Cryptic gets Marvel Universe Online

[Stormwaltz]

From an X06 press release:

Microsoft Game Studios will release its highly-anticipated new MMO game, Marvel Universe Online for both Xbox 360 and the Windows Vista™ operating system. MUO was developed by industry luminaries Cryptic Studios, creators of the smash hits City of Heroes and City of Villains.

[Nevermore]

Link to 1up.com story.

Edit:

Link to Cryptic's press release.  Page down for a letter and FAQ.

[shiznitz]

We will probably have to grind levels to make The Hulk green.

[Sky]

If only they'd allow marvel knockoffs in CoH again. Captain A-Hole rides again! Well, maybe not...but Man of Iron was a great energy blaster.

[Simond]

Well, that's pretty much the death knell for CoH/V.
Also: LOLZ @ Sigil.

[Evil Elvis]

Well, that's pretty much the death knell for CoH/V.
Also: LOLZ @ Sigil.

If I was them, I'd be looking for a way to integrate the two games in some way; come up with a way to transfer your CoH character to the Marvel game.

[Signe]

cool.

Also, shouldn't Storm just stop talking and make sure we get a Bioware MMO SOON!  His company is the only reason I'm buying a 360 in April.  HURRY UP!  I'm getting really old waiting.

k?   

[Venkman]

I wonder if this was part of the settlement they reached with Marvel. I know it was "thrown out" by the Judge, but that lacks a shocking amount of business details.

Anyway, kudos to Cryptic. Kicking it mainstream. Which is good. CoX probably still makes them money, but it's not a runaway hit.

[schild]

F13.net does not comment on rumors or speculation.

[Venkman]

Stormwaltz linked to a specific Marvel MMO for PC and Xbox 360. You sound like you're talking about a separate effort from Cryptic for a console game. Could that be part of the "many efforts" mentioned in Positron's note to the community that nevermore just posted?

To me it's fairly cut and dry from the press release: Marvel MMO, developed by Cryptic, published and distributed by Microsoft. Other-console-effort-based-on-who-they're-hiring = separate project.

[Big Gulp]

Ehh....

There was a time when I would have said that Cryptic was the only developer qualified to make a superhero MMO, but now I'm not so sure.  They did well with the travel powers and the basic fighting, but it's all the niggling details that annoy me: the grind, the glacially slow introduction of powersets, the endless nerfs that leeched all sense of fun from the game, the lack of endgame content or anything at all to do besides combat, and the pathetic grafting on of the "villain" experience in a bizarro seperate-but-equal manner that eliminates any real conflict from the world.

Sorry, but I'd rather see someone like Mythic or God help me, Sony, take a stab at a superhero game.  I lost my faith in Cryptic a long time ago.

[Morfiend]

There was a time when I would have said that Cryptic was the only developer qualified to make a superhero MMO, but now I'm not so sure.  They did well with the travel powers and the basic fighting, but it's all the niggling details that annoy me: the grind, the glacially slow introduction of powersets, the endless nerfs that leeched all sense of fun from the game, the lack of endgame content or anything at all to do besides combat, and the pathetic grafting on of the "villain" experience in a bizarro seperate-but-equal manner that eliminates any real conflict from the world.

Sorry, but I'd rather see someone like Mythic or God help me, Sony, take a stab at a superhero game.  I lost my faith in Cryptic a long time ago.

I agree. I thought CoH was awesome at release, but the advancement was SOOOOO slow, levels and powers, and they just never addressed many of the issues the game had.

[tazelbain]

CoX is prime example of what not having an end game will do to your game.

[schild]

Stormwaltz linked to a specific Marvel MMO for PC and Xbox 360. You sound like you're talking about a separate effort from Cryptic for a console game. Could that be part of the "many efforts" mentioned in Positron's note to the community that nevermore just posted?

To me it's fairly cut and dry from the press release: Marvel MMO, developed by Cryptic, published and distributed by Microsoft. Other-console-effort-based-on-who-they're-hiring = separate project.

Actually, this is exactly the game I was talking about. If I'd been able to say what I wanted to say it would have gone been a 2 sentence newspost. :P

[geldonyetich]

Well, that's pretty much the death knell for CoH/V.
Also: LOLZ @ Sigil.

Positron has attempted to head these thoughts off at the pass.  Basically, he says the current City of Heroes team is staying put, an entirely different development team will be working on the project with Marvel, and that Cryptic still has big plans for City of Heroes/villains, including Issues 8 (hitting the test server soon) 9, 10, and 11

Now, if only they'd adjust the grind to not require herculan doses of patience to reach 50.

[damijin]

NCsoft's official statement on the matter of Cryptic Studios making games for other people is that NCsoft has no official statement on the matter of Cryptic Studios making games for other people.

