EA making Dante's Inferno: The Game

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 3rd November 2008
Comments (19) Stumble
EA making Dante's Inferno: The Game

Dante's Inferno is to be made into a game by Electronic Arts and a movie by Universal Pictures.

Electronic Arts has announced that it has bought the rights to make a game based on Dante's Inferno - the most well-known of the books in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. What's more than that, Electronic Arts also owns the rights to a film and TV adaptation.

Inferno is one of three canticas (long poems) written by Dante as part of a tour of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory and it details his tour through the circles of Hell, as guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In Dante's vision Hell is divided into nine circles, each focused on a particular sin and punishment.

EA's game however is set to be a modern interpretation of the work and will detail Dante's "fight through the depths of hell".

So, one of the most epic and important works of the Italian language is to be re-imagined as a gory shooter? Great.

EA trademarked the rights to Dante's Inferno back in February for use as a game, film and TV mini-series; so at least we can look forward to seeing a lot of it.

Universal Pictures and Sony have apparently taken on the rights to make a film version of the game too, after paying a seven figure sum for the rights to a game which hasn't even been properly announced yet.

The game is supposed to be out next year too, but with EA keeping quiet on this one there's no confirmation of platforms or genre just yet, so feel free to speculate in the forums.
Quote liratheal 3rd November 2008, 10:23
IF it were to be something insightful, or at least complex to the point of mind bending problems, an RPG that focused not on gore, but genuinely scaring the player using something other than crappy shock tactics, then I would be all for it.

However, knowing EA, the article is probably right in that it's likely to be a gorey shooter. Another gorey shooter. Where did imagination go?
Quote LeMaltor 3rd November 2008, 10:35
"fight through the depths of hell".

Urrrghh. Take someones idea and ruin it :X
Quote ChaosDefinesOrder 3rd November 2008, 11:47
knowing EA, the first game will just be one of the circles of hell, then they'll release sequel after sequel for each circle of hell...
Quote Angleus 3rd November 2008, 11:55
Oh dear...
Quote C-Sniper 3rd November 2008, 12:27
Oh Hell,
Exactly what i was thinking when i heard EA had rights to it
Quote DarkLord7854 3rd November 2008, 14:41
Oh bother.. *facepalm*
Quote MrMonroe 3rd November 2008, 15:09
So Universal couldn't just make a movie of the actual work? They had to walk it through EA's perversion in order to get a movie out of it?
Quote BlackDiamond 3rd November 2008, 15:50
Maybe they can get Uwe Boll to direct the movie, just to make sure that it a total piece of garbage.
Quote Redbeaver 3rd November 2008, 16:53
well if it came out like Dead Space i wouldn't mind at all................... more surviving... less shooting... 9 circles of hell......awesome.
Quote Goty 3rd November 2008, 18:49
With The Inferno being possibly my favorite piece of middle age literature of all time, this is really disappointing. EA is going to screw this up so badly it's not funny.
Quote Darkefire 3rd November 2008, 21:23
Wait, they bought the rights to it? The Divine Comedy was written in the early 14th century, who the hell did they buy the rights from? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can't trademark something that's been in the public domain for centuries. In any event, EA is going to hell for doing this; while they're at it, they might as well make a game starring William Shakespeare in his gory quest to have his plays accepted.
Quote evanbraakensiek 3rd November 2008, 23:50
Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkefire
Wait, they bought the rights to it? The Divine Comedy was written in the early 14th century, who the hell did they buy the rights from? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can't trademark something that's been in the public domain for centuries. In any event, EA is going to hell for doing this; while they're at it, they might as well make a game starring William Shakespeare in his gory quest to have his plays accepted.

I agree with the 'confusion' caused due to rights ownership.

I happen to have a copy of The Descent into Hell (the equivalent of Inferno [the first book] from The Divine Comedy) published as part of the Penguin Epic series in front of me. I'm in two minds about this. No movie or video game will ever do justice to a work of literature. But, 'modern adaptations' spark interest to go back and (re-)read the original material.

I don't think it's a bad thing especially when the original work is quite hard to appreciate (from a modern perspective). The only time I disagree is when literature is quite contemporary, and alterations have been made to bring the narrative structure in line with cinematic conventions. Writing a screenplay for a classic piece of literature is a hard task, but any alterations shouldn't diminish the integrity of the text (especially when it's the first cinematic adaptation).

Take The Lord of the Rings. The screenplay obviously had to condense the story, and cutting sections which weren't relevant to the main plot was a good call. But, changing the storyline to give Arwin more screen time so the 'love interest box' can be ticked off is just wrong.
Quote fathazza 4th November 2008, 00:15
theyd better be long levels seeing as there arent gonna be that many ;)
Quote Gh0stDrag0n 4th November 2008, 00:44
Dante's Simferno The first circle of hell due 2009 and 8 expansion packs for the rest of the circles of hell coming soon after.
2010 will bring a crappy MMORPGFPS dealing with Dante's heavenly adventure. Don't forget the free DRM virus SecuROM included with each 3 install rental.
Quote docodine 4th November 2008, 01:54
This is going to be either an amazing game that will last through the ages, or one of the shittiest games of the year.

I can't see anything in between. :/
Quote Cthippo 4th November 2008, 07:02
This one can be a console exclusive. In fact, please make it console exclusive!
Quote =cJ= 4th November 2008, 09:05
The First Circle:

Here reside the "independent" game developers, who, though not part of EA, did make use of EA for marketing and distribution of their product. They are not punished in an active sense, but rather grieve only their association with EA, with no hope of expunging the EA logo from their games splash screen and cover artwork.

Second Circle

Those members of EA responsible for the releasing of endless sequels are punished in this circle. Forced to play never ending games of Madden and FIFA with no release from the onerous grind of the next sequel being released. These souls crave for a release from their onerous grind, but are forever chained to their particular franchise until the end of time.

Hmm, I'm starting to run out of ideas here....
Quote cjhygino 9th November 2008, 20:03
Hey... A combat in hell and about nine levels... Uhuuuuuuuuu... Where's my machine gun, marines??????????
Quote Kurayamino 10th November 2008, 19:04
If EA are doing it, lets face it. Its gunna be a pile of poop
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