EA announce world's first classic literature-based action game

EA Games have signed with United Talent Agency to cross into movies and TV as they get the green light to develop a game based on Dante's Inferno. The Dante's Inferno.

The Divine Comedy (Italian: Divina Commedia), written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature.


The game won't be a literal interpretation. Instead it will, according to Variety, be "a modern interpretation of the epic poem and will have players fighting their way through the depths of hell". The game's yet to be officially announced, but film studios are already locked in a bidding war for rights to the reimagined property, explaining how it popped up on Variety's radar. They say the game will be out late in 2009/2010.

"UTA is an ideal partner for us to bring the richness and story telling nuance of our popular games into other forms of media that give consumers more ways to experience these creative concepts," said Patrick O'Brien, Vice President of EA Entertainment.

As far as I know, this is the first time that classical literature has crossed over into a computer game on this scale, and with UTA handling the film rights this could set an interesting precedent for publishers.