Marvel Universe Online will be free-to-play, written by Marvel veteran

Gazillion Entertainment has revealed that its upcoming Marvel Universe Online will be free-to-play and feature the writing talents of one of Marvel's most notable comic book scribes.

These announcements and more were made during Gazillion's official reveal event for the long awaited superhero MMO, which took place yesterday in San Francisco and live online at Marvel.com. The conference was hosted by Gazillion and Marvel reps who confirmed Marvel Universe Online is being developed from the ground up to support the free-to-play model, later assuring fans it was not their intention to bleed players dry with microtransactions.

The conference was also attended by longtime Marvel writer, Brian Michael Bendis (House of M, Secret Invasion), who said he will be playing a large role in the shaping of Marvel Universe Online's story.

“What's great is that as the world keeps turning, instead of just going to the comics and stealing the comics, now they're stealing the writers,” said Bendis in an interview with Massively. “So instead of hiring someone to imitate Geoff Johns, you hire Geoff Johns. And that's what happened here. I was impeccably qualified, for the last 10 years of my life, to do this; I believed in it tremendously, and I told them, “If an MMO ever happens, let me know.'”

Though Bendis was relatively tight lipped as to where the Marvel Universe Online's story would take players, he did say the game would skew to the mature crowd and that the work was some of his most significant yet, adding, “It's literally like all the writing I've ever done, over 10 years, in one game, in one place. I'm adapting other peoples' stories more or less, but it's so massive... it's a giant story.”

In addition to story tidbits, the panel also revealed players will play as established Marvel characters in lieu of player created avatars, and Dr. Doom will be the main villain.

Marvel Universe Online is currently being developed by Gazillion's Secret Identity studio for the PC. No release date has been set.

[Source: Massively]

Apr 29, 2011