Sony has the exclusive license of X-Men games until December 31st, 2035

[Grunty]

Square lost 200 million on the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy games. I'd bet both parties think it best not to make further efforts in their arrangement or at the least think it best to take another long look at anything that had been in the works before they declared those games dead in the water. To think I'm upset when I spend $5 on a comic I didn't like lol

Considering what was apparently expected in terms of sales from those games (with the Avengers game likely expected to sell a lot of micro-transaction content over months in addition to the initial sales), it might be indicative of a problem Marvel based video games are now likely burndened with.

Since many of the movies made several hundred millions in dollar profit and pushed many of the characters into popularity with even a casual audience, it wouldn't be too suprising if the big publishers who got themself the license to using them expect their video game adaptations to be similar profitable.

But seeing how the movies are visual spectacles, the publisher and perhaps the audience too, expect high end graphic spectacles from the games aswell.

However as has been mentioned before a paradigm of modern video game design is that higher end graphics create a lot of restrictions for what the game can be, often resulting in very short and/or shallow gameplay experiences and time, while increasing the development costs and time.

This is the reason why currently many indie and mid sized developers are rather aiming for highly stylized visuals than high detail "photo-realistic" ones, since those can still produce a visual pretty and/or enticing game worlds, on lower hardware requirements and less need for specialized engine knowledge.

Furtheremore depending on the IP and who holds the rights to it, the developer/publisher might be under constant pressure to release the game as soon as possible in order to counter having to pay the license fee on top of the development cost by having the content released ASAP and hopefully make profit.

The primary way this pressure is reduced is if the IP holder is very lenient, giving the developer more breathing room. But this is more often only to be expected from holders of dormant or low profile IPs.

But even then there is often the problem that it's primarily inexperienced and new studios which acquire licenses in order to skip having to create a setting from scratch. This is why many movie IP based video games tend to be shovelware, produced to quickly cash in on something currently popular.

However in this case the license holder is the big entertainment company Disney, the publisher the big company Sony and the IP the Marvel comics characters who in recent years stared in million dollar making action spectacle movies, which puts a lot more pressure on every developer who would get tasked with making games based with them.

So the overall situation seems like it's destined to have developers pressured by strict time restrictions to make high end graphic based action games, which are bound to have very short run times and shallow gameplay, but also expected to be sold in illusionary quantities to make the money for both the development time and the expensive IP license back.

Essentialy in the current climate it seems unlikely that Marvel IPs could be used for many well made mid-range video games, even though those could much better support the IPs and popularize even lesser known characters, in addition to one or two high profile short but pretty looking ones.

Though perhaps, my assumption will be proven wrong and the X-men fans will profit from Sony's handling of the IP. No reason not to have a bit of optimism.

[andreikes]

I'm still waiting for X-Men Legends 3...

need remake

[cam18]

what was the last xmen exclusive game xmen destiny.........its a been a while im old enough to remember then having a significant presence not just in crossover games but xmen only titles a sign of strong franchise.....I just hope they don't do the dumb thing they did with the avengers game and stick ms marvel all in it in place of the characters that are at the heart and soul of the franchise during its best years in an attempt to make her stick.

[Odd Rödney]

I'm still waiting for X-Men Legends 3...

Those two games are so underrated. At least just remaster them.

Hell yes! I still play them from time to time and while graphically they have aged some, they are still a good time.

[Uncanny X-Man]

This thread made me went to play XML II again so I went ahead and reinstalled it along with some fun mods from MarvelMods. Graphics are quite dated now but the game is still a lot of fun and just an immense treat for X-fans.

[Confuzzled]

Square lost 200 million on the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy games. I'd bet both parties think it best not to make further efforts in their arrangement or at the least think it best to take another long look at anything that had been in the works before they declared those games dead in the water. To think I'm upset when I spend $5 on a comic I didn't like lol

Are we sure X-Men games are going to suffer the same fate as Avengers and Guardians? I mean, Spider-Man is doing more than excellent. Maybe the Avengers and Guardians are fads that the world has already moved on from?

Time to let the classic girlies take centerstage again

[Uncanny X-Man]

Are we sure X-Men games are going to suffer the same fate as Avengers and Guardians? I mean, Spider-Man is doing more than excellent. Maybe the Avengers and Guardians are fads that the world has already moved on from?

Time to let the classic girlies take centerstage again

Both the Avengers and the Guardians are multi-billion dollar properties with a ton of goodwill built up from movies, cartoons, park rides and merchandise. I truly don't believe popularity is the issue here -the Guardians' game had a very peculiar format that is just not everyone's cup of tea and the Avengers was plagued with issues and criticism from the beginning. Gotham Knights suffered a similar fate despite the grandiose groundwork laid down by the Arkham games. Enormously popular franchises like One Piece or Dragonball also don't always result in successful videogames. People tend to respond to the game itself, if it's great they'll come in spades, if not, even a very popular franchise will take a hit.

[Frontier]

The Guardians game was well-received, critically at least.

[Uncanny X-Man]

The Guardians game was well-received, critically at least.

That's true, it did receive rave reviews but it was commercially unsuccessful ultimately. I actually enjoyed both that and the Avengers game but I think it's safe to say the general public didn't hah.

[Anthony W]

Hey want to know what Sony can and can't (at least without talking to Disney first) do in a Marvel game? Look no further! https://imgur.com/gallery/SxmjClK
lVZm57E.jpg
TCl6G3I.jpg

Apparently Spidey, cannot reference movies and shows not made by Disney.

[Keno]

Hey want to know what Sony can and can't (at least without talking to Disney first) do in a Marvel game? Look no further! https://imgur.com/gallery/SxmjClK
lVZm57E.jpg
TCl6G3I.jpg

Apparently Spidey, cannot reference movies and shows not made by Disney.

There goes Logan smoking a few cigars lol

[Anthony W]

There goes Logan smoking a few cigars lol

No gambling::I have a feeling there won't be any scenes of Logan playing poker or any kind of card game.

No discrimination based on race::But, how will they do an X-MEN game? LOL!

[Keno]

No gambling::I have a feeling there won't be any scenes of Logan playing poker or any kind of card game.

No discrimination based on race::But, how will they do an X-MEN game? LOL!

Yeah this definitely relates with Disney's criteria of making their products

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

Are we sure X-Men games are going to suffer the same fate as Avengers and Guardians? I mean, Spider-Man is doing more than excellent. Maybe the Avengers and Guardians are fads that the world has already moved on from?

Time to let the classic girlies take centerstage again

I wasn't saying X-Men games will be bad. I was saying that I wouldn't bet on more Marvel x SquareEnix games happening.

As far as Guardians/Avengers being fads, I kind of think that. The characters were around for 45 years before their movie forms became the zeitgeist. Some regression closer to historical interest levels makes sense.

The x-games should sell. People actually like X-Men even when they aren't the popular thing that everyone must be into.

[Hypestyle]

there needs to be a New Mutants game for once. Stick to the New Mutants team. Not X- Force.