Copernicus | 38 Gamers

38 Studios, Nival Join U.S. Trade Body ESA

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Sep 192011

Gamasutra reports that 38 Studios has joined the Entertainment Software Association.

Curt Schilling-founded Kingdoms of Amalur house 38 Studios and King’s Bounty: Legions publisher Nival have joined U.S. game industry trade body the Entertainment Software Association, the organization said Monday.

The addition of the two studios brings the total number of ESA member companies to 33. “We look forward to working with these companies as we further our mission to fight piracy, protect the First Amendment liberties of video games, and position our industry for future growth,” said ESA president and CEO Michael Gallagher in a statement.

38 Studios is headquarted in Providence, Rhode Island, and is currently at work on a fantasy-themed MMORPG, codenamed Copernicus.

Its subsidiary studio, Big Huge Games from Baltimore, is developing a fantasy RPG set in the same universe as Copernicus, called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. 38 Studios was founded in 2006 by former Red Sox star pitcher Curt Schilling.

The 200-person Nival has three development studios with a concentration on strategy games. The company was founded in 1996 and is behind games including Blitzkrieg, Silent Storm and Etherlords. Nival will also be publishing and co-developing with KranX the turn-based strategy game King’s Bounty: Legions.

“We felt it was an important step in our expansion into North America to include joining the ESA,” said David D. Christensen, general manager of Nival’s North American office. Nival is headquartered in Moscow.

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Game reactor – GDC 11: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning interview

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Apr 142011

While this is from GDC its just been released from Game reactor and includes the latest footage of Reckoning as well as discussion on the MMO also in developement by 38 Studios. Definately worth watching!

MMORPG – Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning – Informing the MMO

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Mar 092011

Interesting article from someone looking for insight about 38 Studio’s MMORPG code named “Copernicus” which is set in the same world as Reckoning.

Recently, I had the change to travel to Baltimore to visit the Big Huge Games studio where they were revealing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the single player RPG predecessor to the highly anticipated 38 Studios MMO to the press for the first time.

As a general gamer, I was interested to see this new RPG and learn about its specific features. As the Managing Editor at MMORPG.com, however, I was more interested in learning what Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning could tell us about the highly anticipated “Copernicus” MMO, set in the same game world as this new RPG.

For those of you who may have been living under a rock for the last few years, 38 Studios is the company founded by World Series winning baseball pitcher Curt Schilling who is himself a distinctly hardcore gamer. Also on staff are Todd McFarlane, best known as the creator of Spawn and R.A. Salvatore, renowned fantasy author.

Ever since the studio’s announcement, back when they were known as Green Monster Games, people have been wondering what fingerprints these visionaries might leave on the MMO that they were going to produce. Reckoning provides us the first chance to get an idea of what those fingerprints might be when it comes to the upcoming (and still unnamed) MMO.

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Joystiq Interviews Curt Schilling

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Mar 022011

Curt talks about the move to the new office in Rhode Island and their up and coming MMO and RPG.

It’s been nearly half a year since the deal was signed, but 38 Studios head Curt Schilling tells us that his company’s “150 – 160″ employees are already in the process of moving to Rhode Island. That includes full relocation for everyone involved (read: selling that dream Boston house for a cottage in Quahog), though the company’s own website still reflects 38′s original address. Surprisingly, he says morale hasn’t been affected negatively.

“The team is incredibly excited. It’s our building! We have all six floors — it’s our studio and we’re alone. It’s our space,” Schilling explained to us this afternoon at a San Francisco club-turned-EA event. “Gavin — the studio GM — and I, we really took a Disney approach,” he said. “There’s no detail too small for us in the new studio to make it a place where people walk in and say, ‘I wanna work there.’” At the time, he wouldn’t say much about what exactly the happy folks inside his company’s new digs are making.

While keeping light on details, Schilling — fittingly — compared the game’s development to his last profession: baseball. “If it were a baseball game, we’d be in the fifth inning maybe?” he posited, staying intentionally vague while a PR overseer eyeballed him. He did admit that we’d be hearing more about both Reckoning and the still unannounced MMO in the coming months.

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Schilling optimistic about Rhode Island move

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Nov 182010

Curt Schilling was asked to speak at an awards dinner sponsored by the Providence Business News in Rhode Island. He promised the audience that 38 Studios was on it’s way to becoming a multibillion dollar enterprise in Rhode Island. Now I know Curt has always had a big vision for 38 Studios but man that’s a very bold statement to be making. Either Curt has been drinking his own kool-aid or the company is sitting on the next big thing in MMO’s. Now the fact that 38 Studios has been so tight lipped about it’s MMORPG code named “Copernicus” compared to other companies, I am leaning towards the later. What do you think?

PROVIDENCE –– Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling promised Thursday that his video-game company, 38 Studios LLC, was on its way to becoming a multibillion-dollar enterprise in Rhode Island. “That’s world-changing money,” he said at the Providence Marriott.

Schilling, wearing suit and tie, spoke briefly at an awards dinner sponsored by the Providence Business News. It was the first time he has spoken publicly to a Rhode Island audience about his business since the state approved a $75-million loan guarantee to lure 38 Studios from Maynard, Mass., to Providence.

“I don’t have a personality that would allow me to retire,” said Schilling, explaining why he started 38 Studios.

He said he’s been to the World Series as a pitcher four times, three times on the winning team. “At the core of those four teams, it’s no different from the core of a great business, because it’s all about people,” he said.

Now, he said, he employs 230 people in Massachusetts and Maryland. “I revel in the little things it takes to run a company,” he said.

But bringing his company to Rhode Island has been accompanied by controversy.

