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38 Studios Unveils its First Look at Project Copernicus

In the wake of the studio's recent financial drama, the studio finally opens the door on its long-awaited MMO.

Apologies if it seems that we're turning Giant Bomb into the All 38 Studios channel lately, but the drama surrounding the studio in the wake of its recent financial troubles regarding its investment with the state of Rhode Island has been coming fast and furious of late. Understandably, many have questioned the studio's motives and competency, given the known issues and the fact that Project Copernicus, the studio's MMO which has been in development for nearly seven years now, had yet to be seen...

...until now!

Perhaps as a direct response to the criticism--I mean really, why else would this happen today of all days?--the studio today posted the above video on YouTube, which shows the world of Amalur as it looks in Copernicus. The video ultimately shows little more than world details, but it's still a hell of a lot more than we had before.

What do you think?

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211 Comments

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retrovirus

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Edited By retrovirus

Well...I liked the music. Aside from that, after approximately 7 years of development and all that they've shown is a flyby of environments that could have been created less than 6 months in their darkest hour to drum up excitement, I am very sad to say that this seems doomed to fail. Sorry guys.

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Tupacalypse

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Edited By Tupacalypse

@MindChamber: HAHAHAHA...... well done heh

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Dallas_Raines

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Edited By Dallas_Raines

Well, it certainly looks nice...

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kindgineer

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Edited By kindgineer

The art style is really intriguing, can't wait to see this one in action.

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Khalen

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Edited By Khalen

Looks really nice! :)

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RandomInternetUser

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Very pretty art style, but I just don't think I'll ever be able to get into an MMO again like I did with WoW.

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TorMasturba

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Edited By TorMasturba

I'm of the feeling that this video was pushed out because they're in dire strates financially and need some money, maybe I'm wrong but I can't help thinking that the game will be released in a broken condition.

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glots

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Edited By glots

I usually don't mind same type of games coming out constantly, but ugh...yet another MMO? Looks nice (graphically, otherwise nothing special really...), but not for me, unless it'll have something really special in it. Like a chance to play as something else than a human knight in shining armor. I was really bummed out that The Secret World only had humans as a playable race. Give me monsters, skeletons, whathaveyou! That'd already be a very positive option for me.

That and no monthly payment...

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radioraz

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Edited By radioraz

looks yummy

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StingingVelvet

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Edited By StingingVelvet

I figured developers realized the "hey let's release our own WOW and rake in the dollars" idea was stupid by now. Guess not.

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Gizmo

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Edited By Gizmo

Guild Wars 2 called, 38 Studios.

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zeus_gb

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Edited By zeus_gb

If they need money then why not strip the MMO stuff out and release this game as a single player RPG.

Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning did well and i'm really enjoying it, hope this does too.

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xymox

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Edited By xymox

Giant Bomb makes no apologies for content.

Also, I think it looks cool, but need to see some gameplay, as already said.

Also #2, video needs more Rich Gallup in front of a green screen talking about the game.

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dropabombonit

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Edited By dropabombonit

Only showing the game now is a bad PR move, also there was no gameplay

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ragnar_mike

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Edited By ragnar_mike

I sort of feel the same way about this game as I do about the Penny Arcade games. There is no denying that Gabe, Tycho and Curt are all passionate about games. But loving games and making games are two different things. The guys from PA seemed to either get this a bit more and reeled in the scope of the game or were just limited by the budget and what the developer could do for them. 38 on the other hand has basically had Curt and Rhode Island saying do whatever! Make a WoW killer. And that's fine at the start of a project. But we're going on six years. One hopes that there's enough producers in there to keep them on track, but these recent issues say otherwise. It certainly doesn't take 300 dudes to model all that, so one can hope there are some amazing engineers and programmers making it amazing.

I'll be interested to see how it does but in honesty: Between Diablo 3, BF3, and maybe Guild Wars 2? I'm good for online content. If SWTOR couldn't keep me interested, I don't see how this can. Which is a bummer since I've had some great MMO experiences. It's just not what I dig now.

Go Sox, though. =/

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Yadilie

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Edited By Yadilie

They might as well close up shop. No sense in blowing a ton of money to make a mediocre MMO.

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sgt_waffles

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Edited By sgt_waffles

"38 Studios Unveils its First Look at Project Copernicus"

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sins_of_mosin

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Edited By sins_of_mosin

The window for fantasy MMOs making a profit has long since been closed.  Last couple had a nice initial rush of buyers but then after a couple months, your down to a few.  Hell, MMOs of any style are really hurting now with so much competition among the MMO crowd and also from normal games. 
 
I believe some of the higher ups in 38 studios had this grand dream that they would grow as large as blizzard from their MMO.  TIme for them to cut their loses and regroup or die.

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fishless

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Edited By fishless
What do you think?

What can one say about a flyover of a textured heightmap and some 3d models?

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EnchantedEcho

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Edited By EnchantedEcho

I like the artstyle.

