Why isn't Marvel doing anything with it's properties?

endtherapture

New member
Nov 14, 2011
3,127
0
0
So there's basically the argument that Marvel are great with their film IPs, but DC do a worse job. This is the exact opposite in the videogame industry. Whilst DC do really good games like Arkham and that beat 'em up set in the alternative universe (forgotten the name of it), Marvel have done fuck all apart from Ultimate Alliance a few years back.

I was seeing The Winter Soldier last night and I just though, wow this would be awesome. The opening sequence showed awesome stealth action and gadgets as well as Captain America just kicking arse. Would be great for an Arkham style of game. There's also Iron Man who would be cool in a flying game or shoot em up.

So why aren't Marvel doing more? Is it because Disney hates games?
 

Maximum Bert

New member
Feb 3, 2013
2,149
0
0
No idea but I would like to see more characters from both sides get involved DC is basically Batman, Batman and Superman and Marvel has a few more they tend to rotate but still its almost always the same characters that crop up (Spiderman, Captain America, Iron Man etc) and they keep redoing the same stories.

Dont know whats happening with the games though I would like to see something as epic as Marvel vs Capcom 2 again that featured favourites as well as lesser known characters on each side but I dont think it will ever happen never again will Sonson, Rogue and Psylocke team up to kick ass and take names....unfortunately.

I was hyped as hell that Deadpool included Psylocke, Domino, Rogue and Wolverine because those 4 are quite possibly my favourite Marvel characters of all time minus Apocalypse but these were all sidelined to a huge extent Psylocke and Domino especially they may as well have not been there.
 

Dirty Hipsters

This is how we praise the sun!
Legacy
Feb 7, 2011
7,887
2,235
118
Country
'Merica
Gender
3 children in a trench coat
I don't know, Marvel seems to be doing a hell of a lot more with its properties than DC is. All DC has done is make the Arkham games and the Lego Batman games, which while really REALLY good both only use a single property, namely Batman.

In the meantime Marvel has had at least 3 Spiderman games, the Lego Marvel game, the Deadpool game, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Marvel vs. Capcom, X-Men Destiny, and a Captain America game which was kind of terrible.
 

shrekfan246

Not actually a Japanese pop star
May 26, 2011
6,374
0
0
Well, there's a fundamental misunderstanding at play here that Marvel and DC are involved in the video game world in any way to begin with.

In the case of DC properties, Warner Bros. has an actual established video game publisher as well, and has for many years. Marvel have only been owned by a company directly involved with video games since 2009, and even then that company is Disney, who have a long and storied history of not particularly caring about video games in the first place. For the past fifteen years or so Activision have held the rights to most of the Marvel video game properties that have been coming out, so really the question should be leveled at Activision.

And at that point, I think the answer is "Because Bobby Kotick hates you."

Though, fun fact, Lego Marvel Super Heroes was published by Warner Bros. Whodathunk?
 

Shoggoth2588

New member
Aug 31, 2009
10,250
0
0
The last Marvel game I can think of was a behind-the-back 1v1 fighter on Kinect and Wii U so that went about as well as one would expect. The Lego Marvel game seemed to have gone well too but I know next-to-nothing about the Lego games. As for more Marvel games, I don't understand either why EA doesn't have...ANYBODY working on something. I assume EA anyway...didn't Disney and EA sign some exclusivity deal or was that exclusively having to do with Star Wars? Marvel could release a ton of different games based on a ton of different characters and properties but the most we ever see are Spider-Man games. DC is similar; they COULD be releasing all kinds of games but right now they have a really good Batman series and...Infinite Crisis. I have my fingers crossed that Injustice 2 has a more robust single-player story mode for example. As for Marvel, I still haven't played Deadpool but would still like to see another Ultimate Alliance or X-Men Legends.
 

Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
Legacy
Feb 9, 2012
18,467
3,006
118
Dirty Hipsters said:
In the meantime Marvel has had at least 3 Spiderman games, the Lego Marvel game, the Deadpool game, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Marvel vs. Capcom, X-Men Destiny, and a Captain America game which was kind of terrible.
Aren't all of thsoe kind of terrible?
 

Zontar

Mad Max 2019
Feb 18, 2013
4,931
0
0
Johnny Novgorod said:
Dirty Hipsters said:
In the meantime Marvel has had at least 3 Spiderman games, the Lego Marvel game, the Deadpool game, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Marvel vs. Capcom, X-Men Destiny, and a Captain America game which was kind of terrible.
Aren't all of thsoe kind of terrible?
Spiderman-2, the Lego Marvel game, Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Marvel vs. Capcom are all good (though the fighters are only enjoyable for those into fighting games), though the Deadpool game is something that a lot of people liked just for the humour.
 

