Marvel and Gazillion Games, working together on the massively-multiplayer "Marvel Universe," finally let out a few details about the game last night. While those details are still a bit slim, one item that did catch my eye was the group's announcement of the lead writer. Brian Michael Bendis, the brain behind "Secret Invasion," "House of M," and "Powers" to name a few, will head up writing duties on the title.
Bendis is a well-known, five time Eisner-winning comic writer and artist with a rather impressive resume. Personally, I've always been more drawn to Bendis' non-mainstream superhero work, like "Powers," or the gritty noir world of "Jinx." It's not that I don't appreciate what Bendis has done on other series' work (I fully enjoyed the "Secret Invasion" run, and it's a testament to Bendis' ability to work within the Marvel universe), I'm just getting to an age where I want more out of superhero tales.
As reported by GameSpot, Bendis joined a panel that included TQ Jefferson, Marvel's VP over Marvel game licenses; Dave Brevik, Gazillion's president; and Jeff Linde, who heads up Secret Identity, the internal studio developing the game for Gazillion.
Unlike other superhero MMO's, "Marvel Universe" is looking to allow you to play as your favorite character, as opposed to creating an all-new hero on your own. Those characters, according to Bendis, are drawn "back from the classic era all the way to the modern." In a slight contradiction to that statement, the panel also stated that the "playable" characters are limited only to iconic characters. It's an interesting move on the developer's part, and would appear to serve as a line in the sand between this title and, say, "DC Universe Online."
Whereas "DC" forces the player to act as a new character in an established universe, "Marvel" seeks to have you actually taking on an established role. I would like to think the "Marvel" system sounds better, but if the characters are truly limited – who wants to play a game filled with 10,000 Spidermen? It's still a bit confusing.
The panel also revealed that the game is free-to-play, but didn't shed any light on exactly how they plan to pay for this thing, with Brevik stating that the company has "a lot of great ideas on how to monetize the game." I foresee downloadable capes in our future.
There's no confirmed date for "Marvel Universe" just yet, but it looks like fans will have to wait a little while longer.
"[It's] at least another year out...at least," Brevik told GameSpot.