Gazillion and Marvel have revealed some new details regarding the upcoming MMO, Marvel Universe Online. And they’re pretty doggone shocking. In short: this won’t be anything like DC Universe Online. At all.
A good thing?
First of all, MUO will be free to play. Yes, that’s what I said. Totally free. Which is pretty darn unprecedented for a game that’s rumored to be in development for both PC and Xbox 360. Typically, “free to play” equates to Flash/Facebook kind of stuff. And Marvel Universe Online is certainly a much bigger and more ambitious project than that. I’m sure they’ll find ways of monetizing the game — in-game ads, in-game items you can purchase, etc. But the core gameplay will be free, and that’s surprising as all get out.
The other big surprise? You’ll play as a real Marvel character. Wolverine, Spider-Man, Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor; you can play as any Marvel character you like. The logistics of this decision have yet to be explained, and seems problematic on the surface, since multiple players will want to play as big-name heroes like Spider-Man and Wolverine. DCUO skirted this issue by having you play as a new hero of your own making, alongside their established characters like Superman and Batman. For MUO, you won’t have any customization options, because you’ll simply pick a Marvel hero and start playing. (No word yet on if you’ll get to play as a villain.)
Marvel superstar writer Brian Michael Bendis is writing the game’s script, and basing it on current comics storylines, though Gazillion says that his ideas will merely propel the basic direction of the game. What happens and how these stories are resolved, is entirely up to players. Marvel fans will essentially create their own continuity based on well-known scenarios.
One last detail: Fantastic Four villain Doctor Doom will be the game’s main antagonist.
Marvel Universe Online currently has no release date.
antagonist*
Crap. Fixed. Thanks!
I think that might be cool if you can make a non-hero guy as yourself and you play the part of peter parker, or bruce banner and then turn into your favorite character, I always wanted to be clark kent as a kid, and then turn into superman when I wanted to, rather than turn into some custom hero.
I don’t like the non-customization. It will be like playing in a world of clones. Seems silly. Unless each server is limited to on character. Was excited for this game, but slowly losing it’s appeal
I’m gonna have to agree I was thinking about customizations, if they dont switch it up fast then there not gonna have many sell’s. I mean come on this is marvel, WHAT R YOU GUY’S DOING!
They might let you put customize the people. Like have spiderman with armor on or stuff like that
i think this is good in a way you can recreate something that was in a cartoon or comic and yes if this game is ganna have you pick out of the regular heros then they should limit how many can be certain heros or villains so theres ony 1 spiderman on at a time but i agree dont take out customizations all together just because your enemy dc did it first thats just stupid marvel if you want this game to be awsome then keep customizations have it where fans can make there own spiderman clone and not just play him but ya know like dc marvel aint gannna listen its like talking to a brick wall i think this game should have more levels then just the city where you can fight in the woods or the swamp or fight in a place like mane’s winter where its nothing but snow mountains or fight in the water as a fish man or something cause dc had only one place the city marvel please listen to your fans if this game is made like what is said in the top then its not gannna sell cause its worse then what dc did you should have customizations create new heros or villains have them join already made groups like x men or Fantastic Four or any villain groups have them travel to other levels like i said befor ya know the woods have things break when you get thrown into them like trees or buildings cause it would be differaint cause dc never did that you can pick things up and toss it but thats it all they did was have alot of power tossing but there are heros and villains there are like the hulk and have no tossing power the hulk breaks things like **says**hulk smash….then breaks ground with hands and tosses a huge chunk of it at you.now that would be a way to be different then dc and have it where you can get tossed up 50 or a 100 feet in the air by the hulk and have to find a way to survive the fall cause heros like spiderman cant take a 100 feet drop without useing his web hell in dc you could be flying a 100 feet up then drop and not die its like what the hell is this and my hero was like batman to lol
Wait.
No original characters? We’ll only be playing established Marvel creations?
This is starting to sound like an online version of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Or, at best, League of Legends.
I’m sorry, no thanks. I’d rather play Champions, City of Heroes, or even DC Universe instead.