NCsoft®'s Statement Regarding Cryptic Studios™
 

NCsoft® has no response regarding the business dealings of an independent company such as Cryptic Studios™, however, NCsoft does expect to continue working closely with Cryptic on developing and maintaining the City of Heroes® and City of Villains® games into the future.

NCsoft is committed to delivering to its customers the best games possible and this news from Cryptic Studios should in no way affect the high-quality product that the fans of City of Heroes and City of Villains have come to expect. The “City of” franchise recently released its seventh major content update in the summer and the next free expansion is scheduled to be released later this year. Additional details of future plans for City of Heroes and City of Villains have been spelled out by Cryptic’s lead designer, Matt Miller, in an address to the game’s community.

“The ‘City of’ franchise is an exceptional product for NCsoft and we do not expect that to change anytime soon,” said Robert Garriott, CEO of NCsoft North America. “City of Heroes and City of Villains have cornered the market on comic-book themed massively multiplayer online games and any competition for this space is several years away, so these games still have a lot of open field running to do.”

On a less Korean overlords in the American market note: didn't f13 recently have a large about thread about BioWare's MMO, in which it was decided that an MMO in a universe which takes place around "main characters" ends up feeling like crap because you don't get to be wolverine, you get to do quests FOR wolverine?

I wonder if the Marvel universe is better or worse since it has hundreds of "main characters"? Would it be cool to be doing some quest and have the Fantastic 4 show up to aid you in a battle against generic villain 23, or would it feel like crap due to some shitty instanced implementation in which every single alt you roll up fights the same battle and receives the Fantastic 4's help?

On the one hand, it sounds like shit to me. On the other hand... Galactus would be a hell of a raid.

[Velorath]

On a less Korean overlords in the American market note: didn't f13 recently have a large about thread about BioWare's MMO, in which it was decided that an MMO in a universe which takes place around "main characters" ends up feeling like crap because you don't get to be wolverine, you get to do quests FOR wolverine?

I wonder if the Marvel universe is better or worse since it has hundreds of "main characters"? Would it be cool to be doing some quest and have the Fantastic 4 show up to aid you in a battle against generic villain 23, or would it feel like crap due to some shitty instanced implementation in which every single alt you roll up fights the same battle and receives the Fantastic 4's help?

On the one hand, it sounds like shit to me. On the other hand... Galactus would be a hell of a raid.

Heroes in LOTR or SW end up changing the world (or even the galaxy), in ways that players in an MMO never can.  Heroes in the Marvel Universe tend to maintain the status quo.  Their overall goal is to ensure there isn't any change.  They fight the same enemies over and over, the dead come back to life regularly, and any destruction that is caused in any given story seems to be repaired overnight.  It's almost too well fitted to being an MMO.

[Margalis]

Just take COH, add some Marvel characters as NPCs, add enough costume tweaks for people to dress up as "Spider-Man's Clone" and "The lost Summers brother". Game complete.

[stray]

I can't get too excited about this either. I'll reserve full blown hate though until I get an idea on what experience the console oriented people they've picked up have.

Secondly, they're going to have to implement something far more flexible and inventive than class roles and generic looking powersets (in order for player characters to stand out from the thousands of other characters who already exist in the Marvel Universe).

[edit]

Also.....

No grind. Assholes.

[damijin]

On a less Korean overlords in the American market note: didn't f13 recently have a large about thread about BioWare's MMO, in which it was decided that an MMO in a universe which takes place around "main characters" ends up feeling like crap because you don't get to be wolverine, you get to do quests FOR wolverine?

I wonder if the Marvel universe is better or worse since it has hundreds of "main characters"? Would it be cool to be doing some quest and have the Fantastic 4 show up to aid you in a battle against generic villain 23, or would it feel like crap due to some shitty instanced implementation in which every single alt you roll up fights the same battle and receives the Fantastic 4's help?

On the one hand, it sounds like shit to me. On the other hand... Galactus would be a hell of a raid.

Heroes in LOTR or SW end up changing the world (or even the galaxy), in ways that players in an MMO never can.  Heroes in the Marvel Universe tend to maintain the status quo.  Their overall goal is to ensure there isn't any change.  They fight the same enemies over and over, the dead come back to life regularly, and any destruction that is caused in any given story seems to be repaired overnight.  It's almost too well fitted to being an MMO.

You bring up a mighty fine point sir! However, it will largely be based on the implementation of that world. Part of the thing that makes the Marvel universe interesting is the always changing allegiances, political affiliations, deaths of characters, long story arcs, etc. This world will need to be actively changing, and preferably, with players involved in that change. Here's where we run into trouble. If the world changes it would not take long to deviate from some of the comic book plot lines, and if the internet has taught me anything about X3, it's that Marvel nerds hate to deviate from comic book plot lines.

[Velorath]

If the world changes it would not take long to deviate from some of the comic book plot lines, and if the internet has taught me anything about X3, it's that Marvel nerds hate to deviate from comic book plot lines.

