38 Studios' MMO Screens Leak

[Andy Chalk]

38 Studios' MMO Screens Leak

Three screens from "Project Copernicus" have found their way into the wild.

The first look at the Project Copernicus MMO, such as it was, came out June 2013 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117349-Amid-Controversy-38-Studios-Releases-Copernicus-Trailer], only static environments were on display - no characters, no gameplay, just buildings and trees.

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The three screenshots that turned up on Kingdoms of Amalur forum 38 Watch are similarly static, but at least they show off some of the races in the game: the Almain, Dverga and Jottun, AKA the human, the dwarf and the ogre. No points for creativity there, nor is there any proof that these screens are legit, but the art style does seem to more or less fall in line with what was on display in the debut video.

The downside to that connection is that the screens have the same generic, WoW-like look to them as the video. The resolution is higher, and I don't play MMOs so I'm hardly an authority on the matter, but if I hadn't been told that these were from Copernicus, I would probably have assumed that they'd come out of Blizzard. Given the usual fate of MMOs that try to stand and punch with the World of Warcraft behemoth, that's not necessarily a good thing.

Source: 38 Watch [http://www.38watch.com/forums/showthread.php?2786-You-guys-deserve-this]


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[Therumancer]

Hmm, yes, this does not look good. I can't see how this got greenlit.

That said, it's what I would have expected from Amalur, because they were using a very cartoony "WoW" type style to begin with. Amalur had it's own distinct, single player type of play though so it wasn't that big a deal (and to be fair, nearly everyone seems to be doing that nowadays).

Good single player game, but I never thought it had the right stuff to be an MMO.

 

[Gennadios]

Leak? Seems to me they're jettisoning everything they have completed just to drum up enough interest to stay afloat.

This is about as much of a "leak" as a D-list celebrity sex tape.

 

[teebeeohh]

did anyone really think THIS could make money?
i mean it looks so generic and shouldn't people have learned by now that nobody will ever make another wow?

 

[The Forlorn]

That..... is awful.

I'd rather look at something Friz Freleng shat out onto the floor. If I want to inhabit an ugly cartoon, I could drop acid and head to Disney World, have a better time and be less frightened than I was just now looking at those hideous images.

Purple lighting, impossible weapons, NFL armor that not even Riddell would find visually appealing, vanilla "tribal" crap littering the backgrounds, everything looks like it's cut from plastic instead of iron or stone. It might be suitable for a 7 year old.

 

[Aggieknight]

Wow, I hate to be so negative, but...

World of Warcraft called and wants their 7 year old concept art back.

 

[Baldr]

Comments on an Alpha version of a graphics engine. No wonder companies don't allow people to playtest their games.
The hair and fur system is not in and a lot of other missing elements, but on the other hand looks real good for an alpha version.

 

[Formica Archonis]

And this is what they staked a failing company on, huh?

I shouldn't play armchair developer, but come on. Trying to make a WoW killer is insane. And everyone knew The Old Republic was coming out. Either that was going to fail and prove even further that WoW is an unstoppable juggernaut, or WoW was going to fall to ToR and leave an even tougher king of the MMO heap, or they were going to split the audience and leave TWO ultracompetitive MMO titans constantly trying to steal eyeballs from each other. No matter what the result, a small company has no hope in that environment.

If you take a nap on train tracks, you get run over by a train. And in this case, put a bunch of people out of work.