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While the hero shooter may be on somewhat shaky ground in terms of new entries these days, what if the heroes were…really, really well known? That appears to be the idea behind a reportedly in-development Marvel game that will allegedly be a 6v6 Overwatch-style hero shooter, albeit in third-person, not first person.
I’ve seen a few different bits of sourcing on this now, the latest from TheStreamr, and yes, I am convinced the game is likely real. It’s from NetEase, which has a contract to develop Marvel games, but this is supposed to be on a larger, AAA scale than its past mobile entries, Marvel Super War and Marvel Duel. One report says it will be on PC, another says console and mobile as well.
Known Avengers/Suicide Squad leaker Miller also confirmed the existence of the game, which is supposed to be stylized in the vein of Valorant more than Overwatch designs. Miller says he likes the Storm design, seemingly confirming that character, and an additional Streamr article says Magneto is another character, and he will be voiced by James Arnold Taylor, Obi-Wan in the Clone Wars animated series. Reportedly Magneto will have “environmental destruction” powers.
The details remain a bit murky with a few conflicting reports, but the topline, a competitive Marvel hero shooter, is enough to go off of, though I imagine more than a few players will be skeptical of NetEase’s involvement here, as the company is widely known for microtransaction-heavy mobile games. And hero shooters from Overwatch to Valorant to Apex Legends are obviously laden with microtransactions at baseline. The Marvel game will have skins, at the very least, to be sure.
So, who is on the list? Here’s the rundown, which is obviously subject to change, and it’s not clear how many the game would launch with, and which ones would be added later. As you can see, we are spanning both the Avengers and the X-Men at the very least here.
- Doctor Strange
- Scarlet Witch
- Iron Man
- Luna Snow
- Punisher
- Rocket
- Groot
- Loki
- Spider-Man
- Hulk
- Magik
- Magneto
- Mantis
- Storm
- Peni Parker
- Black Panther
- Star Lord
- Namor
- Thor
A few interesting inclusions in there would be Luna Snow, a Korean hero which first showed up in Marvel Future Fight, and has since appeared in the comics. And you may recognize Peni Parker from the Spider-Verse movie series, an Evangelion-inspired version of Spider-Man from an alternate universe. Other picks are a little surprising, Magik and Mantis seem a bit lower profile than the others, but it’s a good list. Valorant only launched with 12 agents and this is 19. Overwatch, however, had 21. So who knows, maybe it’s all of them.
It is pretty easy to be skeptical about this given how poorly most non-Spider-Man superhero games have performed as of late, and how burned out many players are on hero shooters, but we’ll see. There is supposed to be an announcement for the game coming this year, and we’ll learn more then. I’ve asked NetEase for comment and will update if I hear back.
Report: A Marvel 6v6 Overwatch-Style Shooter Is Coming
That appears to be the idea behind a reportedly in-development Marvel game that will allegedly be a 6v6 Overwatch-style hero shooter
www.forbes.com