Marvel’s latest forays into the world of free-to-play games have been fairly strong.Marvel Snapwas far from the firstMarvelmobile game, but it was likely the company’s most immediately successful, with it amassing over 12 million downloads within its first month of release back in late 2022. Though it’s likely lost a good portion of that initial player-base,Marvel Snapstill seems to be doing well enough to release content at a consistent rate.
The recently releasedMarvel Rivalshas also taken the world by storm. Since its release last December,Marvel Rivalshas garnered over 20 million players, and given its ambitious post-launch roadmap, it seems likely to keep a good percentage of that initial player-base for a while longer. GivenMarvel SnapandMarvel Rivals' continued success, it would be no surprise if Marvel was looking to explore other types of free-to-play projects, and there’s a genre Marvel needs to give one more shot.
It’s Time for a New Marvel MMO
DC Universe Online Is Still Going, But It’s Showing Its Age
Originally released for the PS3 and PC all the way back in January 2011,DC Universe Onlinehas been around for over 14 years now. It’s incredibly rare for a free-to-play game to last as long asDC Universe Onlinehas, and its longevity is a testament to the dedicated team that’s continued to produce quality content consistently for the MMO for over a decade.
DC Universe Onlineis now on its 48th episode, “Harley Quinn vs Apokolips,” and while the game still has a loyal fan-base, it’s starting to show its age in a few glaring places. As should be expected of a 14-year-old game,DC Universe Onlinefeatures some dated visuals and animations, and its gameplay can be rather clunky, falling into the same trap of older generation MMOs. Its combat often sees players spam the same attacks repeatedly until the enemy’s health bar reaches zero, with very little feedback from the enemy character model.
ThoughDC Universe Onlineshould still have a place in the gaming world, it would be easy for a shiny new competitor to come along and take the lion’s share. Marvel could be that competitor, but it wouldn’t be able to get by on half-measures. Anew Marvel MMOwould need to take a page out ofMarvel Rivals' playbook and go all-in, delivering a unique art style, fluid animations, modern MMO combat systems, and a ton of content off the bat with more to follow very soon after launch.
DC Universe Online’s Daybreak Games was working on a Marvel MMO that was canceled in May 2022.
Marvel Still Needs to Fill The Void Left By Marvel Heroes
But this wouldn’t be the first time Marvel has experimented with abig-budget MMO. Back in 2013,Marvel Heroesreleased into early access. An action-RPG MMO,Marvel Heroeslaunched with a respectable 21 playable characters at launch, all of whom had three unique skill trees to work through.Marvel Heroesalso featured a story written by Brian Michael Bendis, a renowned comic writer and artist who helped to create characters like Miles Morales, Jessica Jones, and Ironheart.
WhileMarvel Heroeswasn’t met with great reviews during its early access period, it gained a much better reception with the release of its 2015 iteration. That reception only continued to grow more positive as time went on, and more content was added, and more systems were refined. But it all ended on an abrupt and sour note.
In 2016,CEO ofMarvel Heroes' developer Gazillion Entertainment, David Brevik, left the studio. Dave Dohrmann took over as CEO and within a year fans noticed that updates weren’t arriving on time. Behind the scenes, Dohrmann was facing allegations of workplace sexual misconduct and harassment.
In November 2017, Disney announced it was ending its partnership with Gazillion, and within just a few days the entire studio was suddenly shut down, and all employees were abruptly let go.
Marvel Heroes
Marvel Heroes was a free-to-play MMORPG developed by Gazillion Entertainment and Secret Identity Studios. Players could play as multiple Marvel characters each with their own attacks, abilities, and specials. The game featured an action-focused combat system, a leveling system, skill points, and much more.