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BryanDaGimp

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Edited By BryanDaGimp

It's hard to throw criticism at stuff that people have worked hard on designing and modeling, but so far none of the areas shown in the video elicit any excitement from me. I know it's a fantasy setting, but "fantasy MMO" doesn't need to translate to "looks like a more shiny WoW". That being said, until we see more on the other systems in the game, no one can really make any fair judgments on it.

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Pazy

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Edited By Pazy

The enviroment looks interesting but I want a look at lore, which I hope Reckoning will do when I get around to it, and most importantly the gameplay. I really hope they working on a sample of the gameplay just now to show people. If they truly have some interesting and unuiqe, lets hope so, they might be able to set up pre-order/beta access to try and stem the hemorrhaging of money.

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Enigma_2099

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Edited By Enigma_2099

WELL worth the Money![/sarcasm]

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dvorak

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Edited By dvorak

I'm willing to bet that this video was previously available only to investors, or was only meant to be, and now they are showing it off because they pretty much have no choice.

Really though, this shouldn't give any more hope to anyone about what it was or is. I don't understand how they think they can keep the cards so close to the chest at this point. They're going to need to drive some serious hype on this game over the next year+ to get even close the the number of people they are going to need to pay their loans off, and survive.

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Tennmuerti

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Edited By Tennmuerti

Excitement 0

Pretty fantasy MMO architecture does nothing for me at this point.

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Mattalorian

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Edited By Mattalorian

What were they thinking? Their first announced project was a fantasy MMO in one of the hardest markets to penetrate in video games? The art design is totally fine, but that doesn't matter because frankly it looks like shit. And let's be honest - it's probably going to offer the same dated MMORPG combat system that's been around for years. Project Copernicus was an absolutely horrible idea. Don't they have market analysts there to tell them these things?

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Redhotchilimist

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Edited By Redhotchilimist

Doesn't really look like any familiar locations from Reckoning.

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Wondeboy

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Edited By Wondeboy

Looks like a "come and buy me" trailer to me. This project is what got them in trouble in the first place and they're desperate for someone else to take it on.

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LikeaSsur

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Edited By LikeaSsur

As much as I hate to be "That guy," I didn't see much to be impressed with. Yeah, some of the environments looked cool, but they also looked familiar to any fantasy setting.

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fjordson

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Edited By fjordson

Some pretty cool looking locations in there, imo.

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poisonjam7

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Edited By poisonjam7

Looks good, but we need to see gameplay. They are obviously going for a comic book vibe, and I think they achieved it pretty well. Unfortunately, I can also see lots of people saying this is just a WoW clone; and honestly, they are very similar in appearance. It will all come down to gameplay, it seems.

If the combat system is anything like what was in Amalur, I'm already sold. Amalur was a strong game, which a beautiful world. It seemed destined to be an MMO when I was playing it. I hope they get to release this game, especially since they have been working on it for seven years.

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avantegardener

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Edited By avantegardener

A FANTASY MMO??!!! Well I mean it COULD work?

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sirdesmond

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Edited By sirdesmond

If this is anything like Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning or anything like other fantasy MMOs than I could not care any less about it.

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Dalai

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Edited By Dalai

I would prefer if Project Copernicus was actually set in Rhode Island.

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MrKlorox

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Edited By MrKlorox

And it still doesn't have a name.

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Rongaryen

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Edited By Rongaryen

The trailer and all of the things going on just reminded me of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes which was a...game. Is that game still running?

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cikame

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Edited By cikame

Those are alot of corridors.

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Seppli

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Edited By Seppli

Looks like what I'd imagine World of Warcraft environments would look like, if it came out in 2012.

If the gameplay is noteworthy, and not standard fare, I'll gladly take a look.

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kollay

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Edited By kollay

Those were some jagged looking environments.

Seven years in development and not even a second of gameplay. Yeah, I get it, dazzle my eyes with "prettiness" but cut to the chase and show me what makes your game possibly any different to the dozens upon dozens of other cookiecutter MMOs.

Seven years.

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ColonelT

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Edited By ColonelT

Hey! That looks wholly original and not like any other MMO I've ever played!

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Klei

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Edited By Klei

Lands of (and?) Kingdoms of Amalur : Reckoning - Online

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KontX

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Edited By KontX

Seven years and this is all? Link developed better than this in seven years.

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deactivated-58b35aff00bcb

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Oh boy, a MMO that was being developed while WoW was at its peak. I WONDER HOW THE COMBAT IS GOING TO BE LIKE!

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Sackmanjones

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Edited By Sackmanjones

This is going to fail, no matter what the quality of the game is.

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buzz_clik

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Edited By buzz_clik

Ugh, Trajan.

Okay, now with that out of the way I'll watch the video! ;)

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Dad_Is_A_Zombie

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Edited By Dad_Is_A_Zombie

Yikes! This game (and studio) has got no shot....

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Diablos1125

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Edited By Diablos1125

Really like the look of it. I felt the same way about Reckoning. Hope 38 Studios can finish it. Looks really interesting.

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beeftothetaco

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Edited By beeftothetaco

Nice art style, but I don't think it will stand a chance against the other established MMOS out there. What a shame.