Kapow! Marvel's Superhero MMO Will Be F2P
Now that Sony Online Entertainment finally has DC Online up and running, fans of the Marvel Universe have probably been wondering when they'll get to mingle with the likes of Wolverine, Captain America and the Black Cat (she's hot in those black tights, admit it). The wait for the first details is finally over.
Marvel originally enlisted Cryptic Studios to develop the super-hero MMO years ago, but then canceled the project in February 2008 primarily due to the competitive market for subscription-based MMOGs. Then in July 2009, Gazillion Entertainment announced that former president of Blizzard North and Diablo creator David Brevik had signed on to lead the development in the rejuvenated Marvel Universe MMO project.
"I’m a huge fan of comic books, Super Heroes, and MMORPGs, so the chance to lead the creative efforts for the Marvel Universe MMO is an amazing opportunity," he said. "Gazillion’s mission to bring MMOs to the mainstream while maintaining the depth in gameplay that enthusiast gamers demand is something that deeply resonates with me. Marvel is a perfect fit for this mission, and I couldn’t imagine a better venue to announce our efforts than Comic-Con."
Little else on the game's development has been revealed until last night when Marvel introduced Brian Michael Bendis as the game's story writer, the mastermind behind most of the major events taking place in the Marvel Universe in recent history. The introduction was made live during a presentation in San Francisco which also revealed that-- unlike DC Universe where characters are generated from scratch--gamers would actually get to play popular Marvel superheroes.
During the show, Bendis told the audience that he's secretly been working on the game for several months. "The reason that I was so desperate to be a part of this is that I’m a big believer that the Marvel universe is more than just this fantasy universe, it’s kind of a lifestyle for a lot of people," he said. "It reminds me of what Stan Lee did in the 60’s by making the audience part of Marvel."
According to TQ Jefferson, VP of Games Production at Marvel, the game won't launch with just a top-ten list of characters to play. "The Marvel Universe MMO is going to launch with more characters than any Marvel game to date," he said. "It’s not just going to be the top ten or twelve characters, it’s going to be a monster list of characters."
Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Squirrel Girl and Nova were a few of the heroes mentioned.
But given Marvel's huge audience, it's surprising that the subscription-based model was ditched for free-to-play. "We’re really going to turn the MMO world on its head," said Gazillion president and CEO David Brevik. "This [is being] designed as a free play game from the ground up, which is a very different approach most people are taking these days. We really want to make this a legitimate experience, a compelling experience."
To see the press event in its entirety (it's about 1:26:00 in length), Marvel saved a copy for your viewing pleasure here.

I'll pass.
There needs to be short jargon for "free to play without sacrificing anything" that can be used, or, perhaps, not used when 'free to play' is all you're going to get...
Hang out with Iron Man?
I'm Totally there!
*Sits anxiously and awaits it's release.*
As for Marvel... ehhhh... We'll see. DC Universe Online left a lot to be desired, and in general, I feel like MMORPGs are starting to hit the point of over-saturation. It's going to take something special to be a success, no matter how "free" it is.
Too many hands trying to fit into a cookie jar that has a finite amount of cookies as well. It's hard enough to get ones hand in the jar never-mind successfully extract a cookie.
I would expand your statement of it requiring to be something special to all upcoming MMORPG's. However the vast majority are nothing more than slight alterations when it boils down to it. They know what generally works and are accepted by players so they recycle it. This however dooms them to failure however as it makes no reason for players to go to them or at-least stay once there. Innovation and MMORPG's use to go hand and hand however now its about trying to push something out and innovation requires more time and money invested. To put it simply, they would rather rush and fail than to invest effort and possibly succeed.
COH was still the best super hero MMO I played. Well before they started making the game too easy.
Blizzard North dissipated around 2003 I believe, the people who made Diablo and Diablo 2. But overall yes, that's why Diablo has that WoW/Disney Esq' color pallet.
They only charge people for buying hero skins, which does not affect the game play at all.
Where have you been? Brevik and the Shaeffers left Blizzard years ago when Vivendi was talking about selling them (this was before the Activision purchase by Vivendi and merger of Activision and Blizzard). Brevik and the Shaeffers felt that Vivendi was going to screw them over and pretty much left and took most of the Blizzard North staff with them. Flagship Studios (now defunct) was started by most of the Blizzard North staff that broke off. When Hellgate: London crashed and burned, Flagship broke up and the Shaeffers and Brevik when in different directions.