Marvel has announced that Gazillion Entertainment’s Marvel Heroes video game will shut down. Marvel Heroes is a free-to-play multiplayer game in the vein as Diablo or Path of Exile. The game had launched on the PC in 2013 and was ported to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this year as Marvel Heroes Omega. The versions of the game, PC and console have been affected by today’s announcement:
“We regret to inform our Marvel Heroes fans that we have ended our relationship with Gazillion Entertainment and that the Marvel Heroes games will be shut down. We would like to sincerely thank the players who joined the Marvel Heroes community, and will provide any further updates as they become available.”
When the game had launched, it was with a cast of 21 playable characters from Marvel’s history, but the roster had grown as time went on, incorporating new characters and NPC allies. The game featured locations familiar to Marvel Comics fans, like the Raft, Latveria, and Asgard.
The game’s script had been written by Brian Michael Bendis, and it revolved around Doctor Doom obtaining the Cosmic Cube and killing Watcher. A breakout at the Raft prison unleashed hordes of supervillains into an unsuspecting world. Hydra, A.I.M., Mr. Sinister and other forces from Marvel canon came to blows with the superheroes. The game’s climax is when Doctor Doom reveals himself to be the puppet master who is controlling the factions. Later the content touched on the Skrull invasion and had teased the appearance of Thanos.
Fans have feared that Marvel Heroes was on Disney’s chopping block. Gazillion missed four planned updates, and the annual Halloween event was a no-show. Thor: Ragnarok tie-in content that had been slated for an October release went unreleased as well.
The loss of Marvel Heroes is a huge blow. The game was one of the few places left, aside from the comics, where the characters from all corners of the Marvel universe were interacting.
