"Marvel Gaming Universe Concept Unveiled, Aims to Link All Games Like MCU, Funding Falls Through"

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has revolutionized the entertainment industry with its interconnected web of films and TV shows, crafting a compelling, ongoing narrative that captivates audiences worldwide. In stark contrast, Marvel video games operate in silos, with each title telling a standalone story devoid of any overarching connection. For instance, Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man series stands independently from Eidos-Montreal's Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Upcoming titles like Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, Marvel's Wolverine, and Marvel’s Blade further exemplify this trend, lacking any connective tissue that might weave them into a cohesive universe.

However, there was once an ambitious plan at Disney to mirror the MCU's success in the gaming realm with what was tentatively called the Marvel Gaming Universe (MGU). This initiative aimed to create a unified gaming experience where all Marvel games would interconnect, much like their cinematic counterparts. So, what derailed this promising project?

On The Fourth Curtain podcast, host Alexander Seropian and guest Alex Irvine shed light on the MGU concept they both worked on, explaining its ultimate fate. Seropian, known for co-founding Bungie, the developer behind Halo and Destiny, led Disney's video game division until 2012. Irvine, a veteran writer in the Marvel gaming space, contributed to titles like Marvel Rivals, focusing on world-building and character development.

Irvine recounted the initial excitement surrounding the MGU, "When I first started working on Marvel games, there was this idea that they were going to create a Marvel gaming universe that was going to exist in the same way that the MCU did. It never really happened."

Seropian revealed that the MGU was his brainchild, a vision he pitched to Disney, "When I was at Disney, that was my initiative, ‘Hey, let’s tie these games together.’ It was pre-MCU, but it didn’t get funded."

Irvine, drawing from his experience with the innovative Halo alternate reality game (ARG) I Love Bees, elaborated on how the MGU could have functioned. "That was so frustrating because we came up with all these great ideas about how to do it. And I was coming out of ARGs at that point and thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we had some ARG aspects?’ There would be a place where players could go that all the games touched, and we could move them back and forth from game to game. We could link in comics, we could loop in anything, we could do original stuff. And then, as Alex said, it didn’t get funded. So we made a bunch of games."

The MGU's failure to secure funding stemmed from its complexity, which overwhelmed some at Disney. Irvine noted, "Even back then, we were trying to figure out, ‘If there’s going to be this MGU, how is it different from the comics? How is it different from the movies? How are we going to decide if it stays consistent?’ And I think some of those questions got complex enough that there were people at Disney who didn’t really want to deal with them."

It's tantalizing to speculate on what might have been if the MGU had come to fruition. Perhaps Insomniac’s Spider-Man games could have shared a universe with Square Enix’s Marvel's Avengers and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, allowing for character crossovers and culminating in a grand, Endgame-like event.

Looking to the future, fans are curious about Insomniac's Marvel's Wolverine game. Will it share the same universe as Marvel's Spider-Man? Could Spider-Man or other characters from those games appear in Wolverine?

Sadly, the MGU remains a fascinating "what if" in gaming history. Yet, in some alternate universe, perhaps it thrives, weaving together Marvel's gaming worlds into a seamless tapestry.