EA Publishing Big Huge RPG 'Project Mercury'

March 9, 2010 9:00 AM

Having saved Rise of Nations developer Big Huge Game from closure, owner 38 Studios today announced that Electronic Arts will be publishing Big Huge's "epic single-player role-playing game" Project Mercury through its EA Partners initiative.

Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion designer Ken Rolston is leading development of Project Mercury, suggesting that it may be based upon or incorporate elements from Big Huge's reportedly cancelled action-RPG Ascendant.

Big Huge's unreleased RPG Ascendant and Copernicus concept art

Upon acquiring Big Huge, 38 Studios noted the developer would be crafting an RPG set in the company's cross-media fantasy property Copernicus--designed with contributions from Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and fantasy author R. A. Salvatore, intended to be realized in many forms including an MMO built on the Unreal 3 engine.

Though Copernicus was not specifically mentioned in today's announcement, Project Mercury appears to be that RPG, as the various details in the press release--talent, cross-media aspirations, etc.--all line up with what was previously known.

"We are creating an enormous world, with heroes and villains and a rich back story from the brilliant minds of R. A., Todd and Ken at its heart, and I can think of no finer partner than the global powerhouse that is EA Partners," said 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling.

As for when Project Mercury will arrive, it wasn't said--all we know is that it's coming to PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and will be the first 38 Studio product on the market.

Chris Faylor

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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qsylvr

 reply
March 9, 2010 9:14 AM

So is this the MMO, or is thist just the RPG? Because it looks exactly like they're making a clone of World of Warcraft. The screenshots are not exactly blowing my mind. Big names, but it doesn't look half as crazy as I would hope given the pedigree :\
- valcan_s
  
   reply
  March 9, 2010 9:18 AM
  
  Electronic Arts will be publishing Big Huge's "epic single-player role-playing game"
  - qsylvr
    
     reply
    March 9, 2010 9:20 AM
    
    Curse you, line breaks! Reading comprehension's mortal enemies.
- qsylvr
  
   reply
  March 9, 2010 9:19 AM
  
  Oh, the screenshots are from the cancelled game. The concept art looks vaguely more interesting, I guess. It's not done from a playable game camera POV though. Everything looks more epic when you use a low vantage point and everything is ten character-heights tall.
  - ComRaven
    
     reply
    March 9, 2010 10:02 AM
    
    I expect them to use Ascendant and just rewrite it to work within the Copernicus MMO lore. The game was very far in development when THQ cancelled it.