By Jim Rossignol on April 29th, 2011 at 7:42 am.
The chaps over at PC Gamer US went to along to see Marvel and Gazillion talk about the Marvel Universe MMO. It’s going to be free-to-play and will allow you to play actual Marvel characters. “Some of the characters you will play as are: Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Thor, Spiderman, Nova, and Squirrel Girl.” Brian Michael Bendis will be writing for the game, but also you’ll apparently “play through existing stories that are told in the comic books.” Which means – potentially, I am speculating without checking the facts here – you could end up playing missions based on scripts penned by our own Kieron Gillen. Interesting! The game is being developed by Secret Identity, a part of Gazillion set up specifically for the project.
More details here.
29/04/2011 at 07:53 Miker says:
Is it just me, or does Wolverine look a tad bit like our esteemed John Walker in that picture?
Also, Squirrel Girl? Browser-based? Mid-late 2012? Hmm…
29/04/2011 at 08:02 DeepSleeper says:
Gazillion.
The people who made Lego Universe so very bad.
I see why they want to hide the identity of the developers.
29/04/2011 at 08:09 Thirith says:
Thanks for posting that pic! I love those moments in Whedon’s X-Men run… And the ending, for different but entirely Whedony reasons.
29/04/2011 at 08:30 ran93r says:
I haven’t played a hero MMO that I liked, I don’t think this is going to fill that gap, especially with Gazillion at the helm but I can’t help but be moderately excited. Marvel have a great range of characters to populate a game with, it’s a shame something like this isn’t getting picked up by a larger dev and just having money thrown at it for a few years.
29/04/2011 at 14:35 Matt says:
It’s been in development since mid-2009, so it is pretty much “having money thrown at it for a few years.”
29/04/2011 at 08:35 Inigo says:
Game is broken.
29/04/2011 at 09:39 Dirksolomon says:
Squad broken!
29/04/2011 at 09:41 Urthman says:
Nerf Squirrel Girl now!
29/04/2011 at 09:53 Dominic White says:
Squirrel girl is only OP when off-panel, though. Consider it a unique class perk!
29/04/2011 at 10:06 DeepSleeper says:
You mean she’s only OP if you’re -not- playing as her?
29/04/2011 at 09:04 Temple to Tei says:
If Keeron Gillun reviews the game arc based on the comic arc that he wrote would that break the universe by being too meta?
29/04/2011 at 09:23 Choca says:
Ok, so I don’t need to have any expectations for this. Good to know, i guess.
29/04/2011 at 10:26 Stense says:
Hopefully there will be copious amounts of mission time spent with the the all powerful Squid-Boy as your sidekick.
29/04/2011 at 10:34 Spacewalk says:
Why does Wolverine need scissors?
29/04/2011 at 10:50 Kieron Gillen says:
Phew. I’m glad this is announced so I can strike one more secret thing I know about that I can’t talk about off the list.
KG
29/04/2011 at 10:51 Lewie Procter says:
So talk about it.
29/04/2011 at 10:54 Kieron Gillen says:
Oh, just that it exists. I know nothing else. No, really.
KG
29/04/2011 at 10:57 TheFatDM says:
The real question is how many secret things do you know, or is the amount of secret a secret…
29/04/2011 at 11:08 Kieron Gillen says:
That is also a secret.
KG
29/04/2011 at 14:36 Matt says:
So you know a lot of secrets… one might say your mind experienced a secret invasion.
29/04/2011 at 16:33 Wulf says:
Wouldn’t a secret invasion be someone stealing his secrets? Or… no, I’d rather not go further along with this line of inquiry.
29/04/2011 at 13:03 zergrush says:
John Cassaday is amazing.
29/04/2011 at 14:36 Foosnark says:
I can’t get past the “hundreds of Wolverines” thing sitting next to “this is canon.”
Every MMO ever has been full of kids trying to be Wolverine or Iron Man or Hulk or Drizzt or xx~Dritzzzt~xx. I guess this is their game.
29/04/2011 at 14:45 plugmonkey says:
That was immediately my first thought as well.
Every single server filled solely with 30,000 Wolverines…
29/04/2011 at 16:10 Matt says:
I’d rather be Moon Knight.
29/04/2011 at 16:30 Urthman says:
Hundreds of monkeyboys trying to be Wolverine? I’ll be the bloke with the star on his chest doing this to them:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z7CphiUPpmI/TV1qTCW-x7I/AAAAAAAAAYg/4YUDpKwdpGI/s1600/Nextwave%2B11%2BStuart%2BImmonen%2B2.jpg
29/04/2011 at 14:43 tossrStu says:
You know what Gillen-related game I’d like to play? “NEVER ON A SUNDAY”, a rhythm action game like DDR or Ouendan but with an no-boy-singers soundtrack. ooooooooOOOOOOH ATOMIC!
29/04/2011 at 16:42 Kieron Gillen says:
When you press play there would be a 50:50 chance on you being allowed in. Also, when you select songs, it will ignore what you want and play what it wants to.
KG
29/04/2011 at 16:30 Wulf says:
Well done, Jim. You got my first WTF? out of me today. And that includes college friends who’ve been trying to do it with various links of a psychologically scarring nature.
I’m impressed.
/slow_clap!
I also want to know where that image came from.
29/04/2011 at 16:41 Kieron Gillen says:
Joss Whedon/John Cassady’s run on Astonishing X-men. Four trades. Well worth picking up. It’s what I normally suggest as an entrance point to modern X-men.
And – er – the story I’m currently doing in Uncanny X-men is a direct sequel to it.
KG
29/04/2011 at 17:10 Wulf says:
So noted. I… admit, I kind of lost interest in the X-Men after Grant Morrison took it to such an amazing high, changed everything, and then it got retconned by a subpar author whom I’ve never had much fondness for in the very next issue after he left.
I believe Whedon’s run came a bit after that, but I just couldn’t get back into the X-Men then because I wasn’t sure what I’d get, or how disappointed I’d be. But I’m over that now, so I’ll likely pick this series up, and yours (hopefully both will be available as TPBs as I hate tracking down single issues), it has to be better than what Mr. Subpar Author was writing, whatever his name was again. Least memorable comic writer ever. Even his name was boring, that’s all I remembered about him.
29/04/2011 at 18:27 Stense says:
I didn’t realise you were on Uncanny X-men now. I did kind of loose interest in that series after Rise and fall of the something empire (can’t remember full title, but it was all peow peow space battles and stuff, but not as interesting in my opinion as that may suggest) and Messiah Complex.
29/04/2011 at 18:29 fearghaill says:
I have to admit, I was slightly giddy when I started reading S.W.O.R.D. and it seemed to be picking up right where Whedon’s Astonishing left off, and more than slightly giddy when I picked up Uncanny a couple weeks ago and realized you had found a way to continue S.W.O.R.D. in spirit.
30/04/2011 at 10:38 Kieron Gillen says:
Fearghaill: It’s funny how things turn out.
Stense: The Rise And Fall Of The Shiar Empire, from Mr Brubaker’s run. I took over solo on the 534.1 issue and have done two ones since. They were all out in April. The .1 was written as a clean entry point into where the X-men are in 2011, if the urge does strike you.
Wulf: Morrison’s run really was splendid.
KG