Carbine Take Aim At The MMO

Gamasutra reveals that NCSoft have announced the formation of a new studio, Carbine games who are - as are NCSoft's wont - developing an undisclosed massively-multiplayer game. It's formed around a mass of World of Warcraft veterans (er... we mean Ex Blizzard Alumni, not just people who've hit the level cap) and Tim Cain, ex-Troika of Vampire: Bloodlines infamy. What are they up to? Well, a nose around their site reveals a few clues. Firstly, they're not strictly speaking new, having been existent since 2006. Secondly, there's the download section, which includes some arty desktops and some music. The latter, entitled "The Awakening" doesn't give any real clues - being generic rousing gaming-orchestral music, which would fit into anything from Halo to Guild Wars. Then after about a minute and a half it goes into a hard-as-hell beat, which strikes me as a strange change of direction, until I realise that it's finished and we've skipped onto the next track on Itunes, Jay-Z's 99 Problems. And, for the record, I'd be first in line to play a Rap/Fantasy MMO. Though, admittedly, possibly last in line too. The actual concept art, well... looks fantasy. No visible Elves, but still fantasy, perhaps with a touch of a 40s-pulp-sci-fi vibe too.

Speculation in comments thread - Go!