Project Copernicus
Setting: Fantasy | Developer: 38 Studios/Big Huge Games | Announcement: 2008 | Cancellation: 2012 | Planned Platforms: PC
What kind of game was it? Project Copernicus was supposed to be an MMORPG based on the single-player RPG Kingdoms of Amalur. It was to take place in the same world and was designed to follow a gameplay style similar to WoW.
The focus was on exploring an open world, completing quests, and battling fierce and dangerous monsters. Additionally, the story was to play an important role and offer profound and exciting lore. It would primarily revolve around the themes of life and death.
The first trailer showed a mostly very dark but quite varied game world. However, mainly landscapes and cities were shown. How exactly the combat system functioned was never discussed.
For the deep story, the developers of the MMORPG relied on the bestselling author R.A. Salvatore, known for his D&D novels. He later said about the philosophy of the game:
If you’ve done something that had consequences, then you had to investigate those consequences. Instead of giving me a quest where I have to collect 11 rat ears, give me a quest about a woman who doesn’t want to enter the fountain of souls, although her family pressures her to do so. (…) Give me that type of quests. That was what we tried to do.
Project Copernicus was supposed to be “the first hundred million dollar online role-playing game based on a free-to-play model and microtransactions”.
What did it fail at? The developers of 38 Studios secured a loan from the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (EDC) in 2010. However, two years later, the studio was unable to repay it as it had gone bankrupt.
In addition, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning did not sell well at all. In 2012, all work on Project Copernicus had to be stopped, and the studio closed due to bankruptcy.
