Marvel Super Hero Squad Online - Just what we need, ANOTHER super hero MMO.

[SunnyD]

Preliminary announcement. There is slated to be a trailer on 5/14/2010 which hopefully will give us an actual glimpse at the game itself.

This game will be based on the Marvel animated series that carries the same name. It appears, judging purely by the graphics, that it will be catering to younger audiences. It seems the Super Hero MMO market is the "new black" so to speak.

This also (in my opinion) explains why we haven't heard much regarding Jumpgate Evolution, which was supposed to beta quite some time ago and be released by now. Given that Gazillion Entertainment owns/partnered/whatever with NetDevil, and NetDevil seems to have shifted its focus to Lego Universe... anyway, I'm completely speculating now. But then again, breaking MMO news is what I do (irony is that I don't currently play any MMOs).

Updates (5/19/2010):
So a little more info has trickled out about SHSO.

- As mentioned, the core audience will be the younger crowds. The game is a more light-hearted take on superheroing.

-Unfortunately (fortunately?) the game engine used will be the web-based Unity 3D engine. I've seen some interesting things with the engine, but I'm definitely not convinced that it is capable of any sort of tier-1 MMO.

- Players won't simply make a single character and level it up as per typical MMO's. A player will have a "stable" of characters they can choose to play from, leveling each one up individually. (To be honest, this sounds cool)

- Environments are supposed to be taken from "Super Hero City" with subsections of iconic Marvel locales like The Daily Bugle or the X-Men Mansion/School for the Gifted.

- The game will be instance based, and meant to be played in squads of four players. Think GuildWars. From what I've seen the instant environments appear more akin to platformer levels than actual 3D MMO instances/zones.

- And of course, the core of the game features a "collection" element - I can only assume this means a super-hero style pokemon element.

There you go.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

This also (in my opinion) explains why we haven't heard much regarding Jumpgate Evolution, which was supposed to beta quite some time ago and be released by now. Given that Gazillion Entertainment owns/partnered/whatever with NetDevil, and NetDevil seems to have shifted its focus to Lego Universe... anyway, I'm completely speculating now. But then again, breaking MMO news is what I do (irony is that I don't currently play any MMOs).[/QUOTE]


I remember reading something about jumpgate, it went into closed beta (friends and family type closed beta) and the consensus was to go be to the drawing board and do some major game changes. **warning I could be wrong but I am pretty sure this is what happend**

 

[Dorkenstein]

Wow, a super hero game for kids no less.

 

[Russwinters]

The super hero universe should rock as an MMO, it's just never done right.

 

[KeithTalent]

The super hero universe should rock as an MMO, it's just never done right.

Completely agree. So much potential, so little of it realized.

KT

 

[Liet]

This also (in my opinion) explains why we haven't heard much regarding [URL="http://www.jumpgateevolution.com"]Jumpgate Evolution, which was supposed to beta quite some time ago and be released by now.

I played the original Jumpgate for about 7 years (I'm serious), and I'd be VERY surprised if the delay had anything to do with Gazillion. Netdevil were never brilliant devs - they originally had a great idea aimed at a very niche market, but consistently displayed a bewildering incompetence at both. They made unfathomly bad business/design decisions repeatedly. I can virtually guarantee that the delay is related to the consequences of those decisions finally cathing up with them.

Come to think of it, they lost most of their Jumpgate playerbase years ago, when they had a massive delay for "Jumpgate Episode 2", a massive expansion which when it finally arrived was hilariously disappointing because it contained very little content.

Anyway, the Jumpgate community is the best I've known - I'm still close with a ton of them, been to their weddings, houses in different states, parties, etc. Good people... Almost none of them wanted to play Jumpgate 2, by the way. Wow, that's a good example of Netdevil's bad decisionmaking - they managed to chase away customers who had been paying them to play for SEVEN fucking years.

 

[Arglebargle]

Completely agree. So much potential, so little of it realized.

KT

You guys mean the two or three Superhero MMOs out, and the two planned releases, as opposed to all the fantasy MMOs littering the field?

Well, okay, Champions Online was done awfully, but that's more due to a now more evident Cryptic corporate philosophy.

 

[SunnyD]

Updated info in the OP.