Marvel Heroes

When Marvel Heroes launches on June 4th, it will begin a super story that finds Doctor Doom wielding a fair share of power. But what about the story behind that story? To reveal just how Doctor Doom rose to power, Gazillion is releasing a short series of motion comics entitled "Chronicles of Doom." Penned by Brian Michael Bendis, well-known for his work creating the Ultimate Marvel Universe, the adventure begins with the villain infiltrating the sanctuary of the Fantastic Four. Watch the first installment of the four-part series after the break.

[Source: Gazillion Entertainment press release]

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With early access to Marvel Heroes coming on May 28th and the actual launch a few days later on June 4th, the Gazillion team is on super-high alert. CEO David Brevik talked with us about the final additions that the team is putting in place, saying that most of the features are complete at this point.

Brevik most wanted to talk about Marvel Heroes' endgame. Interestingly enough, the main PvE story will take your character only about halfway to the level 60 cap. After that, Gazillion expects players to fully rely on a robust endgame to finish the journey.

The endgame is made up of three primary PvE activities (in addition to PvP): daily missions, group challenges, and survival challenges. Daily missions, which can be soloed or done in a group, are unlocked in a chain. The five-man group challenges only have a single entry at this point, although there are several variations on that challenge. Then the survival challenges can take groups of 10 to 15 players and pit them against waves of increasingly difficult foes. Difficulty for these wave battles can be lowered by grabbing shards and defeating enemies, and depending on how well your team performs, the boss could be a pushover or insanely tough. Gazillion is placing a premium on randomness and variety to keep things fresh, so don't expect all similar-looking mobs to actually be the same!

Read on for all of the last-minute changes that players will encounter when they take on their superhero personae next month!

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When Marvel Heroes announced that Squirrel Girl, Emma Frost, Nova, and Luke Cage would be delayed until after the game had launched, it was bad news, depriving the game of three popular heroes and Nova until later. Now another hero has joined the ranks of the not-in-launch crowd. The Human Torch will be delayed until after release, although players who have pre-purchased launch packs will still have full access to all of the Torch's add-ons when he does go live.

Despite this loss, the game has obviously generated enough heat to make its way on to Steam for its final open beta weekend. Players who already have the game installed don't need to worry, but Steam users can install the game directly from the Steam client. Launch packs purchased prior to the Steam integration should work seamlessly, and you can also purchase launch packs directly from Steam if the final beta weekend inspires you to do so.

If you missed last weekend's open beta for Marvel Heroes, you've got one more chance to get in and get your super hero on before the June 4th launch. Gazillion Entertainment has announced the last open beta weekend will take place from Friday, May 10th at 8:00 p.m. EDT to Monday May 13th at 1:00 p.m. EDT. For this round, players will get to choose from their favorite Avengers: Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, and Black Widow. To get in on the action, just register on the official site.

To celebrate the Avenger-themed final weekend, the studio also released a new trailer highlighting Thor. Check out the Asgardian action after the break.

[Source: Gazillion Entertainment press release]

[Update: The team has just posted an FAQ for the beta weekend.]

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Free-to-play means you can play for free, right? Not if you've got your sights set on the top founders packs for upcoming games like Marvel Heroes. In a blog on Gamasutra, virtual world economist Ramin Shokrizade explores the trend of these F2P collector-edition equivalents and whether the value justifies the price or if it's all a con to push players into making uninformed purchases before they have enough info.

Shokrizade compares the value of both Marvel Heroes and MechWarrior Tactics founders packs. At $199.99 and $120 respectively, both come with a hefty price tag, but both also claim significantly higher values. Do you really get your money's worth? Because of the replayability inherent in trying each superhero, Shokrizade rated Marvel Heroes as "pricey but reasonable." MechWarrior Tactics, however, received a "poor value" rating due to the tremendous in-game advantage that the founders pack gives.

How will these titles ultimately fare? Shokrizade stated that it all depends on enjoyable player interactions. "[Players] should not have to spend a lot in order to be able to have a positive social experience," he said. "Taking this one step further, if [players] can spend to lower the experience of other players, this will cause a rapid collapse of revenues."

Marvel fans are well aware that Iron Man 3 released today, but did they know that after heading to the theaters to watch the hero in action, they can jump into Marvel Heroes tonight to live it? During this weekend's open beta from Friday, May 3rd at 10:00 p.m. EDT until Monday, May 6th at 1:00 p.m. EDT, players can suit up as Stark's alter-ego in a variety of suits from both the comics and all three movies.

