A Video Game MCU Published by Sony Could Dominate the Industry, But Is It Possible?

Author writes "Marvel's Spider-Man earned critical acclaim when it launched back in September, and it's being celebrated as a triumph for licensed games. It feels as The success of Marvel's Spider-Man is prompting the suggestion that an MCU of video game titles might be inbound."

[-Foxtrot]

They could always make Daredevil, the Punisher, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist games which tie in heavily to New York and Spiderman. Would be nice since they totally forgot about these street level characters in Spiderman.

[Hardiman]

That would be great testing grounds for them to try. Do something with the MCU characters from the Netflix series and see how that works and after it does move on to the broader MCU.

[gangsta_red]

Heroes For Hire game starring Power Man, Iron Fist and Jessica Jones would be bad ass.

But I would like to see a developer tackle Fantastic Four since that hasn't gotten the proper MCU treatment. Perhaps Marvel can make them into games instead. Especially regarding the X-Men. Would love to see what could have been a great X-Men vs Avengers crossover.

[UCForce]

I want MoonKinght, Venom and Winter Soldier Game.

[thatguyhayat]

A moonknight game would be epic.

[UltraNova]

I want a Superman game. Preferably one made by Rocksteady or if in some alternative universe WB tasks Sony to develop one and Sucker Punch gets to work!

Yeah...other than that I would love a no bars hold 18+ rated Punisher or Wolverine game!

[abstractel]

Would love a great Daredevil game purely as a Daredevil fan!

Any character can be made into a great video game by the right developer.

[hulk_bash1987]

They all had Easter eggs in the game, so I wouldn't say they were completely forgotten.

[-Foxtrot]

I meant it as in you know actually seeing them

City turns to shit

Mass criminals escape and roam the street

Devils breath is released and spreads killing people

Yet not a single glimpse of these heroes...it’s just...weird. The events that happened are too big to ignore. I can get the Avengers not turning up but street level heroes...

[rainslacker]

I feel with the success of Spider-Man, it's more possible now than before. Marvel may be more open to a MCU series on the PS console since it makes it apparent that it can be wildly successful.

NFL requires that a game be multi-plat for the license because they want to make sure they get the most sales possible, but it's obvious that people will go to where the games are if those games are good.

Granted, there is also an avengers game coming, and that seems like a more obvious place to kick off a MCU series of games.

I think though that they couldn't rely on Sony to make all the games. That would be unreasonable, and like the movies, not all of them can be a success, nor will all of them likely turn out as good as Spider-Man.

[badz149]

Marvel Gaming Universe? I think that's too much to ask IMO. not that I'm against it, but just me being realistic. Great game like Spider-man doesn't come out often and definitely won't come out yearly like the MCU in movies. at least not at the standard that Spider-man is showing. Making quality products like Spider-man takes time and requires lots and lots of dedication. I'm just happy that we get great superhero games occasionally like the Arkham series and Spider-man but I would hate it if the gaming scene is flooded with superhero games like how cinemas are now flooded with superhero movies. they over-saturated the cinema and it's getting really hard to be impressed or wowed now with new movies coming out every other month of the year. just watch the honest trailer for Ant-man 2 on YT and I think you will agree with the epic voice guy's view on this.

back on topic, isn't Square Enix much closer to the MCU than Sony at the moment? they are working on an Avengers game, right?

[rainslacker]

I honestly couldn't even imagine the nightmare that would ensue with trying to get all these different development houses on the same page just on the story front, and hoping that all of them can release on time, so the next game in the universe will be right in the cannon.

That's something that can be done in movies, since production schedules generally aren't delayed once filmed.

If they rushed release dates, then the chance that you get sub-par games just puts us right back to where we were with Activision holding a single license.

[AizenSosuke]

Marvel + Sony = absolute infinite freedom + possibilities.

[blm504]

Marvel is Merican how bout Microsoft Activision or EA

[BlaqMagiq1]

Eww. Anything but them. Sony has shown they are the best choice with Spider-Man.

[blm504]

Lmbao!

[1-pwnsause-1]

Activision and EA? I hope you’re trolling...

[supes_24]

Activision or EA? Have you just started gaming? Any gamer knows to stay away from them fools if you want a quality game that isn’t rushed and a onslaught of micro transactions. Lol, silly kid

[xenz]

No thx, and your comment history is ridicilous btw.

