One of the big stories in the world of gaming over the week was how 38 Studios is basically running out of money, laying people off, and in a lot of trouble with the state of Rhode Island who has a stake in the company. They recently released the pretty awesome Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, but they’ve also been working on a MMO set in that world under the working title Project Copernicus and now its future is up in the air.

Everyone’s favorite gaming industry analyst Michael Patcher told Joystiq that big publishers just aren’t in the market for expensive MMOs after The Old Republic basically flopped:

“Nobody is buying MMOs after Star Wars fizzled. I think value is low, probably $20 million or so,” Pachter said. “There is just no demand for game assets right now, as THQ proved when it tried to sell the Warhammer MMO. I think [Electronic Arts] could step in, since they are the publisher, so you might see some alternative way to get 38 some bridge financing.”

With TOR blasting out the gates with record sales and then settling in with 1.7 million subs, which dropped to 1.3 million, fizzled is a pretty appropriate word to describe the MMO that everyone had hoped to have been a WoW killer.