Marvel and Square Enix Assemble to Make Superhero Games Starting with ‘Avengers’

Marvel and Square Enix have announced a multi-game partnership, starting with The Avengers Project.

They say the time of heroes is over. That if you’re different, you’re dangerous. But I know the truth. The world will always need heroes. We just need to reassemble.

So goes the introduction to The Avengers Project, a mysterious title in development that’s being helmed by Crystal Dynamics, of Tomb Raider fame, and Deus Ex‘s Eidos Montreal.

This will be the first of several games developed by studios under the Square Enix banner in cooperation with Disney’s Marvel. Presently, there is no launch date, there are no gameplay details, and nothing other than the suggestion that these future titles will “it will introduce a universe gamers can play in for years to come.”

In the trailer, Thor’s hammer Mjolnir lies in ruins, alongside the broken hand of Tony Stark’s iconic Iron Man suit and the battle-scarred shield of Captain America. It suggests that the setting is one in which the Avengers have fallen. It’s hard to tell whether they are suggesting a resurrection of the original Avengers, or a world that will require others to ascend.

While franchises like Infamous and Prototype have allowed us to dip our toes into playing new heroes, most games based on comic book licensed go the way of the Arkham series of Batman games, translating established characters into an interactive medium. The possibility of a world in which we could craft our own heroes to succeed Marvel’s fallen icons has a pipe-dream game concept among fans for as long as video games and comics have coexisted.

But aside from the aforementioned Batman games, licensed titles have been historically weak, and often clumsy. If Marvel and Square Enix want to turn that preconception around, this will have to be a whole lot more than a cash grab on a license that is already reaching its saturation point on the big screen.

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