Not sure if you prefer the classic-looking Mark 42, the stealthy Mark 16, the sub-orbital Mark 39? If artillery or speed is more your style, there's also the Mark 17 and the Mark 40, respectively. Check out a demonstration of all the suits and their specialty powers in the new trailer after the break.

[Source: Gazillion Entertainment press release]

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It's been a fairly quiet month on the superhero front, which is the way of things. Some months it seems as if you can't go a day without a new launch; others you realize belatedly that it's the end of the month because another round of bills are due. Possibly including subscription fees. It all ties together.

Of course, the superhero arena has been quiet for a little while now, but we're seeing signs of life cropping up once again. There are titles in development, new content approaching, and a launch in about a month that should really be getting a bit more marketing support. That's a topic for another article.

So as we do once per month at A Mild-Mannered Reporter, it's time to look back over the past month or so and talk about the news stories that have cropped up relating to the genre of men and women in spandex punching robots.

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Who says developers don't listen? Gazillion Entertainment has reversed course on its decision to change the in-game content purchasing system of Marvel Heroes due to feedback from the community. Announced at PAX East, the change would have made heroes random rewards from in-game items only. Marvel Heroes fans, however, weren't supportive of the change, and the studio will go ahead with the original plan to allow players to buy specific heroes and costumes after the game officially launches June 4th.

[Source: Gazillion Entertainment press release]

Having spent the last couple of weeks systematically irritating the makers of every superheroic MMO currently on the market, I think now seems like a perfect time to go trawling for recent news and views. Especially since I am writing this on April 1st to meet my deadline, so there's a day-long moratorium on any real news being posted. (That Kickstarter of ours is very real, though. You need to give us money right now.)

Of course, the big news was a completely unexpected announcement that came out right after PAX East concluded: Another challenger is entering the arena, and it's something no one could have seen coming without insider information. Meanwhile, Marvel Heroes announced its launch date days after I had speculated on what that might be, and Champions Online is gearing up to kick off another event. So let's get talking about all the superhero news that's been going down since the last roundup.

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Gazillion Entertainment made a splash at PAX East, arriving with the big announcement that Marvel Heroes will be launching on June 4th. In addition, the team gave new details about endgame content, PvP, and special "ultimate powers" for each hero.

During the convention, Massively had a chance to sit down with VP of marketing Leo Olebe and CEO David Brevik to get a look at the state of the game, including some brand-new content that the devs have just added to Marvel Heroes. What did we see during our hands-on with the game? Let's just say that rampaging dinosaurs and "Hulk Smash" were but the tip of the iceberg.

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Massively's intrepid PAX East team will be meeting with Gazillion to talk about Marvel Heroes, so stay tuned for more information.

[Update: We've updated this post with the new villain trainer after the break!]

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Marvel Heroes is going to release soon. Maybe. Probably? It's hard to say. We have a release window for the game but not a large amount of evidence that the game is actually moving toward that release window; there are beta updates but no clear signs that the game's open beta will be coming soon. That's a bit duplicitous for people already asked to purchase the game's high-end item packs, but that's a strategy employed by more than a couple of games now, so I'm not going to be too harsh about that.

Or maybe I am, seeing as how the game is asking you to spend a lot of money sight unseen when it has some pretty stiff competition out already. I'm increasingly of the mind that Marvel Heroes is taking a hard sell and making it endlessly harder by launching into the teeth of other games without a solid strategy. Worse yet, it might be far too late for the game to change anything for the better in a significant fashion.

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Marvel Heroes is an upcoming action RPG that allows players to sling web justice as Spider-Man or just throw a stress-relieving tantrum as the Hulk. Whatever your favorite alter-ego, the upcoming free-to-play game hopes to be a refreshing addition to the isometric genre.

At a recent press event in San Francisco, I sat down with David Brevik, President and CEO of Gazillion Entertainment, to scope out the influence of Diablo vs. the Marvel Universe and whether we'll see the PvP fans are hoping for.

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This has been a hard year on mice. Diablo III, Torchlight 2, Path of Exile, and now another click-fest is in the works: Marvel Heroes. This new free-to-play addition to the isometric family will put you in the shoes of classic heroes such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Storm, Wolverine, and many more from the Marvel roster. Just when my index finger was starting to forgive me!

To better understand how much danger my mouse and finger were in, I traveled down to Gazillion Entertainment for some hands-on time with a few of my favorite comic wonders. Is Marvel Heroes is bringing more than just tights to the table?

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