Marvel Heroes could be shut down early as Gazillion lets go of most of its staff
Shutdown coming tomorrow
Despite relaunches, countless updates, a massive roster of superheroes and villains, and its recent move to consoles, Marvel Heroes is being shut down. Disney and developers Gazillion had announced last week that they were dissolving their partnership, and that servers would go quiet on December 31. Today, only a couple of days before Thanksgiving, staff were "let go", and Marvel Heroes may now cease to exist tomorrow.
An ex-employee shared a termination letter from Gazillion’s CEO with MassivelyOP which claimed that creditors decided to make them shut down the studio early, forcing Gazillion to let go of almost all staff without severance or benefits. Since then, more ex-employees have taken to Twitter to confirm that they’ve been let go without paid time off, and that their medical insurance will run out in eight days.
While the initial shutdown date was December 31, the letter also explains that Marvel directed the developer to close the doors earlier. At the time of writing, December 31 is still the date given on the official site.
This is obviously horrible for many reasons, not least of which that it’s Marvel -- astronomically successful and wealthy Marvel -- who seem to have forced Gazillion to shed almost all of its staff right before a major US holiday and only a month before any even bigger one.
It looks like staff were working on new content even as Disney were planning to dissolve the partnership. Game designer Brian Waggoner shared some of the things the team was working on before they were let go.
We’ve reached out to Gazillion to clarify when, exactly, the plug will be pulled on Marvel Heroes.