Copernicus
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38 Studios' CEO explains the Azeroth Advisor purchase
38 Studios, the Boston-based MMO development company started by Curt Schilling, is working on a brand new, highly-publicized MMO project, code-named Copernicus. What does this have to do with World of Warcraft and the Azeroth Advisor newsletter? That's what we're trying to figure out.In a recent interview with WoW Insider, the company's CEO, Brett Close, discussed the reasoning behind 38 Studios' purchase of the Azeroth Advisor and how they plan to use it in the future. According to Close, it's not an elaborate scheme to close down their competition by buying out their fansites and tools, but instead, they realize that in order to let the genre thrive, they need to work together. WoW's success ultimately means 38 Studios' success, and the success of other MMO developers. Plus, they plan to use the proprietary technology behind the Azeroth Advisor for other unnamed future projects.
38 Studios acquires MMO newsletter tailored to player characters
As time moves on, we're slowly getting more information about MMO developer 38 Studios and their plans. 38 Studios, which brings together Red Sox pitcher (and MMO fan) Curt Schilling, comic book creator Todd McFarlane, and author R.A. Salvatore, is known to be developing a fantasy-MMO codenamed "Copernicus." When it comes to news regarding this game studio, we're primarily interested in Copernicus here at Massively, but our sister site WoW Insider turned up something else interesting involving 38 Studios. It turns out that they've acquired Mentor Media, creators of a custom World of Warcraft newsletter called Azeroth Advisor, which offers personalized information about WoW as it pertains to your own character. Could this be a sign of what's to come with Copernicus, and would you appreciate a customized newsletter offered in tandem with your MMO of choice?
Black Ops MMOs: Games in development under the radar
Our colleagues over at Big Download have listed several PC games in development that they call "Black Ops" projects. The idea is that these games are operating out of sight, under the radar; nobody knows what's going on. It's all very hush hush and mysterious. The game industry and secrecy go hand in hand, after all.We're bringing this up because there are a bunch of MMOs in the list. In fact, they pretty much dominate it. Titles mentioned include the KotOR MMO, the Red 5 Studios project, 38 Studios' Copernicus, ZeniMax Online Studios' MMO (which is possibly Elder Scrolls-based), and of course Blizzard's mysterious "Next-Gen MMO." Interesting stuff. Head over to Big Download to find out what's up on the down low.
AGDC08: Joystiq goes one-on-one with 38 Studios CEO Brett Close
Massively's big-sister site Joystiq.com was down in Austin for AGDC last week as well, and they made great use of their time. Kevin Kelly sat down with the CEO of 38 Studios, Brett Close, for a one-on-one chat about the MMO industry and 38's future plans. With the unveil of the R.A. Salvatore IP still a number of months away, their discussion focuses primarily on Copernicus in generalities.Join Kelly and Close for an in-depth appraisal of how 38 Studios works, Curt Schilling's involvement in the day-to-day workings in the company, and how the other two 'big names' at the company fit into their master scheme. Gallery: 38 Studios' Copernicus MMO
AGDC: Interview with Brett Close, CEO of Curt Schilling's 38 Studios
It's no secret that baseballer Curt Schilling is a huge MMO fan, but you might not know much about his 38 Studios game development company, formed with artist Todd McFarlane and fantasy writer R.A. Salvatore. They've been working on a massive MMO code-named Copernicus, which they haven't said too much about yet. This week at Austin GDC, Vivox announced that it would be providing the voice application inside the game, and five pieces of key concept art were released at Comic-Con earlier this summer.We sat down with CEO Brett Close in Austin to find out what we could about Copernicus, and what's in store for the new company. Check out the full interview after the break.%Gallery-32294%
Vivox to provide voice services for 38 Studios' upcoming MMO
Announced today at the Austin Game Developers Conference, Vivox has struck a deal with 38 Studios to provide all of their voice services for the studio's upcoming MMO. You may remember 38 Studios as the powerhouse that employs such rockstar names as Curt Schilling, R.A. Salvatore and Todd McFarlane. Their current MMO project, codenamed Copernicus, will use the same in-game voice technology of EVE Online, Second Life and upcoming titles from SOE, Icarus Studios and NCsoft.Check out the complete press release after the jump for more information on how Vivox plans to work with 38 Studios, and what 38 Studios says about the collaboration.
