Marvel Universe Online (2012): Details + Free 2 Play

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Ratchet & CAG

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Coming in 2012 (possibly around The Avengers film):

Links: 1 & 2

At a recent press event, publisher Gazillion Entertainment revealed the head writer of its upcoming Marvel comics-inspired massively multiplayer game Marvel Universe. That writer: none other than Brian Michael Bendis, whose credits include the House of M, Secret Invasion, and Ultimate Spider-Man.
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The game will take place in venues and timelines gleaned from the entire Marvel comic universe, in Bendis' words, "back from the classic era all the way to the modern".

And that unlike other superhero-themed massively multiplayer games that require players to create characters from scratch to act as sidekicks to existing superheroes, Marvel Universe will let players play as the actual iconic Marvel characters they know and love. The panel rattled off only a handful of Marvel's iconic comic heroes that will appear as playable characters, such as Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and, as Bendis added jokingly, the obscure hero known as Squirrel Girl.

The panel did at least address some of the game's story-related elements. Said Jefferson, "[Gazillion is] going to try to make the game recognizable to both casual fans and to hardcore fans. We're really looking for breadth here," explained the executive. The stated goal is to create a game that will be of interest to someone who might have just learned about Marvel comics from watching the Iron Man 2 motion picture, as well as to faithful, hardcore comic fans who pick up their issues and trades every week.

Without giving any specific examples, the group suggested that the game's overarching story will let players "play through the great moments of the Marvel universe" and that the game will "launch with more Marvel characters than in any other Marvel game to date". So players should expect to see a huge roster of iconic heroes and villains.

The game will feature all of Marvel’s universes, from Earth-616, Ultimate, Supreme Power, including Film and Novel worlds all mentioned specifically. “We’ll take from anywhere,” said Jefferson.

“One of the real charms of a game like this is that the player will get to create their own continuity,” said Bendis. “This the ultimate answer to message board bitching. ‘All right, go do it yourself!’”
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FAQ:

Q: Will there be any subscription fees?

A: No, there will be no $15 monthly subscription fees i.e. DC Universe Online. This game will be FREE to play.

Q: What storylines would be available for the users to play?

A: Players will be able to walk through the big events of the Marvel Universe, from the classic 60’s comic book storylines, and through every era of the Marvel history. If there is support for the game, there will be much more events added including storylines that may compass the current big event releases of that time (can you say "Fear Itself").

Q: How many characters will be in the game?

A: Definite number not yet announced, but it will be the BIGGEST roster of any Marvel superhero game; from the top level heroes like Spider-Man to the not-so-renowned like Squirrel Girl (sidenote: there are over 5,000 characters from Marvel Comics; how many will be in the game is still to be announced). The game will also feature all the Marvel Universes from Earth-616, Ultimate, Supreme Power, including Film and Novel Worlds. Possibly a good chance for a Stan Lee cameo as well.

Q: What happens if a lot of users decide to play as a certain character i.e. Wolverine, will there be 1,000 Wolverines running around Day One?

A: If you choose to be, let's say Earth-616 Wolverine in the game, you will be the ONLY Earth-616 Wolverine in YOUR own continuity created universe. In other words, if you decide Earth-616 Wolverine as your main character, the game will automatically place you in a server where there is no other Earth-616 Wolverine, hence you are the ONLY one in that particular server. So yes, there may be 1,000 Wolverines currently running around the game, but only 1 in each universe / server. However a universe could share an Earth-616 Wolverine with an Ultimate Wolverine, etc.

Q: Will there be guilds, where we can team-up with friends?

A: Yes, friends can team-up online and form teams / guilds just like any other MMO, regardless of how you're playing.

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More information to come once available.
 
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At first I was just kind of excited, then they made the distinction of Earths. HOLY SHIT. I will fucking get this day 1 if it really lets me get alternate Earth characters. Motherfucking King Hyperion and Scarlet Spider all day.

They need console support, though.
 
So, are they going to have thousands of servers where the only character on it is an Earth-616 Wolverine? I can't imagine them actually saying "You can't be Wolverine, but this other guy who got here first can". That's a recipe for failure.
 
damn... 1000 wolverines = 1000 'universes'

Seemes like there are going to be alot of instances and alone people...
 
I'll try it out for sure. The only MMOs I play are free ones. (D&D, LOTRO, Champions, and Super Hero Squad) so one more won't hurt.
 
Man, Squirrel girl is going to be sooo overpowered.
I mean, who else has Doom afraid of them, had their way with Modok, slapped around Galactus, and has Deadpool as the number one member of their fanclub?
 