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UGO – Curt Schilling: We Want to Be the World’s #1 Game Publisher

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Oct 222010

Tracey John got the chance to interview Curt Schilling at New York Comic Con and asks some really great questions about the MMO 38 Studios has been working on since it was founded 4 years ago. If you your interested in the MMO then you need to read this!

As a legendary Major League Baseball pitcher, Curt Schilling was, for a time, the best in his field. But that time has passed, and Schilling has now traded the mound for a mouse in his new career as the founder of game developer 38 Studios. With a fighting drive to be number one, can Schilling transform 38 Studios into the best game-maker on the planet?

“(Blizzard is) the best in the world at what they do right now, but nobody stays number one forever,” Schilling said during an interview recently at New York Comic Con. “And I want to be the number one leading game publisher in the world. Whether that happens two years or 10 years from now, that’s the goal.”

Although 38 Studios’ first game will be a multi-platform single-player RPG called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the company is also working on a massively multiplayer online game currently codenamed “Copernicus.” Armed with famed fantasy novelist R.A. Salvatore, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and developers who’ve worked on EverQuest, World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online, Schilling thinks 38 Studios has got what it takes to be on top.

We asked Schilling more about his history in gaming, why some MMO developers are “full of crap,” and how Blizzard can’t stay number one forever.

Read on for the full interview.

UGO: Why put out an MMO?

Curt Schilling: Um, I’m stupid? (laughs) I don’t know. It’s what I love. It’s the reason I got into the industry. I think it’s the genre in the industry that I — air quotes — know best, and it’s probably the sweet spot of the talent we put into the studios. (The developers) have been on every major MMO from Ultima Online. They’ve made mistakes, and they’ve done great things so I think it’s probably our strength.

UGO: And you personally have played every major MMO since Ultima Online?

Schilling: Oh I have, yeah. I go way back. I started on Ultima Online but my first hardcore game passion was EverQuest. I lost many years of my life in Norath. EverQuest and EverQuest II were the kind of games that sold me on what I thought I wanted to do after I was done playing (baseball).

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R.A. Salvatore Gauntlgrym Event

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Oct 162010

R.A. Salvatore was in Seattle WA on tour promoting his latest book, Gauntlgrym. The hour long presentation was recorded and is really great stuff. He covers his book, what he is working on and talks about his involvement with 38 Studios upcoming MMORPG code name “Copernicus” where he has created the world the game is set in. He discusses the Well of Souls and the impact of what such a device would cause in the world and that is driving a lot of the story in the MMO. Definitely worth checking out!

Suvudu: R.A. Salvatore Gauntlgrym Event from Suvudu on Vimeo.

MMORPG.com – A Conversation with Curt Schilling

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Oct 142010

MMORPG.com writer Drew Wood had the opportunity to talk with Curt Schilling at last weekend’s New York Comic Con. He was hoping to find out some information on Copernicus (38 Studios un-named MMORPG currently in development) however that was off the table so he asked some questions Curt was able to answer. Check it out!

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity, amid the (dis)organized chaos of New York Comic Con, to speak with six-time Major League Baseball All-Star, three-time World Series champion, and, most importantly, Founder and Chairman of 38 Studios, Curt Schilling. With project ‘Copernicus’ still in the distant future, and former project ‘Mercury’, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning set for release Q3 2011, I was a little surprised to hear Curt be so excited about a project that he could, literally, tell me nothing about. As there was nothing to learn about ‘Copernicus’ today, I instead spoke briefly with him about the Single Player experience of Reckoning, the chosen world, and Curt ‘The Gamer’ Schilling.

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Curt Schilling At New York Comic-Con 2010: You Need To Be A Real Man To Play EVE Online

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Oct 112010

I found one more article from the Future of Online Gaming Panel at the NYCC that Curt Schilling was on.

The entire reason I’m writing about the show (there wasn’t a whole lot going on from a news perspective, and I’ve already created a wacky video of the show last year) is because I attended a pretty fascinating panel entitled “The Future of Online Gaming.” NCsoft, maker of City of Heroes, was on there, as was Curt Schilling, the former baseball pitcher (who was really quite good) turned video game developer.

And as the headline of this post suggests, Schilling was fantastic. I seriously had no idea the man was such a geek.

(As for the headline, at one point Schilling cut a promo about how hardcore EVE Online players must be. You invest dozens if not hundreds of hours trying to build up your empire, only to have some punk kids rob and destroy your life’s work.)

So what is the future of online gaming? We get excited because Blizzard announces that there’s 12 million World of Warcraft subscribers on a planet with some 6 billion people on it. Twelve million people, yeah, that’s impressive, but let’s not say something like, “Well, that’s it, there will never be a game this popular ever again.” Remember when people thought no other game would be as popular as EverQuest?

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MMORPG.com’s Future of Online Gaming Panel

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Oct 112010

During the New York Comic Com MMORPG.com hosted a panel on the Future of Gaming which included Curt Schilling. So far it’s been pretty slim for finding any info about the panel however G4TV had this bit in its wrap up post. Unfortunately the link in the article did not link to the proper article. I am sure more will come out in the coming days and when it does I will be sure to post it.

In past years, the ComicCon hosted panels with Gears of War and executive Mike Capps. But aside from Epic Mickey and the Marvel Games Panel, this year’s only must-attend panel was The Future of Online Gaming, for which fans lined up for an hour before. The panel showcased a refreshingly opinionated former pitcher Curt Schilling (now making Copernicus at 38 Studios). He hopes that we’ll someday have five million simultaneous online game players world-wide. Schilling also hoped 3-D gaming doesn’t hit MMOs, at least right now. That comment received the loudest applause of the program (except perhaps for the moment when he asked to be booed by Yankees fans in the house). And the idea that MMOs of the future will no longer be boxed, just streamed over your technology of choice, was an intriguing one.

[Source]