Comic-Con 08: 38 Studios interview reveals IP announcement next year!
Last week we sat down with two representatives from 38 Studios, one of the highest profile of the stealth MMO developers. Headed by the triad of Curt Schilling, R.A. Salvatore, and Todd McFarlane, the studio is deep in the midst of content creation and is entirely under the radar. So under the radar we don't even know what the name of their game is ... just the code name for the project, floridly called "Copernicus."Massively and WoW Insider's Dan O'Halloran spoke with Chief Marketing Officer Mary Kirchoff and newly-hired Director of Art Thom Ang. Though they couldn't share a lot of substantial insights with us, we did walk away with some great news: the studio will be annoucing their game title's name and launching a game-specific site around this time next year.
38 Studios to use NaturalMotion's Morpheme engine
38 Studios, the star-studded development studio working on a mysterious MMO codenamed Copernicus, has announced that it will use an animation engine called Morpheme. Morpheme has also been used in EVE Online and Heavenly Sword. Its creator is a company called NaturalMotion, which also created the related and acclaimed Euphoria engine used in Grand Theft Auto IV and the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.Jon Laff, 38 Studios' chief technology officer, was quoted in the press release saying, "Morpheme allows us to create very high-quality character animations quickly, cutting down on a lot of intensive animation design and implementation time." Uh, good! Wouldn't want you to pick middleware that slows you down instead!So for those who are keeping track: Copernicus now uses BigWorld, Unreal Engine 3, and Morpheme. It's got the trifecta!
Massively's E3 Week Prediction Bingo
#bingochart { border: 2px solid #111; border-collapse: collapse; } #bingochart td { padding: 1px 0px 1px 0px; border: 1px solid #ccc; vertical-align: top; text-align: center; margin: 0; font-size: 70%; } #bingochart th { padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: top; text-align: center; margin: 0; } AoC is Huge! Firefly MMO News No BioWare MMO News MMOs the Future of PC Gaming Red 5 Announces Their Game Consoles are the Future of MMOs "We're not after WoW Numbers" Animal Crossing: the MMO Free RealmsInfo Microtransactions - Future of MMOs Guild Wars 2 Info Cryptic's Star Trek Online Free Space The Agency Info Secret World Info DirectX 10 Compatible! Social Tools the Future of MMOs Champions Online Info APB Info DCUO Info Free to Play the Future of MMOs Valve MMO Announced 38's Copernicus Unveiled Carbine's Game Announced Turbine's Next Project var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/The_MMO_gaming_E3_2008_prediction_bingo_card'; Every year it's customary to roll out predictions on what will and won't show up at the current year's E3 event. With Massively heading in the direction of the LA Convention Center already, we thought it might be fun to offer up some likely (and highly unlikely) predictions of what might get talked about next week. In reality, this is sort of a "future of the MMO industry list" as everything on here is more-or-less a current or upcoming trend. The only question is whether any given item will get discussed next week.Each of those nice images is a link, which will take you into our E3 Predictions Gallery. Don't know who Carbine or Red 5 are? Not sure about Copernicus? If you don't understand one of our bingo squares, be sure to dig down and find out what all the fuss is about. We'll be bringing you all the MMO dirt you can stand next week, so hopefully this will tide you over until then. Enjoy!%Gallery-27434%
New video of 38 studios' Copernicus tantalizes, teases
The other day we mentioned that Curt Schilling - baseball-player-turned-MMO-backer - would be making an appearance on the Jace Hall show. The episode is now live, and if you're so inclined the episode does indeed contain some brief moments of footage captured in the 38 Studios offices. That said, it's pretty short, and doesn't 'show' anything per se. The few money shots have been snipped out of the episodes footage by the folks over at 38Watch, a Copernicus / 38 Studios fansite. They have some still images clipped from the show which give us a little taste of some of the concept artists in action. One image appears to be that of a rolling wheat field, while others show a night-time cityscape of blues and purples. You can check out the full episode of the show with Schilling's appearance below the cut.
