Someone Should Bring Back Marvel Heroes

Games are canceled regularly these days. With multiplayer games like MMOs and Live-Service games, of course eventually things are going to get shut down. However, I’d like to discuss one game that was shut down that should make a return in one form or another, Marvel Heroes.

In June 2013, Gazillion Entertainment (now closed) created a game called Marvel Heroes, later known as Marvel Heroes Omega. It was essentially a Marvel-themed ARPG in the style of Diablo, where you played through an original story that brought together Marvel characters from across the Marvel comic universe. You could unlock characters, costumes, and a variety of other things using a microtransaction currency, or farm for items in-game.

Gazillion Entertainment broke away from most Live-Service games by making everything in its store (including playable characters) available in-game at a lower drop rate. Then, they tied that to a stat that you could focus on if you wanted to farm for things. They also sold drop-rate boosts and upped drop rates during holidays. Ironically, it was Disney’s merger with Marvel that ended Gazillion Entertainment and led to the downfall of Marvel Heroes in 2017.

Also, looking at it now, Marvel Heroes was the blueprint that Diablo IV was sort of built on. Raid bosses, open environments, and other elements built Marvel Heroes as an ARPG/MMO hybrid. I wonder if Blizzard looked at it as inspiration despite Marvel Heroes being long dead by the time Diablo IV came around.

Disney wanted to have control over all games in development based on their properties, plus they decided to re-evaluate all gaming partnerships and studios currently available. At the time, I was shocked that Gazillion Entertainment was being closed, because Marvel Heroes was probably the best ARPG on the market aside from Diablo III.

Various fan campaigns were made to try and lobby for the game to be kept open, and since then there have been small campaigns to try and bring the game back in some form. In the current gaming landscape, (especially after Diablo IV’s release) I think it could return and still maintain its enjoyable, non-predatory nature.

If Marvel Heroes were to be brought back today, I think they could keep most of the building blocks intact. Keep the roster of heroes, add a few heroes (one or two maybe) with each content update, or take the Diablo approach and make Expansions to the main game. If they wanted to create a battle pass (we’ll call it a Hero’s Pass) they could offer cosmetic items and take things in several directions.

If they wanted to make the cosmetics still droppable in rewards, they could hold them out of the pool for a while (a few months) and then make them available. This way there would always be new cosmetics that could potentially drop for you as you play. Alternately, they could take Disney Dreamlight Valley’s approach and cycle those items in the Premium Shop periodically, so that they are still available in some form or fashion.

They could also make the passes themselves remain open in a way similar to Halo Infinite, so that if people wanted they could go back and do old passes to get the content that they missed. It would also be an option to make boosts or progress-accelerating items the only things exclusive to the premium shop so that no one feels like they either miss out or “pay to win.”

This is a delicate balance, but with the right development team, I think it would be a wonderful option. Content updates could be scheduled out on a monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly basis depending on how meaty the updates were. Also, with the number of characters and storylines in the Marvel-verse, there is plenty of room for content updates and character additions.

With the ever-flowing machine of the MCU still chugging along, it wouldn’t be out of the question to do tie-in updates for series or films. I’m pretty sure that Marvel Heroes actually did a few tie-ins before Gazillion Entertainment closed its doors. Hell, if we’re really honest with ourselves, I wouldn’t mind if DC took a crack at this instead if Marvel isn’t willing.

Even if Marvel Heroes itself doesn’t come back. I’d love to see more games take this approach. Let people enjoy your content without breaking the bank. Let people work for things they want instead of throwing money at the problem if they don’t have it to spare. People will pay to support a game they like if players are treated well.