Microsoft exec confirms Marvel Universe Online cancellation (News)

Jack Loftus, GamePro (online)

11/02/2008 22:51:47

Marvel Universe Online took an Infinity Gauntlet to the solar plexus this week as Microsoft's Shane Kim confirmed the MMO was officially cancelled.

"I'll confirm," said Shane Kim, the head of Microsoft Games Studios. "Marvel and [Microsoft] have agreed to end development on the MMO. It was an amicable decision ... it's just something that we felt that, for us and for them, it would be better if we ended development. Which is disappointing, because that had a lot of promise. But sometimes you have to make these decisions."

Kim added that the decision to ax Marvel Universe online was arrived upon due to a variety of factors, including but not limited to the intense competition in the MMO space and the breakneck changes taking place in the MMO subscription versus non-subscription debate.

"I don't think it's necessarily a case of what went wrong," Kim told MTV Multiplayer. "I don't know that that's the right way to put it. For us we look at our priorities and all of the things we have to do. It's a tough space. It's a very competitive space. And it's a space that's changing quite a bit. When we first entered into the development and agreement of the development of 'Marvel Universe Online,' we thought we would create another subscription-based MMO. And if you really look at the data there's basically one that's successful and everything else wouldn't meet our level or definition of commercial success."

So, basically, World of Warcraft just put the kibosh on another MMO. Chalk up another win for Azeroth.