Fans of Marvel comics have reason to hope that a top-tier video game may be in the cards after all. As part of their outline for Marvel's official 'Video Game' panel at San Diego Comic-Con on July 14, the company has confirmed that both High Moon Studios and Activision will be present to make an announcement they expect to go over well.
No further details have been provided other than Marvel's claim that the announcement in question "is sure to be a hit!" Whether that's a sign that the company really is set to make a big splash, or just trying to build some promotional hype is anyone's guess, but the mere fact that High Moon has been signed to make some sort of game in the comic book universe may be reason for excitement.
Having produced one of the more surprisingly well-designed third-person action titles of the past few years with Transformers: War For Cybertron, the studio has more than enough talent to do a Marvel brand justice. Provided they're not pressured into an accelerated development schedule for a movie tie-in, that is. The team seems to be back on form judging from what we saw of Fall of Cybertron at E3 2012, so hopefully the studio isn't following an on-again, off-again pattern.
Now the only question to ask is exactly what the game will be. Could it be possible that a triple-A video game version of - dare we say it - The Avengers could be released after all? Our hopes were raised be the handing of the license to Ubisoft, only to be dashed when the Kinect/Wii project was completely unveiled. The Avengers and the high caliber of action gameplay shown by High Moon seem like a perfect match, but we won't risk having our hearts broken all over again.
Marvel hasn't had the best track record of movie tie-in games (we could supply evidence, but it's still depressing to walk that road again) but cut ties with SEGA and THQ in the name of higher quality, as the company's IP continued to grow thanks to stellar feature films. When announcing the end of the Marvel-SEGA relationship, the Disney-owned company indicated that not one, but several video game versions of The Avengers were being planned, but more details will be needed before evidence can be seen as conclusive.
The most likely candidates - or at least the ones most recently reported on - would be a video game version of 'Big Hero 6,' a superhero team set to star in the first Disney/Marvel animated feature. That film isn't expected to release until 2014, which would grant enough time to deliver a polished title. While the property may seem too obscure for this kind of treatment, the same might've been said of its existence as a feature film altogether
The presence of Activision might also be telling, not only because the publishing giant now owns High Moon Studios. After years of struggling to publish massive titles, Disney signed a deal with Activision just days ago to bring video game installments of the upcoming film Wreck-It Ralph to three Nintendo platforms. Following an arcade character game-hopping through first-person shooters and JRPG's might be just the type of premise that High Moon could truly bring to life. The development might not be the announcement that some will hope, for several reasons, but we won't count anything out until the announcement is made.
Any theories of your own you'd like to share? Think a superhero property would be perfect for a studio like High Moon to tackle? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.
Whatever High Moon and Marvel are up to, we'll fill you in when the official announcement is made.
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