The Rumored Cancelled Project Revealed:

[WhatsHisFace]

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3164355

Alan Wake, Banjo-Kazooie, Halo Wars and Too Human are all fine. However, 1UP has been told the Marvel, Microsoft and Cryptic Studios collaboration, Marvel Universe Online, has hit serious, potentially stalling, development troubles. Though the MMO hasn't been outright canceled publicly just yet -- albeit a move Microsoft hasn't had an issue with before, says True Fantasy Live Online from beyond the grave -- our word from the inside, combined with recent controversies surrounding the studio behind the game, raises serious suspicion.
Last week, NCSoft announced it had acquired the City of Heroes IP from Cryptic Studios. Additionally, the staff behind the franchise -- approximately 15% of Cryptic -- was moving to Mountain View, CA and opening a new studio to operate within the NCSoft umbrella. During and following the announcement, no comment was made about the status of Marvel Universe Online. Curious, then, when we heard the game's status was in danger and contacted Microsoft for an update on the game's progress. Given there's been nothing new about Marvel Universe Online (outside of bringing comics writer John Layman on board in July) since an October 2006 with IGN, it's not exactly a bizarre question.

"We have nothing new to share about Marvel Universe Online," said a Microsoft spokesperson. Pressed further about whether the changes within Cryptic had affected the game, Microsoft was no more forthcoming. "Cryptic's recent sale of the City of Heroes IP to NCSoft has no bearing on the development of "Marvel Universe Online," continued the spokesperson.

Of course, that doesn't really answer the question of whether the game's canceled. An inquiry specifically passed to Cryptic about the game's status has so far been ignored.

Reading between the lines of interviews conducted with Cryptic following the City of Heroes news are telling. Despite Marvel Universe Online being the only title Cryptic has publicly revealed to be in development, they've yet to make any mention of the project, instead focusing attention towards to-be-revealed future announcements. "The decision to sell the franchise allows us to focus resources on our soon to be announced first-party projects," said Cryptic President and co-founder Michael Lewis in the NCSoft sale's press release.

What about Marvel Universe Online, Mike? The studio's own FAQ about transitioning City of Heroes from Cryptic to NCSoft strangely ignores the game.

"What's next for Cryptic Studios? Cryptic is developing new titles and new IPs, as well as expanding its business interests. We have a talented team of game developers and technicians, and a large part of our motivatation [sic] for this move was to free up resources for our future projects. With these new projects we will challenge ourselves to make even better and more immersive MMO games. Stay tuned!"
And in an interview MMO blog Ten Ton Hammer, Lewis again ignored a question invoking Marvel Universe Online. You'd expect a studio head to at least tease about a project ambitious (and exciting) as Marvel Universe Online, yet Lewis seems content ignoring the game's very existence (or lack thereof).

 

[Jerry!]

Marvel Universe Online....IT GONE!! MERCY!

 

[GFreeman]

Meh, it would have been awful.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

I'm glad for three reasons:

1. This makes me right.
2. This means projects I care about are safe.
3. The Xbox 360 doesn't need MMOs.

 

[GFreeman]

MMOs would be cool, if everyone would just stop trying to clone World of Warcraft, and instead make a game that's addicting and fun.

 

[SouLeSS]

WoW is addicting and fun...

 

[GFreeman]

It's mind numbing.

 

[SouLeSS]

All MMO's are.

 

[GFreeman]

I know...

 

[GL1]

MMOs have to break MMO expectations... as long as they rely on ANY of the previous formula: "addiction" by advancement, advancement by time spent, time spent means the player "always" wins... if those are the rules, then MMOs will never be more than grind fests, and all the MMOs to date have stuck to this rule, even the ones that aren't RPGs... foolishness.

That said, this was an MMO that had real potential to break the mold, especially with the well schooled in superhero MMO's Cryptic at the wheel... but clearly the crew is burned out... I'd put money on too many demands from the Marvel and Publisher sides and little trust for the developer.

 

[SouLeSS]

WoW is one of the highest grossing MMO's because it's ridulously easy to get into, and it pretty much will never end. Even if you're in an endgame guild, even one that you're one of the most progressed (which I was a part of for a while), it's always more and more.

Most other MMO's didn't have this simplicity and yet depth that WoW ahd, which is why it was so goddamn good.

Of course MMO's are going to copy it, it's one of the most sucessful online games ofall time.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

MMOs desperately need a revolution. SP campaigns are much more engaging.

 

[SouLeSS]

Yeah right. I'venever been as bored playing agame than I was playing Hellgate: London or Halo 3. With online play it makes the game infinityly more fun.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

Sucks for Microsoft and Marvel, but i´m cool, i´m not into MMOs.
Of all potential cancellations, this one is the one that doesn´t bother me

 

[Fran]

its too human, still. [/GoldenAgeHero]

 

[Spider-Vader]

WoW is addicting and fun...

No it's gay.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Sucks for Microsoft and Marvel, but i´m cool, i´m not into MMOs.
Of all potential cancellations, this one is the one that doesn´t bother me

I feel the same way. Enough Marvel Superheroes are getting their own games that a project set in the Marvel Universe would just feel too thinly spread. Besides, with the incoming titles from all the other developers I don't feel like I'd want to spend the time keeping up with other MMO players.

