New MMO's - LEGO & Marvel Online

The genre of MMO's got a pretty sweet announcement this week: not 1, but 2 Marvel MMO's are in development.

Gazillion Entertainment (a new game company) announced that they had reached a deal to use the Marvel Universe and its characters in their upcoming projects. But rather than just make a single game, Gazillion is going to get its money worth.

They will be making a "casual" MMO called Marvel Super Hero Squad and a hardcore, more traditional version called Marvel Universe. The casual game is being developed by Amazing Society, and the hardcore version by Gargantuan, both wholly-owned studios of Gazillion. How an MMO is going to be casual is anyone's guess, but its cool to see them trying new things.

This sounds like excellent news for any Marvel fan, especially since DC Universe Online is coming out later this year for PC & PS3. But this isn't the first time we've been promised a Marvel MMO.

Cryptic Studios, known for its well-liked City of Heroes MMO, was originally making a Marvel MMO. But the deal to use Marvel content fell through, even though the game was already well underway. Cryptic had to change their plans, and instead is using the Champions role-playing game license (which is far less known). Champions Online is set to come out this summer, and looks like its going to be fantastic.

Champions Online has a very slick superhero look, and early reports say the gameplay is great, but this may not be enough now. With an actual Marvel MMO coming out, how many players would rather get the Marvel-knockoff MMO? Most comic fans and online players are already fans of either DC or Marvel, and with both lines coming out with a game the competition for Cryptic is going to get fierce. This new announcement may have just cut the legs out from under Cryptic, a sad fate for the original superhero MMO developer.

But with more games and options on the market, players will definitely be the ones to benefit. Gazillion also announced they are working on 2 other MMO's, 1 based on LEGOs and one based on an original IP.

Here's a list of some of the big MMO's currently in the works:

• Champions Online - Cryptic - Summer 2009
• Aion: Tower of Eternity - NCsoft - Fall 2009
  
• DC Universe Online - Sony Online Austin - 2009
• Dragon Ball Online - Namco - 2009
• Guild Wars 2 - ArenaNet/NCsoft - 2010
• Fallout Online - Bethesda* - 2011
• Star Wars: The Old Republic - BioWare - TBA
• Star Trek Online - Cryptic - TBA
• Marvel Universe - Gargantuan - TBA
  
• Marvel Super Hero Squad - Amazing Society - TBA

So finish beating Warhammer, Conan and WoW, because there's a lot coming!

~ Lady ~