Microsoft Cancels Marvel Universe MMO

I've been pretty skeptical about the Marvel Universe Onilne MMO that was announced a couple of years ago. While I'm a huge fan of the X-Men and other Marvel mutants, I've always wondered what they would be able to that would set the game apart from City of Heroes/Villans, which is an MMO about a bunch of superheroes and supervillans. The icing on the cake was that the same developer that worked on CoH was also working on the Marvel MMO. With that said, I was shocked to hear that the game has been canceled.

Shane Kim, Corporate Vice President of Mocrosoft Game Studios (who was working with Cryptic Studios on the title) said that they didn't feel they could compete in the current subscription-based MMO market.

I love the quote that was given during an MTV interview "There's basically one that's successful and everything else wouldn't meet our level or definition of commercial success. And then you have to look [and say]: 'Can we change the business model for that?'" I guess they finally figured out that there was already an MMO with the same overall idea (although it lacks the rich characters and history of the Marvel Universe) that's been out for years.

[via Game|Life]