EA confirms Dante's Inferno game

Electronic Arts has confirmed reports that its Redwood Shores studio is working on a Dante's Inferno game.

It's described as a third-person action-adventure adaptation of the first canticle of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.

EA has yet to confirm formats or a release date, but the studio's last outing - Dead Space - was for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

As EA points out, The Divine Comedy is "widely considered to have defined the western world's contemporary conception of hell and purgatory", as seen in the likes of Se7en and Aldi.

In the poem, Dante is led through hell and purgatory by the Roman poet Virgil (perhaps there'll be headset banter), and then his missus trots him through heaven, although it doesn't sound like EA plans to do that bit.

There were nine circles of hell in all - limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery - where Alighieri brought poetic justice to the likes of fortune-tellers and money-lenders, who, judging by that BBC documentary on the Medici family the other day, weren't his favourite people.

(Incidentally, you could just read Wikipedia yourself - we've no real education).

In terms of EA's adaptation, for now all we've got to go on is a trailer on the official website (also now on Eurogamer TV, featuring a lot of dark imagery and concluding with a character, presumably Dante, caving a pleading demon's head in with a crucifix.

We've also got the words of executive producer Jonathan Knight. "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 Knight. "It's the perfect opportunity to fuse great gameplay with great story."

Since Redwood Shores wrapped Dead Space some time ago, we can also assume that members of that team have since shifted over to help unleash hell.

Like Dead Space, there's also talk of cinematic action to back it up, with Variety recently claiming that Universal outbid rivals to secure film rights to the EA game.

Look out for more on Dante's Inferno soon.