Marvel MMO, no longer Sony - City of Heroes Forums

Joe Schmoe · 07-14-2005, 10:08 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050714/...soft_marvel_dc

Quote:

Microsoft and Marvel ink online game deal By Lisa Baertlein
Thu Jul 14, 8:42 AM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - 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.

"This is our one and only," Tim Rothwell, worldwide president of the Consumer Media Group at Marvel Enterprises, told Reuters, referring to the MMO pact.

The MMO deal is Microsoft's (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) first for a console, although the company has previously had MMO deals for the PC.

MMO games allow players in various locations to compete. Such game play is popular with PC gamers in Asia. Some analysts estimate that as many as 2 million people are MMO game players

Online capabilities will be central to new game consoles and Microsoft sees MMO games as a large opportunity.

The Xbox 360, Microsoft's next-generation game console, is due out this fall. The company launched Xbox Live, a fee-based online console gaming network, in November.

"Online gaming is reaching a point of acceptance. We will use as many of the Marvel characters as we can" in the MMO game, said Peter Moore, corporate vice president of worldwide marketing and publishing for Microsoft's Xbox.

New York-based Marvel Enterprises (NYSE:MVL - news) owns a library of more than 5,000 characters, also including the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. It reaps revenue from licensing its characters for clothes, movies, games, snack foods and toys. It also publishes comic books and sells toys of its own.

Marvel has video game deals with Activision Inc. (Nasdaq:ATVI - news), Electronic Arts Inc. (Nasdaq:ERTS - news), Vivendi Universal Games (EAUG.PA), THQ Inc. (Nasdaq:THQI - news) and Majesco Entertainment Co. (Nasdaq:COOL - news)

WingedAvenger · 07-14-2005, 10:41 PM

Sony got the DC Comics MMORPG. They were never connected with Marvel AFAIK.

Joe Schmoe · 07-14-2005, 11:14 PM

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr...ent_id=1574246

2002 they did go for Marvel, but it fell through. Then it went to.. Vivendi? I think, something like that. Now it looks like Microsoft has it.

Larke · 07-15-2005, 12:08 AM

ok CoH and Marvel and DC Comics, they can't all be sucessful, which TWO are gonna fail because of this? but we gotta wait 3 years anyway lol...

inkblaster · 07-15-2005, 12:12 AM

Considering that with the XBox console they will be able to tailor make a game with awesome effects/abilities, I'm thinking Marvel may have a good shot.

One problem with PC MMOs is to cater to a wide audience they have to account for different machine setups and support the 'average' pc at the time.

When you have a known hardware set that is kickass, it's all too easy to push the limits of what you can do in the game.

Web slinging says what?

sheld0n · 07-15-2005, 12:14 AM

but a gamepad? i mean, come on, thats gotta be tricky...

inkblaster · 07-15-2005, 12:18 AM

Dude, it's not an N64, you can rip MP3s with the thing, watch movies, it has 3 cores running at 3.2Ghz with 2 hardware threads per core for a total of 6 threads. 2 usb ports, and support for up to 4 wireless gamepads, built in ethernet for broadband. Yes johnny, it takes a keyboard and mouse too I'm sure, if it doesn't come stock with one.

Oh, and you can change the faceplate, talk about swank!

Morcalivan7 · 07-15-2005, 12:46 AM

Is it strictly Xbox? Don't have to buy one to play the game would we?

inkblaster · 07-15-2005, 01:03 AM

That looks like the deal from the article. MS is looking to get some MMO action in it's console. Think of it this way, maybe expansions have to be free?

Poison · 07-15-2005, 06:10 AM

No, MS would make it XBox/PC.

DC is going to fail for sure, after all it's Sony we're takling about. Purely time-wise, Marvel could make the run, since CoH will have been out for more than 4 years before their title ships, so kinda outdated. This doesn't mean though that Microsoft will produce a good MMOG.