Today EA revealed that you'd be able to put Hell in your pocket when Dante's Inferno releaes on the PSP next year. There are just as many details about this release as there are about the next-gen counterparts, which is to say none, but that's not going to stop me from speculating about how this is game is going to play. Here's a hint: it's going to play very similarly to God of War: Chains of Olympus.

I'm still not entirely sold on this premise. I appreciate the creative license that EA is taking with the story, and the design work looks pretty damned sweet so far, but something just isn't clicking for me. I'm certainly not on some literary high horse. The game probably isn't going to make people run out and read the works of Dante, but at least people will sort of have an understanding of the texts whenever someone brings it up in a conversation. Sure, it's like basing your knowledge of Pride and Prejudice on the movie, but it's better than basing your knowledge on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I think.

We've still got a while to wait before any real information is divulged on this title, but you can bet I'll be keeping my eye on further Divine developments.

You can check out the full press release below.

_____________________________________________________

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that its highly anticipated action adventure game Dante’s Inferno^TM will be coming to the PSP® (Sony PlayStation® Portable). Based on part one of Dante Alighieri’s classic, “The Divine Comedy,” EA’s Dante’s Inferno will also take players on an epic adventure through Dante’s famously mapped nine circles of hell. Dante’s Inferno will be available simultaneously for the PSP, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system next year.

Dante’s Inferno for the PSP is being developed by EA’s award-winning EA Redwood Shores studio and Artificial Mind and Movement (A2M), based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

“Our team and the team at A2M are taking the vision for Dante’s Inferno and translating it directly to the PSP,” said Jonathan Knight, executive producer and creative director on Dante’s Inferno. “PSP owners can expect to get the same level of fast, responsive gameplay through all nine detailed and unique circles of hell we are aiming to achieve on the consoles.”

Alighieri’s “Dante’s Inferno” is widely credited for being the work that has defined the western world’s contemporary conception of hell and purgatory. Just like the poem, players of EA’s 3^rd person action adventure game will descend through all nine circles of hell: limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery, playing as Dante as they battle through a gauntlet of unimaginable evils, fighting to recapture the soul of his beloved Beatrice.

Dante’s Inferno has not yet been rated by the ESRB or PEGI. For more information about Dante’s Inferno, please visit www.dantesinferno.com.