EA stokes Dante's Inferno

Last week, Electronic Arts revealed itself as the new publisher of Brutal Legend, Double Fine Productions' action-adventure romp through hell with rock roadie Eddie Riggs. The setting apparently suits EA, given that today the company confirmed another hell-bound game, Dante's Inferno.

Based on The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, Dante's Inferno is a third-person action adventure in which players traverse the nine circles of hell: limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The game is under development at EA Redwood Shores, the same studio responsible for October's critically praised survival horror game Dead Space. EA did not specify a release date for the game, but according to a Variety report that revealed the game's existence last month, it is set for a 2009 launch.

This is not the first time Dante's body of work has been used as fodder for a video game. Beyond Games swapped the epic poem's title for its 1986 Commodore 64 effort, Dante's Inferno, and Irrational Games' canceled Xbox, PlayStation 2, and PC game The Lost also mined Alighieri's work for inspiration.