Marvel (finally) announces MMORPG

[hail_eris]

Well, lawsuit-happy Marvel has officially gone public with plans for their own would-be CoH killer. From the official press release:

Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it won exclusive rights to develop and publish multiplayer online games starring Marvel Enterprises Inc.'s super heroes, including Spider-man, the X-men and the Hulk.

The deal covers massively multiplayer online (MMO) game titles developed for Microsoft's upcoming Xbox 360 gaming console and published by the software giant's game studio.

The deal is Marvel's first MMO pact. The first title is expected in 2008.

Seeing as this was announced almost exactly one month after DC's marriage to Sony, it would appear that the House of Ideas is playing catch-up once again..

[DarkCrisis]

"developed for X-Box 260"

That right there will insure it never gets the #s that computor MMOG's get.

[R0GUE]

Yeh (if it's good) I hope it will eventually expand to PC.

[Milo Garret]

The news got me excited, but 2008!? Ouch. I wish Marvel was licensed to Sony and DC to Xbox, but oh well at least we're getting them. Being a Mac user and unable to play CoH these games sound like something I can afford and get more use out of being on a consel. Three years, though, damn...

[hail_eris]

Well, if you're actually a Marvel fan, be glad that Renton got the job over Sony. SOE's in-house development is *legendarily* awful. They're great at publishing and marketing other developers' stuff (Everquest being the obvious example), but their homegrown products run the gamut from buggy to unplayable.

[Thawmus]

"developed for X-Box 260"

That right there will insure it never gets the #s that computor MMOG's get.

Meh, Xbox live's numbers falter because everyone plays Halo 2, and hold every other game up to it when considering multiplayer. Halo 2 just beats the #### out of everything else on the Xbox.

And the Xbox live service for the 360 is supposed to be mind blowing.

That being said, I don't think it being developed for the 360 is insurance that it won't attract as many players. We have to see how the 360 does, for one, and we have to see the game, for two.

Lots of games don't get played on Live because they absolutely suck.

[Manchine]

"developed for X-Box 260"

That right there will insure it never gets the #s that computor MMOG's get.

Well at least it won't be a big seller. It will have a single player version if its on the Xbox like this. Unless they plan on doing some major stuff that hasnt been seen in MMORPG's. It wont be a true MMORPG. We will just have to wait and see how they do it.


PS. Marvel has had the idea of going into the MMORPG (even announced it) before CoH went into beta.