[Skankinruby]

Lol you're trolling right? Please, please tell me you're trolling

[StormSnooper]

Sony also has its headquarters in the U.S. now.

[blm504]

Xenz you really check my comment history lmbao you gotta be kidding me

[xenz]

Haha well, I was curious. Wanted to see what kind of person we are dealing with here.

[Melankolis]

You forgot Sony Music & Sony Pictures? They're American. And even Sony Interactive Entertainment, now it's not all Japan-centric.

[jukins]

Well when your an obvious troll people like to see how bad of one you are that's why your comment history was examined. Dont be surprised you obviously want the attention

[rainslacker]

EA has shown they aren't good for relying on them making a game where they get to set the parameters like Sony had the freedom to do.

Activision has a terrible track record with licensed properties, but I do believe that a lot of that is due to unreasonable release dates often based around movie or other media releases, because they do have a couple good licensed games in their portfolio.

MS would be fine, as despite how much criticism they get about not having enough games, they do have some studios that can indeed make excellent games. It's just a matter of matching up the game with the right studio...or them going with a 2nd party like Sony did with Insomniac.

However, with MS, they don't have the same install base like Sony had, and I think that would be a turn off for a studio looking to maximize sales and quality. Sales you can get with a user base. Quality is made out of desire to make quality. MS only has half the equation.

[thatguyhayat]

Did you suggest Activision and EA? Its like you're asking them to force MT

[Godmars290]

You mean the MS Avengers Kinect title? Or EA could do a battle royal MP?

Beside Square's doing games and you know what that means?

Belts! Belts for everybody!!

[Realms]

Nah this dude is a MS fanboy obviously trolling MS, Activision and EA are hot garbage focused on GaaS. Marvel is trying to clean up their image and Ip's not continue to tarnish them they would be wise to stay away from any and all of these publishers.

[jelloaceomega]

Didn't those publisher said that SP games are dead. IDK unless they add battle royale mode, it might not sell. /s

[InTheZoneAC]

Your comment really reflects your name. Smh

[alex101594]

If Activision and/or EA had it we would have to pay for each suit.🙄

[Dragonscale]

Activision had the Spiderman license before Sony and the games were terrible, Ms don't really have the studios to do them justice, and EA, after the joke that was battlefront and their current anti consumer bullcrap, they should be the last publisher on the list fgs. You'd put up with all that just because they are 'merican' speaks volumes lol.

[Thundercat77]

1. This is a business. Quality over nationality.
2. MS and EA are the least qualified for the job as they don't believe on single player games.
3. EA destroyed Star Wars. Fans are begging that contract ends soon.

[Godmars290]

Sorry, but they made one Batman Arkham knockoff and anything they do is gold? Making games doesn't work like that. Not unless they can somehow fit every Marvel character into the exact same model of game - and then you're Tell Tale. And we all know what happened to them before what happen to them happened.

The same game formula got stale is what that last bit's about.

[zeuanimals]

I'm honestly gonna have to agree with you. A lot of MCU heroes don't translate as well to video games as Spiderman does. Simply traveling around is fun with Spiderman. If we do see more games, we'll probably see a lot more street level heroes, but I can't see those heroes getting their own games. They just can't carry a game by themselves like Spiderman.

[PapaBop]

We've already seen how EA handles highly lucrative licenses.. no thanks!

[AspiringProGenji]

Or just make a Spiderverse and have all the related heroes to Spiderman and NY be in the games. The avengers already exist in this Spiderman game

[PhoenixUp]

Nope it’d be a pointless effort

[jznrpg]

Only for people who for some reason won’t buy a PlayStation . It’s not expensive, it has many games in many genres even niche. No reason not to buy one if you love video games . Now if you love corporations more than video games I guess that is a reason why.

[InTheZoneAC]

troof

[PhoenixUp]

What’d be the point? We’ve already seen the Marvel characters interact with each other in plenty of games. You can even have them appear in another Spider-Man game like various other Spider-Man games without a connected universe

Plus I don’t want to see Sony put aside any of their original games to cultivate this. A Spider-Man franchise is good enough

[Kribwalker]

plus the fact Square Enix is making an avengers game already, on top of the Marvel ultimate alliance games, Marvel vs capcom games etc too, it’d be overdone

[ShadowWolf712]

They wouldn't need to. Entirely possible to create new teams to handle this stuff.

