EA signs baseball star Curt Schilling to make fantasy role-playing game

Electronic Arts has teamed up with baseball star Curt Schilling to make a game. But this isn’t a sports game. It’s a deal with Schilling’s fantasy role-playing game studio, 38 Studios.

Schilling is developing an epic single role-playing game code-named Project Mercury. It’s not the big massively multiplayer role-playing game, code-named Coperinicus, which is due to launch in 2011. Rather, Mercury is a single-player role-playing game that is being made by the former Big Huge Games studio, which 38 Studios acquired last year.

The game is being designed by Ken Rolston, former lead designer of the critically acclaimed hits, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The game will also be based on a vast universe created by New York Times best-selling fantasy author R. A. Salvatore, with artistic direction by Todd McFarlane, a famed comic book artist and creator of Spawn.

“From day one, 38 Studios has been focused on creating the next generation of entertainment experiences that embrace all mediums, including film, television, comics, novels, toys and, of course, games,” said Curt Schilling, founder and chairman of 38 Studios, in a statement. “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.”

Under the EA Partners label, EA distributes games that are created by others. It takes a smaller profit margin, but is able to work with a wider stable of develoeprs under this program.

Being able to leverage the expertise of EA’s publishing organization to bring our first product to market is a dream come true for 38 Studios. Project Mercury will come out in the future on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the PC.

Schilling spoke at last year’s GamesBeat conference. At the time, he was seeking funding for the MMO game. In the meantime, it looks like he found a way to get funding for the Big Huge Games title. This year’s event takes place on Wednesday in San Francisco at the Game Developers Conference.

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