Marvel is gearing up to bring a few new games to consoles this year, and while the company’s film and comic universes are meant to tie into each other, that kind of cohesiveness won’t be necessary for game developers.
In an interview with IGN, Marvel Games Creative Director Bill Rosemann says the “House of Ideas” is giving developers complete freedom with their licensed characters. He says they “want to give [developers] freedom to tell their story and we want to make it an original story,” much like the way things were in the case of its non-movie games over the years, like X-Men Legends and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows.
Speaking of Spider-Man, that character is at the forefront of the effort, as Insomniac is bringing a standalone Spidey adventure to the PS4 sometime this year. Marvel has said in the past that Spider-Man’s suit in the game, which is noticeably different than the comic book version, is an indicator of this “do what you want” philosophy.
“We want to give our partners…freedom to look at all of Marvel history and to pick from what interests them,” Rosemann says. “We’re saying, ‘Hey you’re the chef, you’re going to make this meal. Here’s all of the ingredients. You pick the ingredients that you like and make a new meal.”
In addition to Spider-Man, at least two other Marvel properties will see game releases this year: Guardians of the Galaxy is being developed by Telltale Games, also expected to launch this year, as is Capcom’s Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, while Square Enix is working on a project featuring the Avengers, with no release date – or any other details, really – released.
Rosemann adds that the approach also frees up developers from having to time their releases alongside Marvel’s film properties, so that their projects aren’t rushed. Hopefully, that translates into higher-quality releases, much like what their competitors DC Comics have been able to do with Batman games.
