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General : GDC 2010: EA to Publish 38 Studios' "Project Mercury"
Posted Mar 09, 2010 by Michael Bitton
As the trickle of information from this year's Game Developers Conference begins to come in, we've learned that 38 Studios has partnered with Electronic Arts Partners to publish "Project Mercury," which is a singleplayer RPG introduction to the Copernicus universe, which has been co-created by bestselling fantasy author R.A. Salvatore and renowned artist and creator of Spawn Todd McFarlane. Copernicus, of course, is the secretive MMOG that has been in development at 38 Studios for some time now.
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Project Mercury is being developed by Big Huge Games, and will available on the PC, XBOX 360, and PlayStation 3.
View the original press release here.
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Finally, some information!
Confusing thing to say.
According to press release, the game is developed by Big Huge Games which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of 38 Studios. (Perhaps the 38 Studios umbrella exists to handle all those other medias besides games.) EA is now the publisher, of course.
So this is a single player one? Interesting indeed. Good to see something come out of there though for sure.
PC ... XBOX... PS3.... = FAIL.
Unless its "Yet Another shoebox shooter", in which case it could "succeed" by merely selling a few hundred thousand copies for the consoles.
But it certainly won't be a MMO and come out for all 3... (meaning copernicus, not this single player RPG *cough*)
This 38Studio project sure sounds awesome. ^^
You have forgotten the most important point! And this comes from an ages old gorehound who grew up with the old school zombie movies, unlike the kids that don't know any other than "28weeks later" or similar virus-flicks:
ZOMBIES DO NOT RUN!!!!!
There goes any chance of "Project Mercury" being any good. Ea turns any mmo it touches in to poop
Though Todd McFarlane is also renown of having absolutely no sense of lore. He's responsible for catastrhopes like introducing cyborgs to Ultima Online (A fantasy title)
Guys it says EA is publishing the Single Player MMO introduction to Copernicus which will be just the start to the franchise to give people a way into the story of the world. I assume then the MMO will be released and it says nothing about the MMO being published by EA.
So keep out hope people.
Aaaaaaaaand /cue Doom n' Gloom™ about EA ruining what could be another perfect MMO
Or maybe we could give EA a chance with a fresh company?
I was under the impression that the zombie mmo that undead labs was making was to be on consoles only. Which was why I liked to pretend it doesnt exist. A mmo for consoles only is just one wrong turn away from being a online zombie shooter.
My girlfriend maintains that not can zombies not run but they can't bend to far at the waist. Therefore, if you are being pursued by zombies you can lie down and be perfectly safe.
I like the "get killed, become a zombie" idea. In fact, I would extend that to "in order to be 'cured' you need to kill a non-zombie and eat their brains".
That would (finally!) explain why zombies want to eat your brains.
Confusing thing to say.
According to press release, the game is developed by Big Huge Games which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of 38 Studios. (Perhaps the 38 Studios umbrella exists to handle all those other medias besides games.) EA is now the publisher, of course.
Whoops. I meant developed. :)
I think THE most important way to get players to care and make the game feel more dynamic would be as follows:
Players are united against a common foe: the undead.
Why not make the undead an actual and united enemy faction capable of territorial control and town/city/whatever capture and control?
What we be better in a zombie MMO then having the zombie NPC's attack a town/outpost in mass and actually be able to drive players and friendly npc's out of the town unless the players band together to repel the invasion?
Od. I clicked the Discuss This link under the zombie blog, and came here!
Its already begun! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!
i hope they have a problem with the art so ea can enjoy the wonders of negotiations with the "reasonable" todd mcfarlane lol.
Yeah, sounds about right. You probably get people sacrificing themselves or others to save their zombie friend.
my thoughts exactly
"ZOMBIES DO NOT RUN!!!!!"
Running zombies are the best!! I have over 150 zombie movies in my collection and the fast zombie movies, (Dawn of the Dead in particular), get much more action in my dvd player. I have been playing a lot of counter-strike zombie mob and L4D2 lately and cannot imagine how bland a game would be based around slow moving zombies.
