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Guildford, UK – December 15, 2008 – An abducted soul, a lifetime of sins, a journey to the depths of despair.
Electronic Arts Inc.(NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today that EA Redwood Shores, the studio behind hit
horror game Dead Space™, is making Dante’s Inferno™ – a third-person action adventure adaptation of the
medieval epic poem The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. The dark fiction gave birth to the Tuscan Italian
dialect and is widely considered to have defined the western world’s contemporary conception of hell and
purgatory. The poem tells the tale of Dante who journeys through the twisted, menacing nine circles of hell in
pursuit of his beloved Beatrice.
Written in the 14th Century, The Divine Comedy was published and read aloud in Italian (unlike the Bible),
thereby making the poem accessible to the mass public. The poem delivers a striking and allegorical vision of
the Christian afterlife and the punishments of hell. In part one, known as Dante’s Inferno, Dante traverses all
nine circles of hell; limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery.
“The time is right for the world of interactive entertainment to adapt this literary masterpiece, and to re-
introduce Dante to an audience that, until now, may have been unfamiliar with the remarkable details of this
great work of art,” said Jonathan Knight, executive producer for Dante’s Inferno. “It’s the perfect opportunity
to fuse great gameplay with great story.”
For more information on Dante’s Inferno, please visit www.dantesinferno.com and sign up for the newsletter
and bookmark for news, features and upcoming events.
###
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive
entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes
interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the
Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA SPORTS
Freestyle™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27 titles that
sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information
about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.
EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Freestyle, POGO, Dead Space and Dante’s Inferno are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the
property of their respective licensors.
This is great. I'm all for using classic stuff like this, even if its just to show what other good stuff is out there. Come on EA, how about a free copy of the book with the game, that would be awesome. I'm glad to see EA pushing this kind of stuff out.
Hmmm...book to game adaptions I'd love to see. The Three Musketeers or The Count of Monte Cristo would be awesome as games. I'd have to add Homer's The Iliad onto there too (Odysseus trying to get home for ten years, fighting mosnters, gods and such, could be very God of War).
If this was an adventure game in the style of something like Indigo Prophecy I'd be excited. As it is, this looks very meh to me, if you're going to make the Inferno into an action game then you might as well let Capcom do it and put Dante from DMC in it.
I'm intrigued and also kinda worried, because this is one of my favorite books. There's a ton of potential there for awesome video game moments, but also so many ways to go wrong with it. I guess I'll wait and see.
Hopefully Virgil won't be turned into an annoying sidekick that flies around giving you hints and stuff. HEY, LISTEN!
To be honest? I don't think the game is based off of the literary version that we know. I assume, just by watching the trailer, that the Hero and his story TAKE PLACE within Dante's Inferno (or Hell as Dante described it) and that the characters from the Divine Comedy may or may not actuall appear.
I really think the whole premise of the book to game relation is setting; it would be very boring to literally play as Dante, unless it was executed in a very unique or fulfilling way, but I imagine it will be about a person's much more violent-action-based journey through Hell using Dante's description of it. I'm worried because it's literally my favorite book, and it can be ruined very easily in a video game format. But at the same time, I have to buy this on day one because I'm a bitch like that.
Also, it's funny that we just finished an English analysis of The Inferno in my Ancient Literature class.
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Destructoid is an independently-run publication forged by our love of video games and the gaming community's need of accountable enthusiast press living the dream since March 16, 2006
(# 0) on 12/15/2008 03:00
(# 1) on 12/15/2008 03:42
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...just no.
(# 2) on 12/15/2008 03:46
I do wish I could fix the formatting but after wrestling with it for a few minutes I gave up.
(# 3) on 12/15/2008 03:50
Just say YES
(# 4) on 12/15/2008 04:18
(# 5) on 12/15/2008 05:31
Hmmm...book to game adaptions I'd love to see. The Three Musketeers or The Count of Monte Cristo would be awesome as games. I'd have to add Homer's The Iliad onto there too (Odysseus trying to get home for ten years, fighting mosnters, gods and such, could be very God of War).
(# 6) on 12/15/2008 05:50
yeah but didn't your blog end up as like, half bullshit?
also heck
(# 7) on 12/15/2008 06:01
And Israel. (The Jews don't believe in hell.)
(# 8) on 12/15/2008 06:41
I just got the divine comedy on audio tape too
could find a copy for the feck of it
(# 9) on 12/15/2008 08:04
(# 10) on 12/15/2008 08:10
(# 11) on 12/15/2008 08:31
Hopefully Virgil won't be turned into an annoying sidekick that flies around giving you hints and stuff. HEY, LISTEN!
(# 12) on 12/15/2008 08:35
(# 13) on 12/15/2008 08:43
Also, it's funny that we just finished an English analysis of The Inferno in my Ancient Literature class.
(# 14) on 12/15/2008 09:06
(# 15) on 12/15/2008 11:37
(# 16) on 12/15/2008 18:29