[PhoenixUp]

@ Shadow

New teams just to work on Marvel games rather than more original properties for Sony?

That makes even less sense.

[UCForce]

@Kribwalker And why Marvel come to SIE in first place ? Was it money or something ? Because Marvel want their game to treat respectfully like Sony First Party Studios. And Sony choose Insomniac because both of them have strong relationships for decades. Now its up to Marvel to decide which developers and publishers will use one of their hero licenses. I know Avengers game is making by Crystal Dynamic and Square Enix, but after successful of Spider Man PS4, I think Marvel will look another deal with Sony to make another one in the future. By the end of the day, Marvel was looking someone who has strong conviction and Sony was one of them.

[Hardiman]

I know some would cry foul because of the exclusivity but I'd argue that there is very compelling evidence that it would be incredible, that and just get a PS4! The evidence is that Sony has a stellar track record with creating environments for creative people to , we'll be creative and the games speak for themselves! That's why Marvel came to them in the first place and with how great Spider-Man its not hard to imagine what a MCU gaming universe could look like with Sony involved.

Hopefully Spider-Man's success can be at the very least parlayed into some other exclusive titles! Daredevil would be incredible with a similar setup to Spider-Man or is not truly "open world" then they could do something similar to GOW's design. A Punisher game would be incredible and with Disney obtaining the characters Fox had my mouth is drooling at the possibilities that could come down the line. Imagine a narrative driven Fantastic Four game or a well made X-Men title!

[Garrett_the_GOD]

I think a huge open world X-Men game with co-op in mind could be AMAZING if done right...or even single player where Professor X's school is the main hub/home where you would have to often go to get new missions.at the school you should also be able to choose 3 characters to handle the mission and while on the mission have the ability to switch between the 3 characters you choose for said mission on the fly.the 2 characters you arent currently playing as being AI controlled...have the ability to choose from Wolvernine,Storm,Rogue,Cyclops ,Gene Grey,Beast,Gambit,etc...game would be so amazing being developed by a dev of the same caliber as Insomniac

[basilboxer]

I'd love to see it but agree it isn't likely. Too hard to make that sort of cooperation between studios work.

[CarlDechance]

"It feels as though there’s a somewhat giddy sentiment among the gaming community that video games have finally emulated the movie industry."

No. You just made that shit up to write an article. twintinite bullshit is all this is. No surprise.

[gangsta_red]

Would live to see a MVGU happen. I believe Square is already working on The Avengers. Would be nice to see these tied together as they did the movies.

I always thought video game IPs from the big companies should try and do some thing similar to what the movies nowadays are trying

[rainslacker]

The appealing part about it is that it would be more like the comics, instead of kind of taking the overall approach of a large overarching story arc that you see in a smaller section of the comic book universe, and altering it to fit in with whatever it is they're doing to try to maintain continuity.

Then, even if you screw something up, you don't have to worry so much about restarting it. Kind of like how they screwed up the X-Men by the second and third movie by using a rather late in the story arcs Phoenix plotline(Which was maybe half a step up in competency to the Venom storyline in SM3, but still done poorly), and killing off some major characters, only to have to reboot it through another movie whose sole purpose was to restart it back to get major characters back into the story.

In other words, I'd prefer they not focus so much on continuity between the different series, but also finding ways to keep things connected enough to have some good cross over games.

I think the movie universe, they are trying to cater to a larger audience which they feel wants that kind of thing more. But if you look at some of the better marvel movies, they tend to be those that are lesser known characters or comics, which stand on their own. Deadpool, GoTG, Dr. Strange, etc. But in the video game market, there is enough cross over of comic and gaming fans to make it work without all that pretense.

Couple that with that the episodic releases might make more sense for some lesser tiered characters, and it could have a continuous flow of content for the comic book fans, and keep things in front of the consumer base more.

[DEEHULK88]

Who makes these dumb articles?

[porkChop]

Sony would have to stop making their other games, so I wouldn't want that. No single publisher has enough teams to consistently release that many games. Every publisher should be able to use the license.

