Electronic Arts, Marvel Sign Game Development Deal

[bigloser]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc. on Thursday said it has signed a deal with comic book publisher Marvel Enterprises Inc. to develop a series of fighting games pitting newly developed EA characters against Marvel superheroes like Spider-Man.

Redwood City, California-based EA, the world's largest independent game publisher, said Marvel would act as licensing agent for the new characters and would publish comic books based on them.


The games are under development at EA's studio in Canada and the first one is expected to be released toward the end of calendar 2005.

An EA spokeswoman said the deal includes more than 100 of Marvel's superhero characters, such as Spider-Man and the X-Men. However, it does not include the Hulk or Punisher characters.


Marvel already has a licensing arrangement with Activision Inc. for Spider-Man and X-Men, but the EA spokeswoman said the new deal would not affect those licenses, as it covers only fighting games.


Traditionally, EA's strengths have been sports games and games based on major movie licenses. The company has done little with the superhero genre or the fighting genre to date, though it has acquired licenses to make games based on Batman and Superman.


Marvel, riding high on a string of successful movies based on its portfolio of characters, has had mixed results with the games industry.


A Spider-Man game from Activision was a smash hit, but X-Men games from Activision and a Hulk title from Vivendi Universal Games were less successful. The company recently hired an executive to help oversee its game development deals.

Marvel also has a deal with THQ Inc. for the Punisher series.

Yahoo. (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=569&ncid=738&e=1&u=/nm/20040206/tc_nm/media_electronicarts_marvel_dc)

Hmm... Considering the quality of most Super Hero games. This deal could put the Super Hero genre in the right direction. EA usually makes quality titles, especially with its licensed series(LOTR, James Bond, ect).

[Wolfgame]

EA makes terrible titles when it comes to xbox, the only recent exception I would make is to say they were nice enough to give NFL Street custom soundtracks, but most of the time they hold back features, and graphics they could improve on xbox.

[BinaryXtreme]

That's already been posted.

[bigloser]

Originally posted by Wolfgame
EA makes terrible titles when it comes to xbox, the only recent exception I would make is to say they were nice enough to give NFL Street custom soundtracks, but most of the time they hold back features, and graphics they could improve on xbox.

Whether a game is good or not, is all up to the person who's playing it. But personally I believe EA has been producing some quality titles, nothing really great, but a lot of fun titles.

Like..
Madden 2004.
NCAA 2004.
NBA Street Vol2.
SSX3.
Buffy(Didn't make it, but they published it).
NFL Street.
Freedom Fighters.
Need for Speed: Street.
Lord of the rings:ROTK

.. They've published quite a few high quality titles for the pc. BF1942, MOHaa, C&C generals, ect.

[BinaryXtreme]

Originally posted by Wolfgame
EA makes terrible titles when it comes to xbox, the only recent exception I would make is to say they were nice enough to give NFL Street custom soundtracks, but most of the time they hold back features, and graphics they could improve on xbox.

Not to mention Need For Speed Underground which is an absolutely awesome game. EA has had some great titles. They just need to get some Live enabled games released. I completely disagree too that they have terrible titles.

[Brutus]

Yeah. Good games but when they hold back on the Xbox titles just in Favor of not shaming the PS2 players, I feel that that's just wrong.

If anyone supports those guys I think it's wrong. The gaming industry has never been shady until the introduction of EA.

The games on Xbox look better because of the processor speed. Not because they account for the GPU!

Madden would be the best if they made it look better than Fever! No doubt! I just don't like their shady practices.

... And then there's Xbox Live... EA needs to be a fair player or get away from the Xbox. I know they'll sell games on the Xbox, but none will be to me.

[BinaryXtreme]

Good points. :cheers:

[bigloser]

Originally posted by Brutus
The gaming industry has never been shady until the introduction of EA.


Pfft.. What do you call price fixing Nintendo got fined for over in europe?..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2375967.stm

Nintendo also got sued by New york state back in 91 for having a monopoly.

http://www.gamersgraveyard.com/repository/oddities/nintendosuits.html

They were doing that long before EA became popular. I'm also sure there were many other shady things going on in the gaming industry, that outsiders no nothing about. Saying the game industry was never shady before EA, is just idiotic.

[l Maximus l]

Sweet! Another game not on XBox Live!!! :mad:

[BinaryXtreme]

Originally posted by bigloser


Pfft.. What do you call price fixing Nintendo got fined for over in europe?..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2375967.stm

Nintendo also got sued by New york state back in 91 for having a monopoly.

http://www.gamersgraveyard.com/repository/oddities/nintendosuits.html

They were doing that long before EA became popular. I'm also sure there were many other shady things going on in the gaming industry, that outsiders no nothing about. Saying the game industry was never shady before EA, is just an idiotic.

Absolutely. I'm pretty tired of the EA bashing as well. I think people need to realize that despite what we all seem to think, we don't know everything. Who knows what other companies are or have gotten away with.

[Brutus]

Ok, Ok. I'm not idiotic. I just never knew about Nintendo in their Shadiness.
I've just never been a bigger Game addict other than when I was able to afford and buy my own stuff. And what better console than Xbox!
Well, to Xbox (I rephrase) EA is the most shady, you know?
Plus I'm not idiotic you Sick Ducker!

[bigloser]

I by no means was calling you an idiot. I was just saying that statement was idiotic. ;)

[CRAYMAN]

One of the reasons EA is not supporting Live is because they want to require customers to purchase a new sports title each year in order to play online.
They would also like more control and have hinted at their own proprietary online service.

In either case, it would appear that greed is the main culprit preventing EA from publishing LIVE titles.:cuss:

[ScottTheKilla]

Seriously I know its childish and all but screw EA! I was just reading the frontpage about how now Burnout 3 is being published by EA and only PS2 has exclusive online modes. They pick up all these games and then screw us over. Im just so fed up with them and their greed. This is a stupid post I know but im so pissed that they still cant suck up their snottiness and support a really good online service without trying to get an edge over it. I seriously hope all this comes back on them in the future.

[Alex Napalm]

I think penny-arcade pretty much said all that needs to be said about this EA/Marvel fighting game.

A few points from myself (that echo the PA sentiments):

1)EA is not known for particularly innovative character designs. It's going to be hard for them to come up with stuff to compete with the solid and established designs of the Marvel characters.

2)EA is not known for fighting games, unless you count Knockout Kings and their old, crappy WCW games. Doesn't mean they can't make a good superhero fighting game, just means I've got no reason to believe they can.

3)It's not going to work in 3D. I know they haven't announced specific details about the gameplay but I seriously doubt EA would atttempt a 2D fighting game. 3D just isn't able to capture the fast paced action of a superhero fight. (See X-Men: Next Dimension)

4)Marvel Vs. Capcom made sense. Capcom had a ton of great characters that matched up well and lent to an entertaining game. Marvel Vs. EA is just a bad idea.

I hate this news. :(