Marvel are late to join the world of superhero massively multiplayer online games, with City of Heroes and Champions Online (which started life as Marvel Universe Online) having risen and fallen, and DC Universe Online still fresh, but according to an announcement, their project has three unique selling points.
Firstly it’s going to be written by Brian Michael Bendis, the creative force behind the likes of Ultimate Spider-Man, Siege, Secret Invasion and New Avengers, secondly you’ll be able to play characters from the Marvel universe (Bendis confirmed one of them is Squirrel Girl), across all eras and universes, and thirdly, it’ll be free to play.
“The reason that I was so desperate to be a part of this is that I’m a big believer that the Marvel universe is more than just this fantasy universe, it’s kind of a lifestyle for a lot of people”, said Bendis. “It reminds me of what Stan Lee did in the 60’s by making the audience part of Marvel,” said the writer.
“This is a great opportunity to explore the breadth of the Marvel universe”, said Jeff Lind, studio director for Secret Identity, the subdivision at Gazillion responsible for creating the Marvel MMO. “We thought really hard about this and we would much rather live in a world where you get to be Wolverine, you get to be Captain America and deal with the issues and the interesting questions that that raises, than a world where you’re a sidekick.”
“The Marvel Universe MMO is going to launch with more characters than any Marvel game to date. It’s not just going to be the top ten or twelve characters, it’s going to be a monster list of characters”, said TQ Jefferson, VP of Games Production at Marvel.