That Austin Powers movie where the guy is in front of the steam roller screaming as if he is about to die is the perfect example of why, (no matter how suspenseful you find these kind of zombies in theory), they would never work in a game. Shaun of the Dead was hilarious because the sheer stupidity of the characters didn't matter. As long as they kept moving even your average group of people seemed at ease dealing with the threat. It wasn't until they would stop moving and just stood or sat around that the zombies had any effect on them. All of the common folk before them died because they didn't get what was happening. Night of the Living Dead is another perfect example of this. The people in that world had no idea what a zombie was and died because of it. As soon as people banded together the threat was over. Every slow moving zombie movie is the same. It takes some idiot who accidently lets them in while everyone is asleep or a total break down in common sense for the humans to die to slow moving zombies.
Want the best possible example of why fast zombies are the only way to go?
Save this script I wrote for Left4Dead then type 'exec whateveryounamedit' without the ' in console. That script makes more zombies come out but they mimic the Night of the Living Dead zombies. Thought it would be cool to try it out and fight old school zombies but it turned into a huge waste of time. Try it your self. Its only suspenseful if you spend the entire time screaming omg! they're coming!
reset_gameconvars
sv_cheats "1"
z_acquire_far_range "9000"
z_acquire_far_time "0"
z_acquire_near_range "500"
z_acquire_near_time "0"
rescue_distance "4500"
rescue_min_dead_time "60"
z_speed "25"
z_walk_speed "25"
director_no_specials "1"
director_no_bosses "1"
z_spawn_mobs_behind_chance "25"
z_must_wander "1"
z_wandering_density "3"
z_common_limit "80"
z_mega_mob_spawn_min_interval "40"
z_mega_mob_spawn_max_interval "180"
z_mega_mob_size "60"
z_mob_spawn_finale_size "50"
z_mob_spawn_max_size "25"
z_tank_health "100"
z_tank_incapacitated_health "100"
z_tank_has_special_blood "1"
z_tank_speed "55"
vs_tank_damage "10"
z_non_head_damage_factor_easy "0.001"
z_non_head_damage_factor_expert "0.001"
z_non_head_damage_factor_hard "0.001"
z_non_head_damage_factor_normal "0.001"
z_health "75"
What are all these zombie messages doing here? This is about a SP game from 38 studies...an introduction to the mmorpg they are making, the one codenamed 'Copernicus'?
*looks a tad confused*
That's someone copy/pasting links and trying to rush. A blog and a thread somehow now have the same links to this thread, fun stuff. Anyways, for the discussion about the single-player RPG. EA is publishing the single-player, not the MMO as of yet. It's an introduction to the universe which the MMO will encompass. It will also be coming to the PC, which sounds good. Wonder if they have dx10/11 built into it.
I'm looking forward to this single player game to get some insight into the future mmo, it's background & histpry though I hope it can stand up as a successful game in it's own right, which it should considering it has some pretty high pedigree developers, the lead designers being ex TES/Oblivion guys.
I wonder if the move to publish this on console could be an indication of where they want to release the MMORPG too, if they can release an MMO on multiple formats it could be very interesting.
That's someone copy/pasting links and trying to rush. A blog and a thread somehow now have the same links to this thread, fun stuff. Anyways, for the discussion about the single-player RPG. EA is publishing the single-player, not the MMO as of yet. It's an introduction to the universe which the MMO will encompass. It will also be coming to the PC, which sounds good. Wonder if they have dx10/11 built into it.
Ah, I see. Thanks for explaining :)
I also look forward to this SP game. It will give some insight into the world and what kind of game 38 studies will make.
Personally I look forward to it and so far EA is only publishing the SP-game, so there is still hope *evil grin*.
There is a big difference between publishing and developing a game. EA is just the publisher. Besides I seem to remember Dragon Age Origins being pretty awesome. And why are you talking about Todd McFarlane and lore? RA Salvatore is doing all the lore.(and he has a great sense of lore) McFarlane is responsible for the art and nothing else.
There is a big difference between publishing and developing a game. EA is just the publisher. Besides I seem to remember Dragon Age Origins being pretty awesome. And why are you talking about Todd McFarlane and lore? RA Salvatore is doing all the lore.(and he has a great sense of lore) McFarlane is responsible for the art and nothing else.
Dragon _is_ pretty awesome, I agree. But I dislike the many DLC's. This is one of the reasons why I fear EA getting their hands on 'Copernicus'.
I dislike buying half a game for full price and then have to buy the rest of it in little pieces.
But we will have to see how it all turns out, one can only hope it turns out for the best for us and 38 :)
Actually not a bad idea to make a single player prior to introducing the MMO. Gets some money into the studio which is always an issue.