What's up with Curt Schilling MMO game "Copernicus" ?

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Zorachus

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There is one MMO I am excited to see more of, the game in development by the retired Baseball player Curt Schilling, I think his company name is Studio 38, and the code name for the game was "Copernicus" ?

He wanted to do a more serious and dark Fantasy theme game, sort of sounded like Guild Wars 2, or a next generation Ever Quest style MMO

Was that at E3, or any news on it recently ?
 
In addition to the other thread, I'd like to add:

Copernicus was put on hold to create a single player game of the same lore/theme/etc. Basically Kingdom is the single player game of Copernicus. Once they release that (and probably generate some revenue) they are going to adopt the game into the MMO world.

In short:

Copernicus became Kingdom which will become Copernicus...
 
After 38's shit support of KOA refusing to add in promised features, refusing to talk about promised patches and instead releasing two DLC packs I don't feel the least bit sorry for them.
 
Derangel said:
I've been following the story all day and so far when people mention KOA they keep saying it was successful.
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Well, even if we lowball it at 500k copies, that would still make them money (if EA didn't screw 'em and if they didn't rob Rhode Island).
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Well, even if we lowball it at 500k copies, that would still make them money (if EA didn't screw 'em and if they didn't rob Rhode Island).
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Well EA funded over half of the development cost so obviously they would get paid back first.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Well, even if we lowball it at 500k copies, that would still make them money (if EA didn't screw 'em and if they didn't rob Rhode Island).
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True but 500k copies these days for a game that was in development as long as KOA is not a success. It would at least have to break 1 million for that to be so.

If investors were waiting on the performance of KOA and not happy with its sales then its probably a safe assumption. MMO's cost so much money and getting investors can be a nightmare.
 
TwistedAegis said:
Taxpayers of Rhode Island on the hook for $114M for a game development studio...ridiculous.
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Oh much worse than that. $114 million for a MMO that will probably fail if it ever releases. What idiot loans an unproven developer with no games released $75 million for a MMO in a market where 99% of MMOs released fail within a year?
 
Derangel said:
Oh much worse than that. $114 million for a MMO that will probably fail if it ever releases. What idiot loans an unproven developer with no games released $75 million for a MMO in a market where 99% of MMOs released fail within a year?
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And that is how the Housing boom crashed, thanks to no regulation, Mortgage companies gave out $1 million loans to landscapers building custom high homes to flip. That did work for a bit, maybe 4 - 5 years, then BAM crash, and reality set in. 4 years later we still haven't rebounded for that economic crash in 08'.
 
Derangel said:
Oh much worse than that. $114 million for a MMO that will probably fail if it ever releases. What idiot loans an unproven developer with no games released $75 million for a MMO in a market where 99% of MMOs released fail within a year?
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But Warcraft...
 
RI's governor is disillusion if he think this game will ship in 1 year. Schilling must of filled him eye-hole deep to get more time or money. MMO's don't go from zero information released (yesterday) to released, in one year. The fly-through looked good art wise, but it was obviously running at a low resolution, which means the engine is unoptimized.

There were also no NPC's or PC's seen. The NPC/PC and combat/adventure systems and graphics, along with network code, can take a very long time to develop and balance. I just don't think this is old footage, I think it's something they threw together at the last minute to stir up hype.
 
Rhode Island is going to wind up coughing up the money in the form of tax credits that they can then resell to other companies.

38studios does not owe another payment till next may, if they get those tax credits they will at least be able to limp along till next year.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Big Huge Games has been shut down and everyone laid off, and 38 Studios has laid off their entire staff as well

http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/108254-38-studios-shutting-down-big-huge-games.html
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Not surprised, it was only a matter of time. I remember reading the other day the company didn't make payroll and they bounced a check for just a little over $1 million to the state of Rhode Island. Oh well, I'm sure EA will be heavily discounting Kingdoms of Amalur since it's pretty much abandonware now...
 
I thought the RI governor said the game was set for a June, 2013 release ? Can't they find another game development company to complete the game ?

This sucks, it looked very promising. There hasn't big a good MMO launch since WoW now. Every game released after WoW failed to be successful. Why can't anyone else besides Blizzard release a long lasting and money making high quality MMO ?
 
Zorachus said:
I thought the RI governor said the game was set for a June, 2013 release ? Can't they find another game development company to complete the game ?

This sucks, it looked very promising. There hasn't big a good MMO launch since WoW now. Every game released after WoW failed to be successful. Why can't anyone else besides Blizzard release a long lasting and money making high quality MMO ?
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When things like that are "news" you can assume the game is fucked.
 
