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XBox (Games) Entertainment Games

Microsoft Enters MMOG Deal with Marvel Comics 77

Posted by Zonk from the more-toys! dept.
Chris Gondek writes "Microsoft announced it will enter an exclusive deal with Marvel for to develop a Marvel based MMOG for the Xbox 360." From the article: "Although the games will not be released until 2008, according to news agency Reuters, Marvel worldwide president of Consumer Media Tim Rothwell has indicated that it will be the only such MMO deal the company will make - ensuring that no Marvel MMO can appear on the PlayStation 3 or Revolution." So we're going to have a DC supers MMOG, a Marvel supers MMOG, and CoH. May you live in interesting times, indeed.
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Microsoft Enters MMOG Deal with Marvel Comics More

Microsoft Enters MMOG Deal with Marvel Comics

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  • ...exclusive to any particular system?
    • the article says:

      Interestingly, Sony Online has recently announced that it will be creating a DC Comics-based MMO, targeting a fourth-quarter 2007 release for the PC and unnamed next generation consoles, which would likely not include a Microsoft platform release. Thus, although far away, the stage seems to be set for a Marvel versus DC massively multiplayer game showdown on rival next-gen consoles.
      • I wish they would stop with the petty deals and just let them come out with the games for whatever console they want. I don't know why consumers are putting up with this.
        Oh, yeah, because KOTOR and Halo are too great to wait for... *rolls eyes*
    • SOE will also develop a DC Comics MMO for the PC and next generation consoles.
      found here:

      http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?st ory=5724 [gamasutra.com]

  • May be troll, but I have to say it anyway... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Wampus Aurelius ( 627669 ) on Thursday July 14, 2005 @05:02PM (#13067547)
    "With this next generation of gaming, Marvel fans will finally have the ability to create choices with their favorite Super Heroes, villains and creatures in unbelievable detail, all with the power of Marvel's incredible vision and the Xbox platform."

    As opposed to what they can do now in COH?

    • I can hear the Marvel guy with Big Teeth and a Plaid Suit now...

      Well Billy, with the marvel MMORPG, it's now legal to make marvel characters, unlike the evil underhanded villains at Cryptic that made a superhero infringement machine hell bent on destroying the comic industry!

      This is a great thing Billy, because when you play on the Marvel MMORPG, you wont get your Wolverine's name changed to GenericHero37! In fact, Your Wolverine looks a lot better than the last 93 Wolverines before you, but don't you da
    • Well, that's why Marvel sued NCSOFT [plaync.com].

      I can't say I'm distressed over the Judge's decision to dismiss the case. Sorry Marvel, it seems you'll just have to deal with some competition.
      • I wonder if Marvel's will somehow do a better job of protecting other comic book franchises from copyright violations than CoH did. I can't really see how unless they simply have a very inflexible creation system, which would be a mistake since the character creation system is half the charm of CoH.
        • from another message board I posted on

          I can see it now. A big crowd on the buggle roof.

          Spoder-Man says, "ISO guide to get pictures of Spider-Man"
          Wolferine says, "how do I get to 1667 Greymalken Lane?"
          The Pun isher says, "What key do I press to take screenshots?"
          Death says, "want to join my team? We have a cool hideout! PM for details."
          Jim says, "I can guide you to get pictures of spider-man"
          Fenix says, "Are any of you boys cute?"
          Halk says, "HALK SMASH!1"
          Batman says, "I've got to save gotham"
          PricePin says,

  • Console MMO games (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    To be honest, I don't really have much faith in a console based MMO game. Having played 'the best' of the genre I can say that the keyboard is essential to play these games; I can't even imagine how impossible it would be to find a group using voice communication while dozens of 12 year olds call eachother gay in general chat.
    • Granted, I wouldn't enjoy playing to, but to answer your question: the interface would have a branching menu system -- hit one button to "talk", brings up a menu of 10-12 categories with drill-down responses, and some of them auto-populate the sentence with information from the client. For example, if FFXI you'd hit [Talk] [Adventuring] [Looking for group] and it would spam general with "Looking for group" (and, as a bonus, display it in Japanese or English as appropriate) -- no reason a better implementat
      • You raise a very good point about communication potentially ruining the gamers suspension of disbelief. Voice chat is especially bad for this. I think a combination of the hotkey system + (keyboard) chat can work well, with the hotkey messages prominent and the chat messages off in a corner.
        • I've been on a text mud for the last decade. It certainly wasn't the graphics that held me in, it was the communication with real people.

          I have never played a modern graphical mmog, but I'm willing to bet that without a serious communication aspect to tie you down to your fellow players, people will abandon ship much sooner, because they won't have that attachment to the community.
          • But text MUD players are in general much more consious of the roleplaying element of the game. You quite a bit less likely to come across a group of dwarves disscusing their homework assignment.
    • Dozens?

      Hundreds, my friend.

      Hundreds. /at least judging by CounterStrike //Wait, this isn't Fark
    • This [dealtime.com] was my solution to the problem back when I was playing FFXI on the PS2. Now that I no longer play FFXI (I'm a CoH man, myself), the 'controller' gets little/no use and stands as a reminder to myself (along with the damnable PS2/HDD) that not everything Square does is a good thing...