Dirty Hipsters

This is how we praise the sun!
Legacy
Feb 7, 2011
7,887
2,235
118
Country
'Merica
Gender
3 children in a trench coat
Johnny Novgorod said:
Dirty Hipsters said:
In the meantime Marvel has had at least 3 Spiderman games, the Lego Marvel game, the Deadpool game, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Marvel vs. Capcom, X-Men Destiny, and a Captain America game which was kind of terrible.
Aren't all of thsoe kind of terrible?
A couple of the Spiderman games are pretty solid, the lego marvel game is great. Haven't ever touched marvel ultimate alliance or x-men destiny so I can't really say anything about them. Also Marvel vs. Capcom is considered a great fighting game for people who don't look for "balance" or "skill" in their games, and the Deadpool game was considered pretty good if a little repetative with zero re-playability.

My post was really less about whether the games are "good" and more about the fact that marvel is actually actively doing something with their characters, which the OP seemed convinced they weren't.
 

JMac85

New member
Nov 1, 2007
89
0
0
Because the profit margins for video games aren't as high as movies and TV shows.
 

Xeorm

New member
Apr 13, 2010
361
0
0
Well, if I remember right, Marvel's characters are spread out quite a bit. So, Disney's Avengers and Spiderman are handled by different people, and it's good to keep that in perspective.

But mainly, I'd say that the Avenger titles I don't think would make very good games. Batman and Spiderman made for great games, due to the way their mechanics worked.

Y'know, Iron Man seems like a good idea, until you have to have flying controls, which are difficult to design properly without making the character seem stupid or on rails. Compare that to being able to swing around town in Spiderman.
 

Genrael

New member
Aug 18, 2009
6
0
0
A couple of games not mentioned: there are the Spiderman games being released en masse (with spiderman 2 being the best by far), X-men has had a few games of their own, a Hulk game released in 2003, one or two Iron man games for the 360 based on the movies (Though at least the first one actually depicted Tony taking his weapons back...), a Thor game based on the movie and a movie license game for The First Avenger.

Nearly all of these received really bad reviews and low Metacritic scores based on their bad graphics and clunky controls. Thus one can assume that DC just had an insane amount of luck with Rocksteady games. This and the fact that the releases of the Arkham games didn't have to correlate with the release of some movie making them a less rushed production.
 

Ieyke

New member
Jul 24, 2008
1,402
0
0
endtherapture said:
So there's basically the argument that Marvel are great with their film IPs, but DC do a worse job. This is the exact opposite in the videogame industry. Whilst DC do really good games like Arkham and that beat 'em up set in the alternative universe (forgotten the name of it), Marvel have done fuck all apart from Ultimate Alliance a few years back.

I was seeing The Winter Soldier last night and I just though, wow this would be awesome. The opening sequence showed awesome stealth action and gadgets as well as Captain America just kicking arse. Would be great for an Arkham style of game. There's also Iron Man who would be cool in a flying game or shoot em up.

So why aren't Marvel doing more? Is it because Disney hates games?
I think Marvel has withdrawn into a seeking mode - quietly waiting, testing, formulating, planning, trying to find the best way to approach it. Trying not to just make stupid cash-in games. Trying to find something solid and meaningful to do in the game space. Something to live up to their new, ever-rising, standards.
 

Antonio Torrente

New member
Feb 19, 2010
869
0
0
Why hasn't anyone mentioned that facebook game, Marvel: Avengers Alliance? As of this writing, there are now more than 72 playable heroes and the list is still growing.
 

frobalt

New member
Jan 2, 2012
347
0
0
Nobody seems to have mentioned the F2P MMO called Marvel Heroes.

I don't play it anymore, but that's only because I got bored of it. It is, however, a fun game.
 

gorfias

Unrealistic but happy
Legacy
May 13, 2009
7,083
1,849
118
Country
USA
Dirty Hipsters said:
I don't know, Marvel seems to be doing a hell of a lot more with its properties than DC is. All DC has done is make the Arkham games and the Lego Batman games, which while really REALLY good both only use a single property, namely Batman.

In the meantime Marvel has had at least 3 Spiderman games, the Lego Marvel game, the Deadpool game, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Marvel vs. Capcom, X-Men Destiny, and a Captain America game which was kind of terrible.
Good points. Few other DC games out there. There was a gamecube Superman game that wasn't too terrible. A few more SNES and Gamecube Batman games. Aquaman for Xbox was dull and repetitive. Green Lantern got awful reviews but I'm playing co-op with a buddy and it is fun.

I have to disagree about the Captain America game. I knock it down a peg because it is obviously a poor version of Arkham games. But if you're going to rip someone off... As it goes, whacking bad guys with that shield was pretty dang fun. I put it in the good column.

Bottom line: Marvel has done a pretty good job of bringing their stuff to video games. License games are tricky business. You can spend too much of your budget on the license and then you may have to rush to get the game out to an audience in close succession with a major movie release. Not easy. That's how we end up with relative duds like Ironman and Ironman 2 games.
 

Angelblaze

New member
Jun 17, 2010
855
0
0
Antonio Torrente said:
Why hasn't anyone mentioned that facebook game, Marvel: Avengers Alliance? As of this writing, there are now more than 72 playable heroes and the list is still growing.
Because anyone that has played that game knows its a shameless money grab. Better then Dungeon Keeper - still shameless.