[rainslacker]

Well...there are lots of indie devs out there. Even Spider-Man wasn't made by a Sony 1st party.

Granted, Sony isn't likely to fund an extensive number of super-hero games, as there is a limit to the number that people would buy, how many would be good, and eventually, fatigue sets in. Marvel would likely have to seek out other publishers if they wanted to go all in like they do with the movies.

I think exclusivity may end up being bad in the long run. If it's significant for the PS brand and sales, MS could get desperate and seek out DC to do the same thing. I dunno if DC would accept, but if MS is motivated enough, then who knows how much they may spend.

I'd hate to see these two universes split the gamer over two platforms.

Spider-Man, I can understand the situation, but there is a limit where I think its a good idea.

[ShadowWolf712]

DC wouldn't accept as WB gets more revenue if they self-publish, and I don't see WB Games losing out on PS4 and/or PC sales.

[Abnor_Mal]

I read an article that says Sony has nine hundred Marvel characters that they have access to to make movies with. If that's true then they can possibly make many different games if allowed by Marvel. I'm sure a good few of the characters are just from the spider verse, but who are the other several hundreds left.

[rainslacker]

Having the movie rights doesn't mean they also have the game publishing rights. For instance, for quite a while before the recent Spider-Man game, Sony had Spider-Man rights, but Activision had rights to the video games, and were also often contracted out by Marvel to do the video game adaptions of the movies. Sony couldn't even make the games for the movies they themselves made.

I don't know which movie rights Sony holds, but given who's releasing what, I don't think they hold the rights to many of the major franchises or characters in the marvel universe. I think Marvel is trying to get a lot of those back, but Sony still has Spider-Man movie rights, they just allow Marvel Studios use the character for the MCU movies now...which is ironic considering that it's a Marvel property. But that's how licensing works.

I haven't really paid much attention, so maybe someone else knows, but I'm not even sure that Sony owns the publishing rights to the Spider-Man games overall now. I think Marvel agreed to give them exclusive rights, but they still own those rights themselves. So, in this case, Sony is kind of a contracted company, but probably has some stipulations put in that they get to keep making the games if they meet certain criteria....like with the movies they had to release a new movie within a set period of time, or they would have to give up the rights. In game licensing, it's usually a pre-determined number of games over a set period of time.

[Abnor_Mal]

That's why I said "if allowed by Marvel", meaning if Sony can get the video game license from Marvel after seeing the success of the Spider-Man game.

[rainslacker]

Ah, yeah, my bad for not noticing.

The bigger question is would Sony want to invest that kind of money to be the publisher for such an expansive universe, involving quite the resources to build a significant number of games.

Spider-Man obviously has some major appeal, and getting those rights through whatever means they did, which likely still involved them paying for the rights, made sense to gaining an advantage in selling consoles. That may not be true for some other franchises. While Sony invests a lot in game development, I'm not sure if investing so much in other franchises in the marvel universe would net them what they're really looking for.

[Abnor_Mal]

Just like how Marvel started to use their lesser known heroes for smaller projects, the same can be done with some, not all, of the licenses Sony could possibly use since they have the movie rights. Again, if allowed by Marvel.
It's the same thing like Netflix using Jessica Jones and the rest. Kids nowadays only know the heroes we popularized over the years. Yet there are many we would still pay money to see, like the Guardians of the Galaxy. That was a gamble Marvel took and it paid off. If Sony could indeed get a good fairly well known and interesting character, they can do wonders again. Look how many people are saying Moon knight but ask kids these days who he is and many if any would be unable to answer. Even people in the age group of 30-50 would be hard pressed to answer. But with enough buzz by the ones that are in the know it can become a successful game, if handled correctly by the right developers.
They don't need to use every character at there possible disposal just one every now and then.
Sorry its 3am and I can't focus.

[joab777]

Spider-Man was a great foundation to entice others to make games for Sony’s hardware. Definitely something to look into. But I highly doubt it, especially w new gen coming and MS’s willingness to just throw money at every problem.

[TheOtherMoon]

It would be epic, and incredibly challenging -- if they wanted to step away from games like MUA1/2, and try to make a MCU RPG. One Challenge is being able to alternate the characters that players could use, most RPG have a vocal character that helps give the narrative some foundation. Right now Square Enix is developing an Avengers game, I wonder how wide the cannon will be for that particular story.