  • Great! New Marvel heroes coming (Score:5, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Thursday July 14, 2005 @05:03PM (#13067553)
    The Uncanny X-box-men
    Captain Bluescreen
    The Clipperine
    However, I forget the superhero name of the fat guy in the skintight butterfly suit.

  • I sure hope that... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thesandtiger ( 819476 ) on Thursday July 14, 2005 @05:06PM (#13067586)
    ... Marvel and DC don't do what The Matrix Online and Star Wars: Galaxies did, and create sub-par games while hoping that the fans will be too excited to play in their universes to notice how lousy the game actually is.

    And, it'll be great to have more MMO's that are not elf-based fantasy stuff. I enjoy WoW, but sometimes a girl just wants to beat the crap out of things that aren't "Generic Fantasy Creature #180zillion."
  • Overheard outside Bill Gates' office at the release party in 2008:

    "'Scuse me for interruptin' your little shindig here, but I got a bone to pick with your boss-man and a couple of his pals."

    SNIKT!!!

  • Its Captain Obvious.

    A) It wont be better than CoH
    B) Its going to be more expensive than CoH
    C) Hey look! We paid for real Marvel (TM)(R) characters! Doesn't that make the game TONS better already?
  • I thought you people lived at a school.
  • We knew this was coming ever since Marvel sued over COH players (that is, the ones who are wankers) were seen copying Marvel characters. Marvel was obviously hoping they'd sue COH out of existence, leaving a bit gaping hole for them to eventually fill with their own probably inferior product.

    Remember the official Marvel Superheroes roleplaying paper-and-dice game? I think that says it all.
    • Well, the first Marvel PnP RPG can probably be laid at the feet of TSR rather than Marvel itself.
      • I had heard that Mayfair was lined up to do the Marvel game and Marvel pulled out at the last minute and went with TSR, and the far superior Mayfair game became the DC Heroes RPG.

        I never found confirmation of that; as far as I know, it was just a rumor.

        It never mattered to me very much, at any rate, since I was playing Champions back then.
    • The original RPG had a clunky system, but that's not Marvel's fault (mutant character gen rules were cool, though). The updated version was better, and the new diceless version is great.

      I completely agree on the lawsuit, and with MS at the helm of this MMO I don't have any hopes for the final product.

  • innovation is alive and well in Redmond, WA (Score:4, Informative)

    by dr_leviathan ( 653441 ) on Thursday July 14, 2005 @07:58PM (#13068894)
    It's great to see that MicroSoft is back on track with that "innovation" thing.

    How many hero-centric MMO's can the gaming market support? Certainly at least two good ones, especially if one were to capture some console-only marketshare.

    However, Sony could commision a port of COH to the PS3 console (I dunno if that is even possible... I haven't played COH). That would take a big chunk out of Marvel-COH's potential market, expecially since I would expect the PS3-COH implementation to be completed first.

    I think it's all good for the world of gaming.

  • So Marvel will be last to market, and coming on the heels of their spurious lawsuit against Cryptic over CoH? Well, it will take some superpowers to make that one work.

  • Irony doesn't just mean "sort of like iron" (Score:3, Funny)

    by RobTFirefly ( 844560 ) on Thursday July 14, 2005 @10:39PM (#13069782) Homepage Journal
    Assuming Marvel's character creation engine turns out worth a damn, will the COH folks be able to sue Marvel over the ability to creat Marvel-style copies of the copyrighted COH characters?
  • So, um, can anyone post a breakdown of which company has which characters? Because I know pretty much nothing about what hero belongs to what company.
    • The entire Justice League and Justice Friends are all DC
      Superman is DC
      All of the various batman stuff is DC
      Wonder Woman is DC
      Green Lantern is DC
      Flash is DC

      Spiderman is marvel
      X-Men are marvel
      Fantastic 4 are marvel
      Hulk is marvel
      Dare Devil is marvel
      Captain America is marvel (I Think)
      I think Iron Man is also marvel
    • The easy way to tell used to be that Marvel comics were generally "darker" and DC comics tended to be happier with the good guys always winning in the end. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but in general if the hero is angst ridden with a tragic life story, or hunted by the law/society/big planet eating aliens, it's probably a Marvel comic.

      Or at least that's the way it was back when I read comics regularly.
      • Actually the main difference between Marvel/DC is that DC goes for the Superman / Batman superhuman "god like" type characters who deal with problems in a way everyone would like to. While marvel goes for the "spiderman, xmen" type characters who are super powered but at the same time human with common life problems. They both have their advantages and disadvantages. Imo Marvel is more ripe for an rpg than DC due to this.
  • No really, if theres one thing missing in Xbox live, is rpgs, not just mmorpgs but rpgs in general. Halo 2 is cool, but the medium is ripe for that type of game, mechassault 2 tried and mostly failed. Fable didnt even tried. gauntlet is coming but it focuses on action more than rpging.

    Anyway if you consider the other mmorpg for x360 is ff online, that means they've covered the fantasy, anime and comic fans (missign the sci fi fans though) thats quite a big part of the gaming spectrum actually. and they man

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