Marvel Joins The MMO Arena
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pixiestixy on Thursday, March 19, 2009 - 11 Comments Tags: Behind the Scenes, audience, blizzard, dc, gazillion, lego, market, marvel, mmo, mmorpg, wow
pixiestixy on Thursday, March 19, 2009 - 11 Comments Tags: Behind the Scenes, audience, blizzard, dc, gazillion, lego, market, marvel, mmo, mmorpg, wow 
Marvel announced this week plans to develop at least two new MMOs, joining a growing list of possible competitors to WoW. A few months ago, iTZkooPA posted on whether Blizzard should be worried about other MMORPGs that already have been released. It looked like, at that time, they weren’t too concerned. Maybe they had no reason to be. Since then, WotLK became the fastest-selling PC game of all time (beating out the Burning Crusade expansion, which previously held that title), and propelled WoW to a base of 11.5 million subscribers.But there’s a long list of upcoming MMOs that are still a ways from hitting the market. Do these pose a challenge for Blizzard’s dominant stance in the market? It seems to me that several of the upcoming MMO titles depend on an already-existing fan base. Let’s take a look at the Marvel announcement for an example:
“Gazillion's new licensing agreement with Marvel calls for the development and publishing of MMO games featuring Marvel's iconic universe super heroes. The first game in development is a casual MMO for younger audiences based on Marvel's Super Hero Squad property. Super Hero Squad features an exciting, super-stylized look for the greatest Super Heroes, including Iron Man, Hulk, Wolverine, Thor, Fantastic Four, Captain America and many others.”
Undoubtedly, Marvel has a built-in fan base already salivating over the possibilities. And some of those fans also may play WoW. So would a Super Hero Squad MMO pull WoW players away? Perhaps some, if they don’t want to pay two monthly fees for games. (Marvel hasn’t yet stated whether the new games will have a monthly fee. I’m guessing they will.) But WoW’s fan base also might not be excited about a game proposed for “younger audiences.” This is just the first of what Marvel has announced, though, and subsequent games such as the “major new Marvel Universe PC and Console MMO” may pursue the franchise’s not-so-young audiences, as well. With team members from Blizzard, Pixar and Apple, I’m sure they’re well aware that an MMO done well can reach a much wider audience.
A lot has changed since my first introduction to MMORPGs through Ragnarok Online many years ago. It looks like MMOs are becoming the popular thing to do. Or perhaps I should say the profitable thing to do (especially when superheroes are in the mix). Several other companies with pre-made audiences also have jumped onto the MMO bandwagon prior to Marvel’s announcement. Sony Online Entertainment is developing a DC Universe Online, Lucasarts and Bioware are working on Star Wars: The Old Republic, and let’s not forget about the LEGO Group’s upcoming MMOG, LEGO Universe (which has revealed its own interpretation of /chicken).
With as-of-yet limited details on what any of these games will entail, it’s difficult to say where their place will be in the market. Perhaps that will be determined not only by the new games’ strengths, but also by what Blizzard continues to bring to keep WoW audiences enthralled.
So what do you all think? Will these games’ pre-made audiences be enough to propel them into the mainstream? And do any of them sound intriguing enough to pull you or your buddies away from WoW?
Reader Comments (11)
What about Champions Online? Does Project Lore consider that a contender for the future?
Personally I think that Blizzard will create its own "WoW killers" with the upcoming Diablo installation and then Starcraft 2 (whenever that will be out).
Maybe my situation is not a widespread one, but I really only have time to play one game and still enjoy it. It would take A LOT for a game to pull me away from WoW. I've bonded to my toons (especially my main) and I can't imagine leaving them behind to play another game in the limited amount of time I have.
putting my two cents in: During the days of BC i got back into wow again after a bit of a break from original wow. I excitedly got the expansion and rushed to 70 with the idea of stopping at 70 to try an new experiment. (which didn't quite happen right at 70, i got sucked into getting my T4 set first at the time >.<) the reason behind me holding off was to explore some of the new mmorpgs that had started coming out. Warhammer online, Rohan, Perfect world, guild wars, just a looong list of them. So, with my new compy full of fresh unused harddrive space i began downloading game after game. And spent the next 2 months leveling up different characters etc. Lemme just say after 2 months of powerleveling new toons and trying new instances- i was overjoyed to jump back into BC and pick up where i left off. Blizz really knew what they were doing with wow and are the mmorpg champs and i assume the only one to dethrone these guys will be themselves. The competition just can't quite compete in terms of wow awesomeness in my humble opinion.
WoW won't die from them but may take a few hits. The MMO that got me into these games City of Heroes though probably will die from the Marvel and Champions games considering all the super hero genre.
Wow will never die unless blizz comes up with a new game. I think blizz will remain the top pc gaming industry for a long long time.
I agree with Sara. If Blizard's WoW gets de-throned, it'll be because of their other upcoming games.
It's kinda funny with the market of these relatively "new" ideas, like MMOs. They start out with no attention, with a very small fan base, then someone dose it right, creates a massive "cult" following and then every Tom, Dick, and Harry tries to stick their hands in the cookie jar.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just a kind of "funny" observance.
Its relative. Yes there are many MMO hopefuls on the horizon but how many of them will share the fate fo AoC and Warhammer? AoC has had to consolidate its servers and Warhammer has had to fire a significant number of developers. (Not healthy signs.)
Apparently, costs to develop, produce. host and market these games make them unprofitable unless they are a hit out of the gate. With bean-counters rushing to push them out the gate before they are fully developed and tested, its no wonder so many have failed so badly.
Now with investors paranoid about the profitabiltiy of these ventures they pull out or demand instant profit. Trouble is, these games are not instant hits. It takes time to develop and marketm even if you do have a big fan base to pull on.
I wish them luck and hope they do a good job. However all the MMO's I am seeing in the future are based on something that has a "built in" huge fan base. Where does this leave originality....
Holy crap! Another RO veteran! Quite interesting to see how the genre has developed, isn't it? :)
Not to worry, Blizzard has been making a "next-gen mmo" since about 07 i think it was. They pulled the head designer of wow off the team to work on the new project.
WoW players will always be WoW players, Blizzard set the standard for mmo's and the only way to even compete is to make a copy of it, no other MMO has the playerbase that this game does, and a super hero MMO aimed at kids wont either, how many kids do you realistically think have parents that would pay a monthly subscription for them?
Well, no matter what I will at least try The Old Republic. I have been a fan of BioWare far too long to not give it a try. Sounds like fun.