In an interview with the Boston Daily, 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling said that the now defunct studio's massively multiplayer game, Project Copernicus was planned as a free-to-play game, with revenue expected to be generated from in-game microtransactions.
"We were going to be the first triple-A, hundred-million-dollar-plus, free-to-play, micro-transaction-based MMO," Schilling said in the interview. "That was one of our big secrets. I think when we eventually showed off the game for the first time, the atom bomb was going to be free-to-play. When we announced that at the end, that was going to be the thing that, I think, shocked the world."
The former Major League Baseball pitcher also revealed that the free-to-play model was being utilized in 38 Studios attempts to negotiate a financing deal for Project Copernicus. Schilling claimed that potential investors were unenthusiastic about financing a subscription-based MMO.
"Most investors wanted NOTHING to do with subscription-based products," Schilling said. "They were all on the social media and free-to-play games as a means to revenue."
Since the studios collapse in May, the state of Rhode Island has seized all the studio's assets including the Kingdom of Amalur game world, which includes Project Copernicus. Project Copernicus was originally intended to ship during June 2013.
38 Studios was named after Curt Schilling's jersey number from his days as a Major League Baseball pitcher. The company only released one title, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a single-player action role-playing game that failed to break even.
Watch the Project Copernicus trailer below...