Schilling, Salvatore, McFarlane Form Game Studio

simoniker writes "Baseball legend and avid MMO fan Curt Schilling is forming a new Boston-based video game company, Green Monster Games, with Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and noted sci-fi/fantasy author R.A. Salvatore. They're going to create what is described as 'industry-changing games'. Schilling, who is the pitcher for the World Series-winning Boston Red Sox, is already known for his online game interest (he is a long-time EverQuest/EverQuest II player), so is evidently extending this to form a video game developer."

Comments

Green Monster

[neonprimetime]

For those less sports-savvy: Green Monster

This could be phenomenal

[Zanth_]

McFarlane is reknowned for pushing the limits of art in all he does. When he first hit the comic scene on a grand scale doing Amazing Spiderman, he quite literally redefined the artist's role. Before him, only Art Adams had pushed the limits so much in the late 80's. Once McFarlane got too big for his britches, he left to do his own Spiderman series and finally off to Image to do Spawn. Once at Image, he did draw and write Spawn for a time until he became more interested in the business side of things, working towards a toy company (the premier action figure company in my opinion) with toys that were incredibly detailed on a level nearly unsurpassed. They are now the standard other figures are judged by today. He then moved into the realm of animation, with his hit Spawn cartoon and even doing some videos for the likes of Pearl Jam. His talent and business selse could really push the boundaries of in game art. However, as much as he would like to be, he is not the greatest write, but enter RA Salvatore and we have a very well respected Fantasy writer. The two merging their right brain talents really offers this start up most companies lacked. Artistic direction. The key will be in whom they hire and the types of games they are interested in developing.

I don't know much about the baseball legend, but having his name and money behind the project can't be a bad thing. Let's hope that this is not vaporware in the making, but that they do come out with at least one really hot and solid game, soon!

Re:This could be phenomenal

[Erectile Dysfunction]

And here I was thinking that two terrible writers and a baseball player I've never heard of (which says nothing of his fame, I just only recognize the first two people) have suddenly decided that they have what it takes to compete in absurdly-competitive video game industry because they're famous. I thoroughly enjoyed Todd McFarlane's artwork when I was 13, but it wasn't revolutionary and he was an incredibly poor writer. Salvatore has six or seven thousand pulp fantasy books, like his endless Drow books, but the quality of that work is certainly not "phenomonal." By the standards of video game writing he might be a comparative genius, but that says more about the secondary role storytelling serves in the majority of video games. Creating video games requires teams of talented people, not a handful of famous people. It consists of arduous amounts of work, and frankly no amount of fame can short-circuit that. Especially in the case of the baseball player, it seems a lot like a group of teenage males getting together and talking about how great it would be to create video games. Or probably more likely, a group of rich males getting together to create what they expect to be a profitable business venture relying largely on their fame to enter into the MMORPG market. Any group of actors looking to make an investment into the gaming industry would offer much of what this trio does (fame, money) and still face the same challenges (having to create entire teams of talent). They probably should have just bought an existing studio that already has experience producing games together.

Re:This could be phenomenal

[Mursk]

But... they're going to create 'industry-changing games.'

'Industry-changing!'

Nice to see this

[moore.dustin]

Schilling keeps no secrets about his gaming, but who knew it went to this degree? I for one, am happy to see famous figures branching in different directions. It was only a matter of time before people started to test the gaming waters given the market size now. Where other famous people try acting, commentating, or even signing, Shilling is giving something new a go. I hope he has some success and managed to publish a game. If he does get one out he will surely do well in the New England area, assuming he does not betray my beloved Red Sox somehow.

I would not be surprised if we start seeing more ventures like this either. While it may just be in an investment roll, the more money and people making games can only help to further the industry.

Comedic help?

[nsmike]

Maybe Todd could call up Seth... Inject a little humor into it as well.

The McFarlane Factor

[GrayCalx]

I can't wait until they release the game in five limited-edition, sparkling covers, with another five limited-edition online add-ons. Collect all 25!!!

Then of course there will be no resale value if you've actually opened the game...

salvatore is an amazing man

[The Dark Caller]

I had the opportunity to live with Salvatore's younger son last year. . . and while I didn't care for the kid, I've got to say that his dad is incredibly awesome. He nabbed us some free swag from Sony and promised to tweak any EQ chars we created - his kid's chars were evidence of this. So while I don't know a lot about the others, I can say that Salvatore's got some serious gamer cred. . . say what you will about his novels, the guy is good. We'll ignore Demonstone for now, Mr. S. :)

Huh?

[hal2814]

Does this sound like a bad to anyone else? These guys are all out of their element. To their credit, Schilling and Salvatore both have some business experience in the pen and paper realm, but that's not neccessarily going to translate into software success. If I had to bet money here, I'd wager that this company is a place for Schilling to dump money that would otherwise be spent paying taxes.

RTS games perhaps?

[fireduck]

In addition to Schilling's love of Everquest, he also started his own company to produce supplements/scenarios/modules for various tactical board games like Advanced Squad Leader. I wouldn't be surprised if one of this new company's first games is some sort of tactical combat ala Myth or a more traditional RTS game. Given Salvatore's involvement, it'd likely be some sort of Fantasy based venture.

That smell...

[imbroken3a]

Smell's like Daikatana.

Ion Storm Redux?

[Bieeanda]

So... we've got a guy whose action figure designs border on the Liefeldian, another guy whose main claims to fame are writing about angsty fantasy icons that can kill you with little more than a look, and writing about dropping moons on other sci-fi icons... and a baseball mogul. There's a lot of money being brought into play here, yes, and names familiar to those interested in traditionally 'geeky' pursuits like comics and gaming... but I'm not convinced that any of them have any idea of how to manage a development house. Sure, they're 'superstars' in their own right, but so were John Romero, Stevie Case and Todd Porter... and they were steeped in the industry before squandering the megabucks invested in them.

If these guys can pull it off, great. We can always use another good, solid development house kicking games out. Unfortunately, there's still a world of difference between being an avid gamer and being a game developer, and a similar degree of difference between being an artist on paper and being an artist in three dimensions.

Re:Ion Storm Redux?

[PylonHead]

Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner.

I predict that Armadillo Aerospace will land on the moon before these guys put out a good game.

The Recipe

[2megs]

Does anyone else think a combination of baseball, MMOs, comics, and sci-fi/fantasy sounds exactly like the formula for every major publisher's current product lineup? That's not to say they might not make some very good games in these genres, but they're probably going to make games in roughly the same mold as, well, games.

When Henry Kissinger and Rikki Lake team up with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to make video games, we'll talk "industry-changing".

Seriously...

[SimDarth]

If two medical doctors can get together and form a successful company like Bioware then a baseball player, comic book legend and fantasy author should be able to do something other than sound like a bad geek-joke punchline. Best of luck to them as long as they can push out something good.