Sneak peak at 38 Studios and Curt Schilling's "Copernicus" this Thursday
From Crackle: Next Time on The Jace Hall Show! The code behind 38 Studios' "Copernicus" will start to unravel this Thursday on the Jace Hall Show. Red Sox Ace, Curt Schilling will be making an appearance and a glimpse from the top-secret fantasy MMOG "Copernicus." is due for a debut. For those that don't know Curt Schilling is a passionate MMOG player, casting his first roots in EverQuest over five years ago. Schilling started 38 Studios to focus on a main passion and create MMOGs with amazing talent as his baseball career winds down. The eclectic and veteran talented crew over at 38 Studios have been hard at work for over a year now on the super-secret title which utilizes the BigWorld and Unreal technologies.If you are a fan of MMOG discussion, Curt Schilling is an active poster on the FohGuild forums. Be sure to check out Schilling's post history for thoughts relating to his philosophy on MMOG design.[Via Kotaku]
38 Studios welcomes Thom Ang as Director of Art
Noted industry artist Thom Ang has started work at 38 Studios as Director of Art, according to a press release from the company. He has joined company founder and pro baseball player Curt Schilling, comic book artist Todd McFarlane, and fantasy author R.A. Salvatore to work on Copernicus, a secretive MMO project.Ang has previously been employed by THQ, where he worked on several titles including Disney adaptations, and Electronic Arts, where he worked on the Medal of Honor series. He's just another of many samples of veteran blood the studio has attracted.Details about Copernicus are hush-hush. We know 38 Studios is using the BigWorld and Unreal engine technologies. There have been hints in interviews about the direction the project is taking. That's about it, though.
38 Studios bags former THQ, EA art guy
38 Studios has added a seasoned artist to its ranks, announcing the appointment of Thom Ang as the company's new director of art. In his new role, Ang will oversee the art management and direction of 38 Studios' projects, including "Copernicus," the outfit's ever-mysterious MMO undertaking.A 15-year digital art and illustration vet, Ang joins the Curt Schilling-founded developer from THQ, where he handled things both artsy and fartsy for more that 25 of the company's titles. In addition, he also worked on TV shows such as The X-Files, and spent time in the trenches at EA Los Angeles handing art and team management for the Medal of Honor franchise. We're still in the dark as to what the studio is up to with Copernicus, though it's good to know the company has someone on board with the chops to help steer the ship down a more artistic path.
PvP servers are an unstoppable force
If you happen to run into him, don't tell him we said this, but we keep very close e-tabs Ryan "Blackguard" Shwayder, following him around forums and checking his blog rather frequently. It's not that we have some unnatural affection for the man (although we do), it's more of a professional curiosity. We're watching and waiting from the shadows for the day when Ryan will perhaps have a bit too much to drink and sit down at his computer and finally dish all the details for 38 Studios' top-secret project, for which he is both a game designer and community manager.In the latest post on his blog, Ryan notes the overwhelming acceptance of PvP servers not only in World of Warcraft, but in the recently released Age of Conan as well, with over 50% adoption in that case. They've gone from begrudged niche in some cases to being as necessary for a sustained end-game as raiding or crafting. Specifically, Shwayder notes, "Now that it's clear there is money in PvP and it's not niche, I'm betting we start to see some high-budget PvP MMOs soon." Is that right? High-budget PvP MMOs in the future? Like, we don't know... Copernicus?
