Update: 38 Studios sets facts straight on Copernicus

by Seraphina Brennan Jul 29th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles

In a follow-up to our story posted yesterday, 38 Studios has contacted us with a response on the issue of the game's cost to be between 50 million and 100 million and their "tenative release date" as reported by the Boston Globe.

According to 38 Studios, the 50 to 100 million figure came from the Boston Globe and not 38 Studios, as finances were never disclosed to the newspaper. Production costs were never mentioned as well during the interview. What was noted in the interview was that MMOs can be quite expensive to build, sometimes costing tens of millions of dollars to put together. As said to us by the company, "38 Studios is a private company and does not, and has never, disclosed financials."

Furthermore, the company wishes to stress that the supposed "December 2010" release date is not a date they wish to acknowledge. The company will release the game codenamed Copernicus when it is ready, currently wishing to not set any dates for their upcoming game.

Follow after the break for the full release from 38 Studios regarding the release date of Copernicus.

"38 Studios has reached several significant milestones in the development of its upcoming MMOG, codenamed Copernicus. While there are rumors that the game will be released in Q4 2010, this is not, nor has ever been, an official release date. When the company first formed, tentative dates were discussed; however, 38 Studios will release Copernicus when the project is complete to our standards and satisfaction. Fans can look forward to 2010 when the company will begin discussing details on the intellectual property."

Tags: 38-studios, boston-globe, breaking, copernicus, curt-schilling, finances, interview, investors, press-release, release-date

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

wolfsterne said on 6:09PM 7-29-2009

God bless the American journalist.

If he can't find a story he will damn sure make one up.

Bryan said on 6:23PM 7-29-2009

Sad. Also sad that the more I hear about Copernicus and no substantial info besides who the developers are, the more I start to not really care. I want to learn more but dangling an invisible game in front of my nose is just not the way to get my interest up.

Dethgar.com said on 6:39PM 7-29-2009

I think we all know that MMO's are the most expensive type of game to make, and maintain. I also think most of us really didn't understand why they bought another game studio while they were strapped for funding on their flagship project.

Mr Angry said on 6:40PM 7-29-2009

I want this to be amazing, I think given the resources at hand it could be just that.

C'mon Kurt, throw us a bone here, I've been waiting for tidbits since I hear about it on The instance all that time ago, it's been a year now I believe?

lobozombie said on 8:56PM 7-29-2009

lol what a lame posting.

but in all seriousness, tod mcfarlane behind anything is win if he actually gets some creative controll over the games artistic direction

pogger said on 9:14PM 7-29-2009

Thanks 38. I actually think this was a great post. 38 told us to look forward to more information in 2010. At least they're not posting a screenshot here and there and giving dates that cannot be met.

Look how many MMOs are releasing this year and next -- the market is going to be flooded. The serious MMO developers need to hold back and wait for the dust and forums to settle.

Skuz said on 5:00AM 7-30-2009

To be fair to 38studios they have as yet to jump on the hype-train, & I like that they are playing their cards close to their chests.

As far as their acquisition of Big Huge goes they have already issued quite some info about that & how it relates to the Copernicus I.P.

This I.P. wont be "just an MMO" it'll have a ton of other stuff released alongside it, toys, books, multi-platform games based off the I.P. & there was even talk of wishing to make a movie &/or cartoon series based on it, it's a very broad & ambitious project, but how all that translates into actual product is a long way from being known.

Pewpdaddy said on 8:23AM 7-30-2009

McFarlane is the Art Director so one would hope he's got some swagger as far as art direction goes. I think Kurt was only throwing the name out there about a year ago when he announced 38. They haven't been throwing out screenshots and dates and what not. Or blabbering on about how great the plot will be or how great their mechanics are. Cheers and good luck to the 38 crew I really hope they do well.