EA Vs. Marvel Fighting Games Announced

ADD Boy writes "Reuters reports that Electronic Arts and Marvel have come together to 'develop a series of fighting games pitting newly developed EA characters against Marvel superheroes like Spider-Man.'" This cross-media deal also sees Marvel "acting as licensing agent for the new [EA-created] characters and publishing comic books based on them", and "the deal includes more than 100 of Marvel's superhero characters, such as Spider-Man and the X-Men." However, the deal does not include the Hulk or Punisher characters, who are licensed to Vivendi and THQ respectively.

Comments

newly developed?

[B00yah]

I'm not normally one to balk at a fighting game unless the premise is horribly bad, but half the fun of the Capcom v. Marvel series of games was the idea of your favorite Capcom characters taking on your favorite comic book characters. It's definitely going to be a hard sell for EA to push these new characters against Marvel's well loved character set.

And where is a decent DC v. Marvel game when you need it?

Whos EA going to have?

[paradesign]

Tiger Woods, Madden, and the NASCAR's finest?

Come to think of it, maybe i would like to kick Tigers ass.

Re:Whos EA going to have?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hilarious. Mod parent up.

Seriously, Marvel has just been swept off its feet by EA's sales numbers. EA obviously wants the Marvel licenses - they've brought some success to other publishers in the past, not the least of which is Capcom (for fighting games, at that). But Marvel is getting the short end of the stick: EA has no marketable characters that would make a "Marvel vs. EA" worth a second mention by a prospective game player. In comparison, Capcom has infinitely as many, and that - combined with appealing gameplay - translates into successful marketability.

One thing's for sure. If some Tasmanian tiger comes anywhere close to throwing a boomerang at a Sentinel, even on a storyboard or in some EA monkey's sketches, this franchise as published by EA is DOOMED.

Besides, the words "EA" and "fighting game" don't mesh very well in my mind. Neither do the words "EA" and "original characters."

EA characters?

[Lord_Dweomer]

They're so helpful to offer up a couple examples of Marvel characters, but neglect to mention any of the EA characters they are going to be up against. What characters does EA even have? Is it gonna be spiderman vs. some bf1942 grunt?

Re:EA characters?

[simoniker]

I'm not sure the article makes this clear, but I don't believe they'll be using existing EA characters - I think the plan is to create all-new superhero-style characters which 'belong' to Electronic Arts. Whether this is a brilliant creative move or a cynical IP-building cash-in is, of course, open to interpretation. :)

Finally...

[GregThePaladin]

I can beat the ever-loving crap out of JP from SSX.

EA's characters are sure to suck

[Man In Black]

How can EA possibly think they can make characters that could rival Marvel's? The only reason Marvel Vs. Capcom worked was because Capcom's characters already had a following. A fighting game with just Marvel characters would be good. Adding EA characters will simply dilute the game.

How much do you want to bet that EA's characters will be cookie-cutter fighting game fare that are made "extreme" to appeal to kids? I'm guessing there will be a karate guy who's looking for strong opponents, the karate guys rival, a big wrestler/grappler type guy, an army guy, a funky black guy, a token woman, and any number of other Street Fighter ripoff characters. I'm sure EA's focus groups will add enough attitude to turn them into instant Poochie's.