What if...issue # 179 What if... Marvel made video games?

Marvel has had outstanding success lately by finally taking the reins of their own intellectual properties and doing the movies the way they want them done. I've honestly been taken aback by the quality of the last two movies, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. (Here's where I have to ask the movie haters to hold the urge to say that they sucked and remember that I'm turning this topic into one about games.) But the true test of their movie and marketing skill is coming up in a couple of years when they try to market Thor, Captain America and Ant Man.

Anyways, enough talk about movies on a videogame board... When are they going to take this same strategy and apply it to games? So far they've handed off these properties to various companies with mixed results.

The Spider-Man games are on a steady decline. The Punisher had a few good parts but pretty much missed the mark. Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, X-Men were all crappy games. It seems the only ones that are doing well now are the Legends and Alliance games.

I'm hoping Marvel takes a good look at games coming out such as Mercenaries 2 and they ask themselves, "Why can't a Punisher game be similar to that?"

With the money they have, 70+ years to draw stories from and the amount of characters they have, what's keeping Marvel from taking their characters destinies in their own hands and tackling the gaming world?

That's a valid question. And interesting, too. Maybe they don't want to lose focus. I'm assuming you're talking about wanting to see Marvel developing their own videogames, instead of having them check closely how are their IPs handled by videogame developers in order to prevent the next movie cash-in to be a turd.

I'd love to see things like this happen. I'm more of a DC guy than a Marvel guy, but just the same, any time you have people who have a vested interest in making sure that the end product is quality, that is a good thing. Marvel has been pretty smart about their movies lately, and I see no reason why it shouldn't carry over to games.

[thread derail] I'd also like to take a moment to whine about the fact that I haven't played a good Batman game since the Batman on the old school Gameboy. This is a travesty. [/thread derail]

[thread derail] I'd also like to take a moment to whine about the fact that I haven't played a good Batman game since the Batman on the old school Gameboy. This is a travesty. [/thread derail]

rragnaar

I'd like to derail it even further by acknowledging something you wrote on your blog a while ago, regarding some Assassin's Creed gameplay elements, and how would they fit perfectly in a sandbox style Batman game. The more I think about that, the more I want such a thing to be made reality.

I liked Batman-Revenge of the Joker for the NES. It had huge-ass sprites for an 8 bit system.

[thread derail] I'd also like to take a moment to whine about the fact that I haven't played a good Batman game since the Batman on the old school Gameboy. This is a travesty. [/thread derail]

rragnaar

Batman Begins was a pretty Good Game a lot like the Bourne Conspiracy, but Batman Begins had awesome sound effects.

Getting back to Marvel... It seems that when they are given control of their own destiny they are bery successful. I would like to see Marvel make a game solo. It would be very interesting............

That's a valid question. And interesting, too. Maybe they don't want to lose focus. I'm assuming you're talking about wanting to see Marvel developing their own videogames, instead of having them check closely how are their IPs handled by videogame developers in order to prevent the next movie cash-in to be a turd.

SteelAttack

Yeah I'm talking about Marvel putting together their own development team, getting back all of their IP's and trying to recreate the success they are making with their movies. I just read an article today that said that Marvel was tired of selling out their characters for such a small fraction and not getting control over the revanue of toys and other merchandise so they just decided to make their own studio and get all of the profit.

Just think, videogame and movie tie-ins could be complementary instead of the games just being derivative rehashes of the movies. Hell they wouldn't even hace to try and cahs in on the movie and just wait until the game is a quality title before releasing it.

I wanted the Iron Man game to be good and utilize all the these different suits with great controls. I want to see a mature Punisher game that pretty much the seriousness of GTA IV's story of revenge...