Tag: Marvel MMO

Marvel Heroes is Free: Completely Free


Ever since Marvel Heroes was announced as fully underway and with a realistic release date, Gazillion’s fans have been asking a very simple question: Will the business model follow Super Hero Squad Online? Gazillion’s child-oriented MMO starts the player out with a few characters unlocked, and requires gold (cash shop currency) to unlock further heroes as well as a membership subscription to unlock additional exclusive heroes. So will players be paying for heroes? Short answer: No. Long answer: Absolutely not. Gazillion President David Brevik wants everyone to know.

“We’re completely free. All the content is free and there are others things that you can buy to enhance your experience but they are completely optional. This isn’t a nickel and dime experience we’re creating.”

Marvel Heroes goes into closed beta soon. You can sign up at the website below.

(Source: Marvel Heroes)

Marvel Universe: Steep Uphill Climb


At one point working on MMO Fallout excavated a tiny part of my brain, and replaced it with a long list of industry names and their associations. So any time I hear the name Bill Roper, David Bravik, or Max Schaefer, the “Flagship Studios” red alert goes off and won’t stop buzzing until I finish writing the article. My article on Marvel Universe’s complete disregard for character creation caught a lot of attention (and was featured on MMORPG.com), and the topic as a whole stemming from the initial interview has been thrown back and forth by supporters and dissenters.

I raised the all important question at the end: What will make Marvel Universe stand out from its competition? The market is already somewhat saturated with three MMOs. Two of them hold subscriptions, one is free to play. All three allow me to heavily customize my hero, including free range of powers. Two allow me to play as a villain. One relies on a cash shop. One leans more toward action games while the other two lean closer to the traditional RPG. Now, the future of Champions Online rests in where Cryptic is sold off to, and DC Universe hangs on the will of its players to continue populating the servers, but City of Heroes has proven it isn’t going anywhere soon.

So I’ve been pondering what Marvel Universe will bring to the MMO table, and I’ve come to a few conclusions.

  • Story: If Gazillion can manage a ton of characters but give them their own stories, they could have a viable system. Bring players in with the flow of free characters, play through their stories, then offer premium characters with more story as cash shop purchases. If MU only carries one storyline for all characters, you’re going to see the population drop off fast once people complete with their favorite character.
  • Gameplay: I have a feeling Marvel Universe is going to be Marvel Ultimate Alliance Online, and honestly I’m okay with that. I loved the Ultimate Alliance games, sans the PSP versions, and an online lobby based game would likely make a fitting sequel. That being said, Marvel Universe won’t be an MMO. A game where you choose from pre-created characters and run through levels isn’t an MMO, it’s an online game. It can still be fun and support microtransactions, but it is not an MMO.
  • Pricing: Gazillion did good by announcing Marvel Universe as a free to play MMO, because tacking on a subscription would be throwing a brick wall right at the starting line. If Gazillion plays their cards right with the microtransactions, they can stand to make a lot of money from Marvel Universe. Make the free content engaging enough and people will want to buy the premium content. Heading into the system of “well the free stuff is kinda crap, but it is free, but the paid stuff is better,” won’t bring in enough people to cover those that are disenfranchised by the message.

I want to make it clear that I’m not saying Marvel Universe will be a bad game, but rather expressing my concerns in Gazillion advertising it as an MMO. It should not mark itself as an MMO because it will not function as an MMO, and should not be supported and developed for as it if were an MMO. Gazillion is clearly going after a different audience than those who play City of Heroes/Champs/DC Universe, and calling it something along the lines of Marvel Ultimate Alliance Online might have presented the game to its proper target audience. Gazillion has already talked about the game being ultra cheap to maintain (a system similar to Guild Wars).

Pull the MMO market and tell them they aren’t able to create their own characters, and they will reject the game as an MMO. Call it an online game with microtransactions, and you’ll have a wider audience. Those who want to play a superhero MMO are likely already playing a superhero MMO, but again Gazillion is not advertising to MMO players.

I’ll be doing more articles on Marvel Universe as more information appears.

Marvel Universe: No Customized Characters, Ever.


There is something to be said about MMOs. Specifically, MMOs have always been about creating a character (occasionally one that looks like you), and setting him loose in a world to run through their story. The more casual among us might use this character creator to push out an aesthetically pleasing avatar with generous amounts of cleavage, while the more hardcore role players may spend hours customizing every last detail down to the width, depth, and length of their character’s cheekbones, and bless them for it. Key factor is, I play my character to have his part in the overall story. In WoW, you are just another peon in the ongoing war between the Alliance and Horde. In games like Aion and Rift, your character has a bit more prominence than the simple grunts on the battlefield. In DC Universe, your character gains his powers via exobytes from Lex Luthor.

In Marvel Universe, however, players will be relegated to controlling iconic Marvel super heroes, including Spiderman, Wolverine, etc.

Players will play iconic Marvel characters, just as they do in SHSO. In fact, the game will feature more Marvel characters than any Marvel game to date. We won’t be merely “sidekicks.”

If this is Gazillion’s selling point, I’m not buying. I’ve played City of Heroes, Champions Online, and DC Universe, and all three of those have managed to allow me to create my own hero/villain and not feel like the sidekick. Hell, in Champions Online I had my own nemesis, and I even got to customize him with his own backstory, minions, powerset, and looks.

This raises a lot of questions that leave me intrigued, but not actually interested in trying out the game. Is there some form of character progression? If so, how will the story justify the heroes suddenly losing their powers and having to grind to get them back? Will there be any customization at all? How do you justify a couple thousand Spidermans running around?

Individuality is a big contender in the life and death of MMOs, and so is progression and hoarding things. What Gazillion is proposing sounds like taking DC Universe Online’s Iconic Play Mode, calling it an MMO in and of itself, and throwing it onto the internet. Actually, I should say it sounds like Super Hero Squad Online on Hard Mode.

So I guess my question to Gazillion Entertainment is this: As a free to play cash shop MMO, why should I choose your title over Champions Online? The IP? I hope that isn’t your only selling point. I’ll be waiting for this to come up as new information develops.

Marvel Universe Will Be Free To Play


No, I’m not talking about Super Hero Squad! Marvel Universe Online is in fact still in development, and in an interview with Massively.com, Jeff Lind talked about the game launching from the start as free to play:

That was the big surprise of the day! We are very excited about that. We think that [F2P] is an awesome way to make this game much more accessible. It’s a great way to get more people to play (which is good in and of itself), but also we think it’s a good business decision. We think this is a better way to make games in the business now. There is plenty of evidence out there — you guys see it all the time — and we feel like this is a great way to go for the game.

I have an article coming on Marvel Universe that should be published tonight. Find out why I believe this title is going to hit a hard brick wall at launch.