Some do.  On the other hand games like X-men Legends, comics like Marvel's  Ultimate line, and movies like Blade or the first couple X-men movies, haven't met with much resistance from fans.  As far as X3 goes, if Singer had stayed on and did a slightly better version of the same storyline I don't think some people would have reacted as negatively.  The MMO is going to need to deviate because there is no way it would be able to keep up with what goes on in every comic that Marvel publishes.  Hell, Marvel can't even keep their own plotlines straight these days.  Just looking at their main books you could probably come up with 4 or 5 divergent MU timelines.

[Llava]

LOL GRIND

Now that that's out of the way.

I am now officially torn.  This is a questionable move for City of Heroes/Villains, as this will cannibalize a LOT of the player base.  Okay for Cryptic, shitty for NCSoft, great for Microsoft.  While I genuinely enjoy the universe in CoX, a lot of people are just there because there is no Marvel MMO yet.

So I suppose, in a way, this is a great survival effort on the part of Cryptic.

Sony can't do this because Sony's doing DCOnline.  Mythic can't do it because they're doing Warhammer and DAoC for the first two years had a worse grind than CoH/V EVER had, or did we forget that because OMG RVR!?  Took me 6 months to get to 50 in CoH, took me over a year to get to 50 in DAoC.

I'm excited to see what will come of this.  With a major budget and license to back them up, Cryptic could really pull something off here.  Let's not forget that when CoH came out, it broke a shitload of MMO rules successfully.  Do we really have a lot of reason to think they are incapable of doing so again?

I do hope they get better mission writers, though.  Some of the stories in CoH/V are interesting, but some are just... well, predictable and crappy.  Call me crazy, but I'd really like to see some actual comic writers step up and propose some ideas.  Just keep Bendis away from Nick Fury and we should be okay.

[UnSub]

I think the Marvel MMOG is going to be a different creature to CoH/V. Why?

1) Marvel MMOG is on consoles too.

2) Different development team with different pressures / aims. Marvel isn't going to want to see CoH/V reskinned so that it looks like Noo Yawk and Ms Liberty now looks like Black Widow.

There may be superficial differences, but they are probably going to have quite a few differences to their in-game systems. Cryptic learned a lot from designing CoH/V that is likely to make its way into the Marvel MMOG. As much as people like to hang Statesman as the bad guy, he actually got CoH released (and with a damn good release too). I don't think he's the kind of guy to make the same mistakes twice (so look for a whole new set of mistakes, especially as Marvel fanbois get involved).

Also, there is a demo movie out:

http://crypticstudios.com/movies/Marvel_Universe_Online.wmv

[UnSub]

I should add - that demo is pure shiney promo, with no substance at all.

[Surlyboi]

Nice trailer, even with that little "Vista - Games for Windoze" up yours at the end.

[Arrrgh]

As much as people like to hang Statesman as the bad guy, he actually got CoH released (and with a damn good release too). I don't think he's the kind of guy to make the same mistakes twice

Then explain the long and endless series of nerfs.

[Trippy]

As much as people like to hang Statesman as the bad guy, he actually got CoH released (and with a damn good release too). I don't think he's the kind of guy to make the same mistakes twice

Then explain the long and endless series of nerfs.

He means every class will be "pre-nerfed" this time around.

[HaemishM]

Count me in the "Meh" camp. Will the MUO game have the Civil War Registration act shit in it? Will I be unable to kill Iron Man for being a dick? Will it have the enervating grind of the COH engine? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, I really don't care.

[Engels]

Will it be fueled by the desire for random solitary lunatics in leotards performing vigilante justice? If the answer is yes, I really don't care.

[geldonyetich]

If people start making Superman and Batman clones in a marvel MMORPG, would DC sue, is that too ironic?

[Surlyboi]

Don'tcha think?

[Soln]

oh the nerd fury

talk about future ravenous canon debate

I had a hard enough time as a reader of Spiderman, Xmen, Hulk, in the same universe keeping things straight

[edit]
If they have deformable terrain and models, I might be interested.  Still want to throw people through a few buildings as a superhero.  Would be funny otherwise to find the Hulk in an empty zone, just bouncing up and down, with nothin to smash. 

[Simond]

Never mind any of that, can I join up with H.A.T.E. ?

[UnSub]

As much as people like to hang Statesman as the bad guy, he actually got CoH released (and with a damn good release too). I don't think he's the kind of guy to make the same mistakes twice

Then explain the long and endless series of nerfs.

He means every class will be "pre-nerfed" this time around.

1) The endless nerfs ended around I5, which was about 12 months ago.

2) And yeah - the power balance is likely to be a lot better at MUO's launch than it was at CoH's launch.

3) Why in god's name do people expect devs to get incredibly complex systems like powers 100% right on their first try? Especially knowing what MMOG players are like...

[Surlyboi]