Marvel Open To Creating Smaller Indie Video Games

With Marvel Games changing direction from the old system of usually bad movie tie-ins to creating original major console video games, such as Spider-Man, Telltale, Avengers and others, plus branching out into mobile games, offering different experiences.   Marvel continues to show take video games seriously and are working on many more unannounced mobile, console and VR games.

In a recent interview with Gamespot, Marvel Games vice president and executive producer Mike Jones said that they are thinking about working with smaller studios on indie titles featuring Marvel characters once they have got their “tentpole” games sorted.

Here is some of the interview from Gamespot:

Like Marvel Studios, does Marvel Entertainment also have a large roadmap of what games you want to create and when they’ll release?

We absolutely have a roadmap. We have some incredible mobile, console, and VR games planned that I can’t announce or talk about today. We are curating our portfolio and trying to find the best match for character, partner, genre, platform and trying to not just see who wants a license to make a game. We’re actually very active in planning what are the right experiences for the right franchises for the right platforms, as well as finding the right partners who can provide the best of that.

A lot of times partners come to us and tell us they’re really passionate about a character and have an amazing idea for a project. While other times, we have partners and developers that we really respect and want to work with. It’s definitely music and lyrics, and we’re always trying to find those perfect marriages.

Marvel Studios decides who directs a film based on a character’s genre and type of story they’re in, so we’re similarly thinking the same way of who would be perfect for a Spider-Man or an Avengers game experience. We want to make sure that we pair the right characters and the right franchises with the best possible developers. There is a clinical portfolio management excel spreadsheet component to this process, but more importantly, it’s about passion. Teams are going to work on a game for three or four years, so the quality and the authenticity of the experience lives or dies by the passion and the vision of the teams that we’re working with. We’re constantly looking for development teams and publishers who love Marvel and are excited to tell a story or bring a particular experience to life. We’re here to support that drive. We think of ourselves as kind of facilitators in that sense. We want each of our partners to be the vision holder for their games.

Have you ever thought to license out Marvel properties to smaller “indie” studios too?

Oh, absolutely. We’re looking at mobile and we’re looking at VR. Of course, Insomniac is an independent studio, but in terms of the smaller scope you suggest, absolutely. I think from a strategy and portfolio standpoint, we’re making sure to get our big behemoths set up first. We have our live-service games, mobile games, and big console games. But once all of those tent poles are established, I think our next step would be to create smaller, interesting indie-made games. I’m not announcing a new game, but as an example, Skottie Young’s artwork would be a perfect match for a fun indie game. There are all of these little things that we think about that we’re eager to look into.

Of course, we have a smaller team with limited time and resources, so we’re more focused on the big and important stuff first. But absolutely, the independent space is where so much creativity in publishing has come from. So many writers have taken their shots at Frank Miller’s Daredevil and reinventing that. Reinterpreting characters over the years is what has made so many Marvel characters and stories great. We absolutely want to carry that philosophy into gaming, which is a space that has had such rapid experimentation and strong artistic vision.

Having Marvel work with smaller developers to make games could be very interesting, the world of indie games continues to grow as people are much more willing to try smaller titles, it could be great to see lesser known characters like the Defenders, The Punisher, Inhumans etc get a opportunity to stand out.  There have been many incredible indie games, which would be easily ported to all the major consoles and PC, but these titles could also easily tap into the retro movement, offering side strolling titles (like Streets of Rage with the Defenders or Hotline Miami with the Punisher) or just offer a shorter experience like a Telltale episode.

I’ve been playing lots more indie titles recently, especially with the PS Plus and Xbox Games with Gold offering titles, plus they are much cheaper, with games like Snake Pass, Super Meat Boy, Fast RMX, Shovel Knight, Rocket League and many more.  One title that stands out recently was Disney released a indie game based on Tron, called Tron Run/R which I loved and would easily recommend.  So for me, I think it would be a great way of offering Marvel characters an opportunity to stand out.

What type of indie Marvel game would you like to see?