38 Studios launches spiffy new website
The next step in 38 Studios' unrelenting march towards world domination has come to fruition. They've upgraded their internet digs from the flash page that they've had since they announced the formation of the company, to a slightly more mundane, but eminently more navigable design. We were a bit sad to see that their mascot Munch was relegated to background status, and couldn't eat our cursor as he once did.On the plus side, there appears to be a small bounty of goodies to be found on the new site. They've got some more pictures of the team, including a shot of big boss Curt Schilling getting the aforementioned Munch tattooed on his bicep. Of course, we will not be sated by shiny new websites and artistic expressions of dedication alone. We have to punctuate this post as we do with most of our other posts about 38 Studios with a demand for more information about Copernicus![Edited to remove reference]
38 studios developers speak up again
Just a few days ago we noted the first part of an interview with Steve Danuser and Jason Roberts, the community gurus at stealth-development house 38 Studios. Now MMO news site Ten Ton Hammer has posted the second part of the interview, further expanding Danuser and Roberts' commentary on the games industry. Many of these statements are likely to sound very familiar to anyone regularly reading the site. Topics discussing include the benefits of lower system requirements, the dynamics between hardcore and casual players, and the cost/benefit ratio between first and third-party forums.Their analysis of story in online games is equally interesting. The issue of players powering through story and quests to gain levels, Danuser offers, can be overcome by painting in 'broad strokes'. "You'll have to assume that most players won't catch the fine details of your story ... they're playing through the experience and seeing it unfold, that gives them a sense of "oh that was really cool because I saw this happen, I helped make that tower fall down" even if they don't get the fine details of it."
38 Studios developers finally speak up
Though it seems like we've been reporting on 38 Studios forever, we still know precious little about the Boston-area company that has attracted so much industry talent and generated so much buzz with little more than a code-name for their top-secret fantasy MMO. We got a little preview of the 38 Studios approach when Steve Danuser moderated a panel on building community at ION, and now another interview has bubbled to the surface to give us even more insight on the burgeoning developer juggernaut.Steve Danuser and Jason Roberts sit down to explain (as vaguely as possible) their approach to the challenges of entering an ever-crowded MMO space. They riff about about building on the model developed by Everquest and seemingly perfected by World of Warcraft, working with a fan community before they've even announced their game, and their long-term hopes for community management and engagement. It's really no substitute for concrete information about Copernicus, but it seems like we're finally getting closer to the point where that sort of information is going to leak out.
Everquest designer joins 38 Studios for 'Copernicus' MMO
As the former lead designer of Everquest, Travis McGeathy has likely acquired just as many ardent fans as vengeful detractors, wishing they could get those thousands of click-click-clicking hours back. With your social life still in ruins, your cautious digestion of this bit of news from Gamasutra is probably for the best. You see, Mr. McGeathy is now the systems design lead for "Copernicus," Studio 38's mysterious MMO project.He's not the only Everquest vet at the Curt Schilling-founded developer either, as former Everquest II lead designer, Jason Roberts, and Everquest II expansion pack designer, Steve Danuser, also occupy padded leather chairs at the Maynard, MA office. We've yet to see what lies behind the Copernicus veil, but we're starting to suspect there may be buxom, elfin ladies involved.
Schilling's 38 Studios chooses Unreal
Add yet another developer to the Unreal roster. Curt Schilling's 38 Studios has announced (via GameDaily) that it has licensed Epic's Unreal Engine 3 for its MMO project Copernicus. The studio also recently licensed BigWorld's MMO dev tools. Of course, given the tentative 2010 release, we don't expect to see any thing from the game for a at least another year. For now, all we've really got to think about is how the Mova facial technology would beautify the legendary baseball pitcher's avatar.
38 Studios using BigWorld to make its big world
What do you get when you get when you combine a major league baseball player (Curt Schilling), a famed fantasy author (R.A. Salvatore), and a great comic book guru (Todd McFarlane)? You get 38 Studios, and 38 Studios is working on a new MMO codenamed "Copernicus."Now the studio has licensed the BigWorld engine for Copernicus. Since the game is at a very early stage of development, we know very little about it at this point, except that its prestigious managers are optimistic about its future. Reps from both 38 Studios and BigWorld made nondescript statements saying things like, "BigWorld provides the most proven, robust, and technically solid game engine available," and "we are thrilled to be working with such a professional and talented group of game developers." Good for them!Brett Close described the rationale behind the choice in greater detail in an interview with Ten Ton Hammer. Excellent server-side tech and tools that will help the team get the game to market as fast as possible were the given reasons.
