'Marvel Universe' MMO Coming to PC, Consoles

by Chris Faylor, Mar 17, 2009 7:35am PDT

Following yesterday's surprise revelation of a ten-year MMO licensing agreement between comic publisher Marvel and relatively unknown game publisher Gazillion, the two companies have announced the first two MMOs to be made under the deal.

The first game, Marvel Super Hero Squad, is a casual MMO aimed at younger folk.

The second, Marvel Universe, is in development for PC and consoles. Gazillion will develop and publish the game, with more details to arrive in the coming months.

City of Heroes developer Cryptic Studios previously worked on an MMO titled Marvel Universe Online, though it was later cancelled due to World of Warcraft-related fears.

According to today's announcement, Gazillion has been "operating in stealth mode" under the name NR2B Research. The publisher has four wholly-owned MMO development studios: Amazing Society (Super Hero Squad), Gargantuan (Marvel Universe), NetDevil (LEGO Universe, Jumpgate Evolution), and id co-founder John Romero's Slipgate studio, which is working on an original MMO.

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By: hatelull x Show Full Post

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What does it take for a title to overtake or at least compete with any sort of merit against Blizzard and the Leviathan that is WoW?

Mar 17, 2009 7:43am PDT

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What does it take for a title to overtake or at least compete with any sort of merit against Blizzard and... : hatelull
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 49 replies.
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  WoW is like the Universe. One day it will implode upon itself. : Sambula
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    Except the universe is going to keep expanding forever....so WoW will experience a heat death? : thetangent
    - It'll be so big that players would be too far from each other to see. : Sailor of Fortune
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  You would be suprised how little it would take to topple wow. It's just most companies let their mouths ... : lcizzle
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    By: d3vilsadvocate x Show Full Post
    
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    it's not just good marketing that makes Blizzard good. Their games ARE awesome. Most games on the market are NOT.
    
    I don't like WOW though. It's a miracle to me why this game is so incredible successful...
    
    Mar 17, 2009 9:37am PDT
    
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    it's not just good marketing that makes Blizzard good. Their games ARE awesome. Most games on the market ... : d3vilsadvocate
    - It's the social aspect. Loads of people get into it because a friend or two are playing. Once you play fo... : the_burd
  - lol Funcom is the LAST company that's going to make a game that competes with WoW. : Pneum0
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  On the PC scene I think Valve are the only ones that could come close. They are doing a great job at bui... : Wombat Woo
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    Agreed. If anyone could take it on, it'd be Valve. : Medieval Barber
    - Don't forget about Epic, imagine an MMO Gears of War. : eclips3d
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    Their MMO experience is limited to being a reseller. Not saying they can't. : Sylvanus
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      WoW is Blizzard's first mmo too. : [7]kami
      
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      Depends. You need to consider what was learned from Battle.net. They learned quite a bit from Diablo & ... : Sylvanus
      
      Like Valve learned from Steam? : [7]kami
  - Basically I'm saying that running a successful MMO is a huge undertaking. While past successes deserve k... : Sylvanus
- What are your success requirements? What are your comparison parameters? Who will you include? Who... : Sylvanus
- a mixture of staleness in either the product or perception of staleness in the user base, just like Everq... : pharoah mike
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  Blizzards new secret MMO. : imcompa
  - This is pretty much it. : [7]kami
  - that'd have been my guess if he didn't have said "against Blizzard" : razorblade79
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  Bioware's Star Wars MMO looks to have what I'd consider the best chance: 1.) Broad appeal of a popular... : Sylvanus
  - I agree here. If anything has a shot right now, it's this. I just hope that Bioware can create a big en... : kallanta
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  Polish. : Durajim
  - Agreed. It will take a developer/publisher being smart enough to realized that releasing early and hoping... : Shin_Chan72
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  It'll take the marketing fuckwits closing their traps about the game except for tiny teases... that way t... : vertdang
  - I support this man in his bid for the presidency. : lotus2133
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  Here's what it takes to compete or beat them: don't start out looking to compete or beat them. Seriously.... : three-d
  - I'm going to agree with you on this, because it makes (common) sense, but... Does it even matter after... : Durajim
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  Some new ideas, every MMO that was supposed to be the "WOW Killer" still followed the basic fantasy MMO f... : kodt
  - you have to remember that WoW was the same exact thing, an EQ-clone, when it came out... it became so pop... : brainchild420
- not the title itself, the company. The company has to be madly famous before the MMO product. : ZaldronGG
- TLDR: A finished and well polished MMO could do it, but it would be extremely difficult to hit WoW sized : Kaerof
- It will take another good developer that can get away with a "When it's done" release date. Companies lik... : eclips3d
- What it takes is for Blizzard to fail at a game. They haven't yet (excluding internal projects they shut... : Defacil
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  6-10 years development time and at least half a billion $ would probably be enough. Oh and a good license... : razorblade79
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    more realisitically I'd say, someone like Nintendo could pull it off, by targeting their newfound market.... : razorblade79
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      Honestly I can't figure out why Nintendo has not made a full 3D real Pokemon RPG on Gamecube or Wii yet?.... : kodt
      
      A Pokemin MMO would be great as it would inherently be a PVP game but people won't fear it as one. : Sailor of Fortune
- A MMO With more user generated content maybe? Like quests, items, etc. But not getting anywhere near the ... : imcompa
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  It'll happen eventually. There was a time where it looked like nobody would ever topple Everquest. : Sideways Bob
  - Lineage was more popular than Everquest. : razlebol
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  Originality and polish. : razlebol
  - Just the polish actually. WoW isnt THAT original. Its just that it looks/plays/runs so well. : bolneze
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  1 Billion USD, and a shitton of skill and luck. : utgaardsloke
  - Exactly, it seems like a lot of folks don't understand that while yes you do need a lot of money and reso... : clickles
- it takes a world without me-too sheep. : araczynski
- I haven't played wow for years (and wow that seems weird to say) but I have to say, I felt something spec... : portwineboy
- An MMO engine that can run more than one game on it via plugins and a slightly cheaper rate. And of coars... : OhMyHip

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