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38 Studios has put Jennifer MacLean at the head of the board table, announcing the departure of former CEO Brett Close. Despite the studio being founded and chaired by former Red Sox player Curt Schilling, Brett Close had been the business face of the company. 38 emphasized Close had resigned from the position and was not fired from the studio that, despite making some interesting moves like acquiring Big Huge Games, has yet to produce anything of substance -- although we are told that everyone at the studio is hard at work.

MacLean previously worked at the company as senior vice president of business development. If MacLean lasts long enough to show us Copernicus and gets the studio producing product, that would be a start. We expect to see a little something of what MacLean -- and Close -- have been doing with the company sometime next year.

Update: Added line that we expect to hear something next year.

Focusing on riveting hot-button issues like "digital distribution, marketing, and in-game advertising," the MIT Sloan School of Management is kicking off its first ever "Business in Gaming " Conference (BiG) with BioShock magnate Ken Levine as inaugural keynote speaker.

We'll be there, Big Daddy statues and permanent markers in tow, and when we're not ogling KennyL we'll likely check out the panel featuring ex-Boston Red Soxer Curt Schilling of 38 Studios speaking about MMO business models. Hey, maybe he'll talk about that game his company's been making for three years! Code-named Copernicus? No? You don't remember that one? Yeah, neither do we.

Curt Schilling may not have revealed any new information about Copernicus -- really, nothing new there -- but he's had reservations about choosing the MMO genre for the premiere title of his 38 Studios. Speaking with Adam Sessler on stage during the inaugural GamesBeat conference, he admitted, "There have been times in the past 24 months where I've thought to myself 'What the hell was I thinking?!' I should have made a first-person shooter."

When filling the ranks at his game development brainchild, 38 Studios, it makes sense that MMO-fan Curt Schilling would look to his pastime of choice. The company announced that it has hired former Blizzard UI maestro, Irena Pereira, as 38 Studios' senior UI designer, bringing her interface grinding expertise not only with World of Warcraft, but The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King to the fledgling company as well.

Additionally, when setting the mood in its secretive MMO project codenamed Copernicus, the dev will look to the musical styling of newly hired composer and sound designer, Aubrey Hodges, whose familiar tunes can be heard in such adventure game greats as King's Quest, Space Quest, Quest for Glory and Conquests of the Longbow. Hodges is credited as one of the chief pioneers of in-game MIDI music, and also helped make us jump with his ambient tracks heard in both Doom and Quake.

Both Pereira and Hodges are just the latest seasoned vets to join 38 Studios, following the hiring of former Everquest designer Travis McGeathy and THQ artist Thom Ang, making us all the more curious just what the company is working on behind that curtain.

It's no secret that baseballer Curt Schilling is a huge MMO fan, but you might not know much about his 38 Studios game development company, formed with artist Todd McFarlane and fantasy writer R.A. Salvatore. They've been working on a massive MMO code-named Copernicus, which they haven't said too much about yet. This week at Austin GDC, Vivox announced that it would be providing the voice application inside the game, and five pieces of key concept art were released at Comic-Con earlier this summer.

We sat down with CEO Brett Close in Austin to find out what we could about Copernicus, and what's in store for the new company. Check out the full interview after the break.

38 Studios has added a seasoned artist to its ranks, announcing the appointment of Thom Ang as the company's new director of art. In his new role, Ang will oversee the art management and direction of 38 Studios' projects, including "Copernicus," the outfit's ever-mysterious MMO undertaking.

A 15-year digital art and illustration vet, Ang joins the Curt Schilling-founded developer from THQ, where he handled things both artsy and fartsy for more that 25 of the company's titles. In addition, he also worked on TV shows such as The X-Files, and spent time in the trenches at EA Los Angeles handing art and team management for the Medal of Honor franchise. We're still in the dark as to what the studio is up to with Copernicus, though it's good to know the company has someone on board with the chops to help steer the ship down a more artistic path.

Add yet another developer to the Unreal roster. Curt Schilling's 38 Studios has announced (via GameDaily) that it has licensed Epic's Unreal Engine 3 for its MMO project Copernicus. The studio also recently licensed BigWorld's MMO dev tools.

Of course, given the tentative 2010 release, we don't expect to see any thing from the game for a at least another year. For now, all we've really got to think about is how the Mova facial technology would beautify the legendary baseball pitcher's avatar.

We continue to look to left field for any news involving Curt Schilling and 38 Studios' mysterious new MMO project codenamed Copernicus, and while the inking of a new license to use BigWorld's suite of MMO development tools isn't the most exiting development under the sun, the news does enough to keep the project on our radar, if only just.

Interestingly, BigWorld's software has become a touchstone for a number of companies looking to jump into the world of MMO development, including unannounced projects from John Romero's Slipgate Ironworks and Sierra Online, as well as Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment's Stargate Worlds. Little is known about what Schilling and his band of developers have planned for Copernicus, other than it is still being prototyped for its planned release sometime in the distant future known as late 2010, by which time we'll likely to have moved on from MMOs altogether to another pastime...like baseball.

Curt Schilling's love affair with games, particularly of the MMO persuasion, is no secret. In late 2006, he took this commitment to the next level, founding Green Monster Games (now 38 Studios) and pledging to support his staff with competitive benefits. Now he's putting game development right up there with family, telling GameTap, "After baseball, I will do nothing except be a father, husband and run this company."

Codenamed Copernicus, Schilling's MMO is still in "concept phase" – tentatively dated for late 2010 – but it's one part of a mega-IP aimed at saturating multiple entertainment markets, including film, TV, books, comics, and action figures. With fantasy novelist R.A. Salvatore and Todd MacFarlane on board as creative partners, Schilling's ambitious project is more than just a pipe dream. As for baseball, the fabled pitcher doesn't plan to leave the sport behind entirely after his final season. "[I will be] intimately involved in making a baseball game ... I will be a part of a company doing a sports game [some day]."