All the best heroes/weapons/armors/ISO-8/Enhanced ISO/Augmented ISO need gold (in game premium currency) to buy or you have to spend an absurd amount of time leveling up the best of the best heroes, usually a tactician (probably war machine or grey suit black widow) and whoever the fuck else since everyone is using Human Torch in pvp. Getting one gold for every....4-25 runs through the missions you do. The chances of getting gold in the game on login or boss rewards is astronomically low - if there's an upside its that you get one every time you level up, at least.

And don't tell me you can ignore pvp - PVP is the only way to make any real currency in the game aside from blowing all your cash.

Keep in mind though, its not just 'gold and not-gold' currency.

There are command points, which you use to buy heroes, which you have to buy using gold OR farm command points like a *****. Good example of how tedious this sounds - the hero I want to buy the most right now, costs 200 command points.
If I finish a mission I'm lucky to get 2.

There are also shield points, which can be sent to you from friends and you use for research....

And then there's credits, which you will need very desperately if you actually do any damn researching and hero upgrading. Lvl 10 on a hero costs about 100k credits, which is a whole PvP season's silver reward worth. You can run missions on your helicarrier but - haha- that's the TIME WALL.

OH BUT WAIT- you wanna buy Loki, or Moonstone or some other not hard to buy hero that could also be good?

You can't.
You have to buy LOCKBOXES to collect 8 comic book covers and then, then, you can get DUPLICATES which don't count towards your comic cover count. If you buy ten at a time you get a guaranteed comic cover....with can also be a duplicate.

Better yet, they expire so you can't even buy the lockboxes for that hero anymore if you were hoping! :D

Give us money!


Love,
Playdom.
 

romxxii

New member
Feb 18, 2010
343
0
0
Watchu talkin' 'bout? Aside from Rocksteady's Batman games, WB has nothing DC-related recently. It's the same strategy DC uses in film: when one thing works, keep doing that one thing and onlythat one thing until people lose interest. Hence, their need to shove grimdark up Superman's ass. It's also why Arrow started so dark and moody. Thankfully, that property is kinda getting away from its faux-Nolan filters and relishing its comic-book nature a lot more.
 

Ieyke

New member
Jul 24, 2008
1,402
0
0
Marvel Heroes and Avengers Alliance are bad games.
They're not even really trying with those.

The Captain America game was actually good. But that was a while ago.
MvC3 is Capcom's baby. That's all up to Capcom.
Non-Marvel Studios movie games don't really count for anything, since they're related to stuff outside Marvel's control.

Marvel Lego is the only big thing Marvel has really done in a while, and that's kind of a tie-in to their new animated universe.

As for what Marvel itself is doing in a meaningful way...nothing...yet. They say they're actually looking to build a Marvel Videogame Universe in a similar way to the MCU. They're just still planning it.
 

Antonio Torrente

New member
Feb 19, 2010
869
0
0
Angelblaze said:
Antonio Torrente said:
Why hasn't anyone mentioned that facebook game, Marvel: Avengers Alliance? As of this writing, there are now more than 72 playable heroes and the list is still growing.
Because anyone that has played that game knows its a shameless money grab. Better then Dungeon Keeper - still shameless.

All the best heroes/weapons/armors/ISO-8/Enhanced ISO/Augmented ISO need gold (in game premium currency) to buy or you have to spend an absurd amount of time leveling up the best of the best heroes, usually a tactician (probably war machine or grey suit black widow) and whoever the fuck else since everyone is using Human Torch in pvp. Getting one gold for every....4-25 runs through the missions you do. The chances of getting gold in the game on login or boss rewards is astronomically low - if there's an upside its that you get one every time you level up, at least.

And don't tell me you can ignore pvp - PVP is the only way to make any real currency in the game aside from blowing all your cash.

Keep in mind though, its not just 'gold and not-gold' currency.

There are command points, which you use to buy heroes, which you have to buy using gold OR farm command points like a *****. Good example of how tedious this sounds - the hero I want to buy the most right now, costs 200 command points.
If I finish a mission I'm lucky to get 2.

There are also shield points, which can be sent to you from friends and you use for research....

And then there's credits, which you will need very desperately if you actually do any damn researching and hero upgrading. Lvl 10 on a hero costs about 100k credits, which is a whole PvP season's silver reward worth. You can run missions on your helicarrier but - haha- that's the TIME WALL.

OH BUT WAIT- you wanna buy Loki, or Moonstone or some other not hard to buy hero that could also be good?

You can't.
You have to buy LOCKBOXES to collect 8 comic book covers and then, then, you can get DUPLICATES which don't count towards your comic cover count. If you buy ten at a time you get a guaranteed comic cover....with can also be a duplicate.

Better yet, they expire so you can't even buy the lockboxes for that hero anymore if you were hoping! :D

Give us money!


Love,
Playdom.
I must be different then, since I managed to collect all the heroes without spending real money with just lots of farming and lots of patience, To address your concern on lockbox heroes there's the bonus bar which when filled makes the next cover a guaranteed new one.

I admit, the game has lots of bugs and pvp is somewhat unbalanced but at least they are willing to listen to their playerbase(sometimes) and maybe because I've been playing Avengers Alliance for this long that I already know its issues and I've learned to deal with it. ( God I sounded like Adam Orth)