey called the recent closure of CoH ‘unethical’ citing the termination of jobs supporting a profitable revenue stream as the core reason. In addition to such a quotable line, the article provides a nice recap of City of Heroes, the campaign to save it and the march to the MMORPG being unplugged.

This is likely as close as we'll ever get to being in Amalur again.

The news was bad yesterday, but rumors coming from a local mass media station (!) in the area has made it oh, so much worse. According to Joystiq and Fox News 25 Boston, the studio has laid off its entire staff and is attempting to sell Big Huge Games, the viable game developer 38 Studios purchased in mid 2009.

BHG was responsible for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a single-player action RPG set in Project Copernacus’ universe. BHG also created the award-winning Rise of Nations RTS franchise and later worked on an Age of Empires expansion, The Asian Dynasties. The layoffs currently include the employees at BHG.

The report starts off with the most damning statement possible: “Curt Schilling’s video game company could be out of business by the weekend.” This coming from a Joystiq source.

This layoffs mean an estimated 350+ people are now out of work. If 38 Studios cannot maintain payments on the ~$50 million it still owes the state of Rhode Island, then the state will win a second prize of the Amalur IP, worth an estimated $20 million.

Considering Curt Schilling was seen exiting the parking lot with a box of his stuff in the backseat, it appears that the underdog has lost.

The Novel Post has been a staple column in the Lore Hound diet since the beginning. Long running and often updated thanks to Blizzard’s various licensing deals across numerous literary medias, the column is going to slim down in 2011. That’s not because we writers are getting lazy. Heavens no. It’s because Tokyopop, Blizzard’s most frequent producer for the Expanded Universe, over 20 products to date, is no longer making manga for the Blizzard universes.

According to an inside source, Blizzard is no longer in a relationship with the Los Angeles-based publisher of anime and manga. “The TOKYOPOP/Blizzard program ends with [the latest] books” the source said.

Tokyopop has been struggling to remain profitable in recent years, with a major restructuring occurring in 2008. More recently, the company saw its COO John Parker resign in February, followed by more employees layoffs on March 1. The collapse of Borders and its inability to pay what it owed content creators forced Tokyopop’s latest cutbacks.

This week’s downsizing included well-known manga editor Lillian Diaz-Przybyl and Troy Lewter. Lewter’s name should ring a bell to Blizzard fans, as he was the editor behind Tokyopop’s most recent batches of Blizzard-based manga.

[Update]

According to the source, the dissolution of the agreement has nothing to due with the most recent layoffs. The decision for the companies to go their separate ways “was actually made a while back.”

[Update2]

A further inquiry was just returned. Blizzard decided to end the agreement, despite being happy with the returns, due to its own inability to fully commit to the project. The developer felt that it did not have enough time to devote to co-developing and reviewing the products in a timely fashion. See the Feast of Winter Veil story in Warcraft: Legends 3 coming out months after the holiday as evidence.

[End Updates]

Blizzard protects its intellectual property closely – ask any number of people that have been hit with cease and desists letters – and has been known to let licensing agreements expire due to quality concerns. Just ask Upper Deck Entertainment. The internal strife at Tokyopop likely precipitated the end of the relationship (See updates above), since the books saw at least modest commercial success. But the exact reason remains unconfirmed.

Fans of Richard A. Knaak and Kim Jae-Hwan are probably wondering what is going to happen to The Dragons of Outland. The proposed trilogy from the team that created The Sunwell Trilogy had its second installment released earlier this week (along with StarCraft: Ghost Academy Volume 3). The third and final chapter, and only announced manga not produced, is now in limbo.

We’ve reached out to our contacts to have these questions answered, but none have responded as of press (see update).

It’s quiet sad that this avenue of storytelling is going away. Manga offered a perfect way for Blizzard to get stories out that needed to be told, but for whatever reason, haven’t made it in to the games. Case in point, the absolutely stellar origins story for the Headless Horseman. Warcraft: Legends really hit its stride the last two volumes. To those at Tokyopop that made the products happen, thank you for the hard work and captivating stories and artwork!

You can see, and buy, all of the products created during the six-year relationship in our Extensive Expanded Universe piece.