Zorachus said:
Every game released after WoW failed to be successful. Why can't anyone else besides Blizzard release a long lasting and money making high quality MMO ?
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Because all Blizzard did was take all the good existing concepts from MMORPGs of the time, combine them together, polish them, and deliver them in a quality package right from the beginning. That was something that no MMORPG had yet to do and there was no competition. Now that WoW exists, the only way to become successful against it is to INNOVATE and make a NEW type of MMORPG that is different from the same concepts everyone has been using for the last 15+ years.
 
HardwareSearcher said:
Because all Blizzard did was take all the good existing concepts from MMORPGs of the time, combine them together, polish them, and deliver them in a quality package right from the beginning. That was something that no MMORPG had yet to do and there was no competition. Now that WoW exists, the only way to become successful against it is to INNOVATE and make a NEW type of MMORPG that is different from the same concepts everyone has been using for the last 15+ years.
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The current version of WoW sucks. I actually enjoyed the vanilla release of WoW much more than I did Wrath or anything like that. The game is just a loot pinata for casuals now.

You are right that the reason that MMOs these days fail is because everyone tries to do WoW again, but with less content or less polish, which is bound to fail. I would LOVE a sandbox MMO with a strong crafting system and open world PVP like the original SWG, with the polish and refinement of content like WoW thrown in too. But theme park MMOs have gone too stale.
 
If the state actually owns the ip (it might end up with it) they could sell it off cheap, the only problem is that a company with an impatient, over zealous company behind then (EA/Activision) could afford it.
 
At the end of the day, I feel really bad for the average worker involved with this nightmare. They were hoping a bright new future lay ahead of them after all their hard work.

Here's a sick dose of reality; :mad: :(

38 Studios passes second mortgages onto some former employees
http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012...-leads-to-second-mortgages-for-some-employees

Some of the hundreds of 38 Studios employees laid off yesterday were hit with a second round of bad news this week when they were told that homes they thought the company had sold for them hadn't been, and that they may be stuck with a second mortgage, Polygon has learned. Former employees said they discovered this week that their Massachusetts home, which they had been told was sold last year, actually hadn't been. The bank contacted them this week to ask why they mortgage wasn't being paid.
 
Zorachus said:
At the end of the day, I feel really bad for the average worker involved with this nightmare. They were hoping a bright new future lay ahead of them after all their hard work.

Here's a sick dose of reality; :mad: :(

38 Studios passes second mortgages onto some former employees
http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012...-leads-to-second-mortgages-for-some-employees

Some of the hundreds of 38 Studios employees laid off yesterday were hit with a second round of bad news this week when they were told that homes they thought the company had sold for them hadn't been, and that they may be stuck with a second mortgage, Polygon has learned. Former employees said they discovered this week that their Massachusetts home, which they had been told was sold last year, actually hadn't been. The bank contacted them this week to ask why they mortgage wasn't being paid.
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That is just underhanded and just awful, verging on evil.
 
This really did sound like the best Fantasy MMO since WoW. With Todd McFarlane the comic book superstar working as art director, and the famed author R.L. Salvador as head writer. It was lining up to possibly be a super MMO.

R.A. Salvatore: Project Copernicus would "blow you away"
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/05/25/r-a-salvatore-project-copernicus-would-blow-you-away/

Salvatore claims that the game is "much further along than is being reported," and that he wishes he could show us some of it (though sadly, he cannot). He goes on to state that the developers behind Copernicus were "an amazing team of [developers]... pushing the envelope in their respective fields," and that "the environments, the animations, and the game-play would blow you away."
 
Zorachus said:
This really did sound like the best Fantasy MMO since WoW. With Todd McFarlane the comic book superstar working as art director, and the famed author R.L. Salvador as head writer. It was lining up to possibly be a super MMO.

R.A. Salvatore: Project Copernicus would "blow you away"
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/05/25/r-a-salvatore-project-copernicus-would-blow-you-away/

Salvatore claims that the game is "much further along than is being reported," and that he wishes he could show us some of it (though sadly, he cannot). He goes on to state that the developers behind Copernicus were "an amazing team of [developers]... pushing the envelope in their respective fields," and that "the environments, the animations, and the game-play would blow you away."
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I'm a fan of Salvatore but his writing has two modes: Incredible (IWD Trilogy, Vector Prime) or crap (any number of generic fantasy stories he's written). The world of Amalur seems to have an interesting lore and all but Salvatore was the head writer on KoA and a lot of the writing in that game was flat, unnatural, and quite frankly boring and not all that good.
 
My understanding if that koa was brought on as a quick way to try to build revinue to finish off their mmo, it played like a great game but the story sure was crap.
 
Wonder how long the top players in 38 Studios knew the ship was sinking ? It's not like it just happened last week, they had to have known for awhile ? Really sucks for the employees, not knowing until BAM, your gone, no pay, no help on moving, etc...:(
 
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