No, we did not say the same thing.
Last figures I received, Reckoning's sales were around 1.5 million copies. The game was recently given as a PS+ freebie, so a decently sized new audience has downloaded and played it. Feedback remains generally positive, so I would say the IP is far from unproven. The idea of taking that IP into the MMO realm--that's the unproven part, and it's easy to say that it was doomed to failure because no one can prove the notion wrong.
The most immediate value for the IP would have been for someone to buy it, keep the BHG team together, and complete Reckoning 2, which was already underway. That game could have been nearing completion by now, and it's not unreasonable to predict that it could have sold in the 2-3 million range. There was a solid plan for improving upon the first game and the pre-production phase had been really promising.
Of course the MMO tech is useless at this point--the people who could have completed it are long gone to other projects. But a potential buyer with a suitable engine/back-end could take the wealth of assets we built, plug them in, and have a great looking game. I'm talking a world's worth of zones, tons of characters and animations, and I don't even know how many hours of really great music.
If someone were to buy the IP purely for the MMO assets, it comes down to a simple matter of math. How long would it take a team of artists to generate a comparable set of assets? Or outsource them to an art house? These are numbers that can be calculated, and used to decide what a worthwhile bid would be.
My expectation is not that someone will buy the IP for the IP itself and resurrect Amalur (although stranger things have happened, I suppose). My assumption has always been that some company would look at the game assets, figure out what they think the value is, and bid some fraction of that figure. That's just business, and there's certainly value to be had if the price is right.