[quote name='JSweeney']Man, Squirrel girl is going to be sooo overpowered.
I mean, who else has Doom afraid of them, had their way with Modok, slapped around Galactus, and has Deadpool as the number one member of their fanclub?[/QUOTE]

Don't forget she defeated Thanos and has an untold, secret relationship with Wolverine. Yeah, it's all cannon.

Back on track I'm excited about this. Only other MMO I ever got into was Phantasy Star Universe, but this might be the second. Due to the 1 character 1 universe rule I'll probably stay away from fan favorites like Thor & Spidey and play as less popular heroes like Herc, Nova, Machine Man, and Starlord.

Marvel Zombie universe could be cool too.
 
[quote name='HydroX']Interesting. I thought they had something like this already lined up, then cancelled it?[/QUOTE]

They did, though it was a while ago. It was in development by Cryptic Studios, the guys behind City of Heroes and more recently, Champions Online. (Champions has also gone free-to-play a few months ago.) So now there's four superhero MMOs when you include DC Universe Online and this. That's a lot.

I always wanted to actually play as the characters everyone knows, but now this just means there's going to be a Wolverine on every team.
 
[quote name='whitereflection']They did, though it was a while ago. It was in development by Cryptic Studios, the guys behind City of Heroes and more recently, Champions Online. (Champions has also gone free-to-play a few months ago.) So now there's four superhero MMOs when you include DC Universe Online and this. That's a lot.

I always wanted to actually play as the characters everyone knows, but now this just means there's going to be a Wolverine on every team.[/QUOTE]

That's what I thought. But yeah, kind of lame that there will be Wolverines EVERYWHERE. It's pretty hard to divvy up how they would do it though, unless you could create your own character -- and at that point, you might as well play City of Heroes.
 
Funnily enough I just found out about this today, and I was like "Ugh, trying to cash in on DCU, subscriptions fees, no thank you." and they're going to make it F2P, fucking incredible. Let's hope it's a 360/PC exclusive to rival DCU (since Sony is sucking DC's cock all the time now).

Edit: I love how this is my first post outside of the Deals forum.. Christ.
 
[quote name='HydroX']That's what I thought. But yeah, kind of lame that there will be Wolverines EVERYWHERE.[/QUOTE]

I understood the 1 character per server condition as there will not be Wolverines everywhere. I guess it sucks if you want to be one of the more popular characters.
 
What about alternative timeline Wolverine's? Say one handed Age of Apocalypse Wolverine? If not that, then I guess there's also ability to play as Wolverine's son and daughter. Eitherway I still expect a ton of Wolverine type characters in one universe/server as is.
 
This is very ambiguous with the free to play, with the number of servers they will need I don't see how that would work. Evebtually there would have to be a cap on certain characters, would not be fair to force someone to use a certain character. How would you play with friends, if you are forced to live on a certain server?
 
[quote name='bardockkun']What about alternative timeline Wolverine's? Say one handed Age of Apocalypse Wolverine? If not that, then I guess there's also ability to play as Wolverine's son and daughter. Eitherway I still expect a ton of Wolverine type characters in one universe/server as is.[/QUOTE]
Age of Apocalypse might be a possibility since Marvel mentioned it will share multiverses not limited to Earth-616, Ultimate, Supreme Powers, and even the "Film and Novel" versions of the characters. I'm guessing the 2099 universe would be one of those mutliverse announced later.

And players who pick the same characters (let's say Spider-Mans), as long as they're different versions of that character, can play together on the same universe/server.

So a team or guild of let's say Spider-Man (616), Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man Supreme, Spider-Man 2099, and Spider-Man Noir, could be formed in the game.
 
[quote name='Ratchet & CAG']Age of Apocalypse might be a possibility since Marvel mentioned it will share multiverses not limited to Earth-616, Ultimate, Supreme Powers, and even the "Film and Novel" versions of the characters. I'm guessing the 2099 universe would be one of those mutliverse announced later.

And players who pick the same characters (let's say Spider-Mans), as long as they're different versions of that character, can play together on the same universe/server.

So a team or guild of let's say Spider-Man (616), Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man Supreme, Spider-Man 2099, and Spider-Man Noir, could be formed in the game.[/QUOTE]
I'm kinda getting a weird nerd continuity headache already just thinking how open this can be. With Spider-man especially and all the damn clones already in both Ultimate and 616 is ridiculous.
 
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