 

[Dark_Lord]

Since we first broke that Microsoft, Marvel and Cryptic Studios' Marvel Universe Online was facing death, 1UP has received received a number of troubling game details that suggest why Marvel Universe Online has been, as one source put it, "in the ****ter for a LOOOONG time." The folks at Next-Gen corroborated our original story this morning, citing an additional source relaying the MMO's demise should be announced within weeks, unless something "drastic" occurs between now and then.

No one likes to see a game cancelled. Running off the success of Cryptic's City of Heroes (and Villains), Marvel Universe Online had loads of potential that may now never be fulfilled. Multiple sources have come forward to 1UP to confirm the basic details our original report -- the game is half a step from complete cancellation -- and one source very close to 1UP actually saw the game in action earlier this year.

Considering the project hasn't been publicly shown in any form since the teaser trailer at Microsoft's X06 event, the following constitutes some of the first-ever details revealed about the game. Our source viewed Marvel Universe Online while visiting Microsoft roughly six months ago and didn't come away with a positive first impression. "It reminded me a lot of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Running at 5 fps," they said. "[The game] kept crashing and apparently hammered the hell out of both the console's hard drive and Live infrastructure."

To Cryptic's credit, performance issues are one of the last areas of development and single-digit frames-per-second could be an exaggeration. Most frame rate issues are ironed out in the last few months of polishing, anyway. However, the troubles don't end there.

As of just a few months ago, the design team had yet to decide on the game's combat system. Part of the team wanted a deep "Virtua Fighter-esque" system, an idea that's yet to be tried in an online game, while another faction championed one-button instant combos. In the past, combat in MMOs has largely been handled behind-the-scenes through stats, dice rolls and player-assigned assigned skill trees.

In City of Heroes, users were able to craft their favorite comic superheroes through the dynamic create-a-character system. Expectedly, our source tell us, you wouldn't have that option in Marvel Universe Online, and "there was bickering back and forth about how much the "real" Marvel heroes would play a part (you can't be Spider-Man, but you can be member #478 of his best friends club and follow him around all day), and scaling it for that many players at once was causing the Live team headaches."

Perhaps the most troubling sign for the project, however, is our source relaying that the keyboard attachment, pitched earlier this year to gamers as a way of chatting faster via Xbox Live, was "pretty much exclusively designed" for Marvel Universe Online. Of course, Microsoft seemed to realize the MMO was some time off and decided to recoup their losses and released it conjunction with added MSN support on XBL.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3164400

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Wow, what a shame. Even though I didn't care for the project, I'm typically sympathetic to "development hell". Microsoft has a good record for allowing games to go through bad development cycles (Crimson Skies, Fable, Too Human) although sometimes they just need to get rid of a project (Psychonauts, B.C., Tork)

 

[GL1]

So...

1) The standard development challenges
2) Disagreement on combat depth bka let's just make a WoW clone
3) How to make the Marvel Characters more than just NPCs
4) Politicking about the keyboard

Interesting, and, lets face it, more than a bit predictable. Marvel Online had the chance to break the MMO curse by making combat deep and having playable marvel characters (yes, it can be done, in multiple ways without having clones running around each other or only one-per-server)... but some people didn't want to get away from the standard MMO cookie cutter design...

I hate shortsighted people, especially when they have input on creative works.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

should've been too human. MS can save themselves some humility.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

should've been too human. MS can save themselves some humility.

It'll be good when Too Human does really well and Nintendo has to live with letting that title slip through their fingers.

 

[Zenien]

So...

1) The standard development challenges
2) Disagreement on combat depth bka let's just make a WoW clone
3) How to make the Marvel Characters more than just NPCs
4) Politicking about the keyboard

Interesting, and, lets face it, more than a bit predictable. Marvel Online had the chance to break the MMO curse by making combat deep and having playable marvel characters (yes, it can be done, in multiple ways without having clones running around each other or only one-per-server)... but some people didn't want to get away from the standard MMO cookie cutter design...

I hate shortsighted people, especially when they have input on creative works.

The problem with making combat deep (well wow actually does have some pretty deep combat to moderate to higher levels) is that lag will often cripple that sort of thing.

The game could have been awesome though, if they made small server sizes and then had detailed game plots. Like how cool would it be if everyone went through a variation story event, and than had to choose between registering or not with the SHRA. A lot of it could be instanced, not quite PSO style but not quite a full blown "everyone else is everywhere" MMO.

I think the best way to do it relatively speaking, would be to start out by designating what type of hero your character is, street level Moderate power house. From there which type of character you chose would effect what types of powers you could have and what your various stat caps would be initially. You could also choose than what type of powers your character has, so you could be Super Human Magic user Mutant.
THere are a lot of problems to consider with that system right off the bat but it's not a bad idea. Instanced super villain situations would be a great idea as well. Imagine Being a tech Hero working for shield and having Ms Marvel tell you that Armada is attacking whatever shield base, and you could go there and fight said Super Villain by yourself or get a team up which would scale the difficulty.

Ugh, so disappointing.

 

[GFreeman]

WoW does not have deep combat, unless you just really love recreational math. It's "click the mouse and hit 1-9 as fast as you can" from lvl1 all the way to lvl90.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Is Zenien pretending she would have loved the Marvel MMO? I can't tell.