I mean, I know some people want to play pre-existing characters. The number of copyright-infringing clones on the aforementioned games proves that. But most fans of MMORPGs, I think, prefer to play their own concepts. Take that away, and you take away an integral part of the MMORPG experience.
Just my 2 cents.
The only way I see this game working as you described it is if its a Marvel “Free For All” in the sense that there are multiple Earth’s. For Geeks like me, we know that we are Earth – 616. There are Earth’s in the 10,000+ range. So they could do two things.
1) Make Every Single Marvel Hero, and Villain available for play which would be impossible because there are over 1000 just in the A Category on the Marvel Wiki.
2) Make each version of say…Wolverine be from a Different Earth/Timeline. Maybe they could bring back the Beyonder, and he could create Earth – 1? Because In the Marvel Universe there is no Earth – 1. And he could summon ALL Hero’s/Villains from All “Earth’s” for another “Secret Wars” but that too would be impossible just in scope alone.
So I am very anxious how they are going to pull this one off.
I Personally am First in line for Wolverine! You heard it here, so back off! LOL
Garrett
Sounds like crap. I was excited at first. But id rather make my own hero/villain. I’ll stick with DC universe.
Gay
Just gotta ask. How in the world would an MMORPG end up like a Real Time Strategy game such as League of Legends? Wrong genre.
Not that I disagree with you, but I just had to throw that out there.
Free to play is for Flash games and Facebook? Where have you been? Turbine turned DDO into a highly successful MMO by going F2P, then followed suit with LOTRO. Champions online was F2P when you wrote this and since then City of Heroes has announced plans for F2P as well. Guild wars 1 – 2 are in the same general category although technically they’re B2P, this could go that route as well.
I will not play this game without being able to create my own hero. God, I wish City of Heroes would just do a face lift so that I can go back to playing it. I just can’t get past the ugly environments. :(
first of all Marvel’s not dumb they simply will not be inferior than dc obviously marvel’s planning something big and will include character creation or customization they are not stupid enough to just make a online version of marvel ultimate alliance
For all those who think that Marvel is too big to lend their name to a subpar property, let me draw your attention to every Marvel super hero movie up to the Spiderman and X-Men franchises. Even the bulk of the cartoons (not counting the X-Men and Spiderman cartoons from the 90′s) have more or less been crap. So, that being said, there is a very good chance that this game will in fact be a complete piece of crap. Remember, just because they are Marvel, doesn’t mean that they are immune to turning out a subpar product.
f2p ? flash/facebook kind of stuff ?? free to play business model is quickly dominating the online gaming market with the only left being either the stupid or the overly confident who think they can attract masses like wow did
many commercial and arguably more ambitious games such as EA’s NFS World and Sony’s Everquest 2 and DC Universe turned into f2p many major developers and publishers are now developing straight to f2p seeing the era of p2p is almost over, odds are even the new MMO developed by blizzard is either gonna be f2p or have some f2p mechanics or something to make the extra cash on, such as players selling in-game items to others officially supported by blizzard while keeping a big portion in form of royalties
also just because this game wears the popular IP tag it doesn’t mean it will be successful
was super excited to play this game but now im not so sure im a huge marvel fan and so is my husband even though we play dcuo alot the main thing that holds our attention with it is the open world and the customizations with our own personal characters now with this not having any customizations to the players and we have to play as a marvel character that everyone knows and loves but cant make it our own it will take alot of the personal experience out of the game itself and have it be a little more monotonous there really isnt a good point to have you be able to choice what decisions to make if you are thinking well what would eg. wolverine do in certain situations there is no personality to it at all.
i already played as marvel characters. i wanna create my own with some marvel influences to the character. but still have its own experiences and build up the powers and the look of the character. by not having this option its disappointing to me. all we gonna pretty much see is over 1,000 wolverines, spider mans, fantastic four members and so on. nothing really making the characters unique or the players own. they should change this and at least give the players a option to create their own or pick one of the marvel characters
I’d like to be able to make my own hero and not have to play as a pre-made hero, feels boring and like I’m being told what to do and that takes away from the game for me. I think that a good example of what I like is City of Heroes where I could make my own hero/villain, have some control of the story, design my own costume. the more freedom of choice in mmo games the better.