The release of Avengers Infinity War also gave none-comic-reader a scope of how large Marvels Universe is (and they barely touched the surface), -- ia it possible to make a game that includes the various realms, realities, etc. or would they have to say "this conflict is happening on Earth (or where ever else they'd want to go with the story)." Its a cool idea. I am excited to see what Marvel does in the video game industry. Spider-Man is the first game that I have 100% in a several years.

[jukins]

Just seems like it would take too long. I would however love a multiplayer mcu game in a 5 v 5 style or something like that in a huge city

[paintedgamer1984]

Just give me a Wolverine game on PS5 and ill die a happy man. Or another arcade side scroller beat em up like X-Men, Ninja Turtles, and The Simpsons from back in the day.

The Super Hero genre has such untapped potential if made by the right dev. In all fairness, all 3 consoles should get their very own exclusive super hero game. Red for Nintendo, blue for Sony, and green for xbox. Even tho, red is kind of kicking ass on Playstation currently 🤪. Any thoughts Nintendo and MS fans? I was thinking The Hulk, Green Arrow, or Green Lantern for XBOX and Shazam, The Flash, or Dare Devil for Nintendo

[rainslacker]

I dunno. Comic fans tend to like a lot of different characters, and they're going to gravitate towards the most popular ones...such as Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers, etc.

Splitting them up with exclusive among the three different consoles seems kind of crappy if you really are into that kind of thing. Kind of like how Kingdom Hearts was split up between Nintendo and Sony, and its fan base was nowhere near as large or fanatical as comic fans can be.

Overall, I think they should remain multi-plat. Spider-Man, I feel was an anomaly that we aren't likely to see too much of, and had extenuating circumstances surrounding it due to the spider-man movie licensing rights.

This becomes especially true with the less popular characters. Characters like Spider-Man or Batman can carry themselves on a single platform release due to their mainstream popularity, but characters like Green Lantern, Flash, and especially Shazam, aren't going to drive enough sales on a single console as much.

[paintedgamer1984]

I dont think fans of a specific console would care if a really well done exclusive super hero game launched on their console of choice. Even if it was a FTP game like Fortnite. I really do think however, Sony blew the socks off of everyone critically and commercially with Spidey, and because of that, Sony may be leading the charge with the super hero genre next gen. Sony found lightning in a bottle and if they can mimmick that success with others or even make a better Spider-Man next gen, anomaly that it will not be. I do agree that certain types of games should be multiplat so everyone can enjoy them. However, its a fact when exclusives are made by the top devs that know how to squeeze every ounce of amazing out of a console, those games are among the best. So if a game maker can make a better game with an exclusive vs a multiplat... id say DO IT.

[rainslacker]

I was talking about comic book fans in general. Many people are comic book fans, that have no console preference, but they also may not be keen on buying a bunch of different consoles.

And overall, I've noticed most people don't seem to mind if a game releases on their console of choice. It's usually when they release on something other than their console of choice that they become upset.

There is an advantage to having a major character exclusive to one system, and that'll get the fans to get the system if they want it bad enough. But the impact of that diminishes the more it happens with more characters. Eventually, you get to a breaking point where people get tired of trying to keep up, and ultimately, you end up with a broken fan base that has to pick and choose.

Spider-Man, I feel was a special case due to circumstances around the movie rights, and Marvels own desires. I can't see it being a norm, although Sony is probably in the best position to get more chances to make exclusives like this because of their success with Spider-Man.

But lets say MS gets Batman rights, and they make an exclusive batman game. Well, comic book fans who likely like both characters, since they tend to like more than one, are not either having to buy two systems, or just having to choose. Eventually getting frustrated, or angry.

[InTheZoneAC]

Make it happen, Marvel & Sony=success!

[sampsonon]

the reason Sony will have exclusive rights is simple.
1. they already have the success of Spider-Man ps4 and if Marvel ever wants to make games that group their characters together, like MCU, they won't be able to do it if they deal with MS because it would be two different companies that are in direct competition with each other.

2. Sony is King right now: Sony owns the console market and this is business 101.

3. Development companies: Sony has the developers to fully realize these games and give the characters the respect, time, and story.

could other devs do a great job? yes, of course. But my first point is the most important one.