Image: Marvel/Netmarble
Marvel may be a better-known company in the west, but Korean mobile gaming giant Netmarble will be the creative force to watch when the companies launch an open-world role-playing game called "Marvel Future Revolution" later this year.
Why it matters: The power of modern phones is emboldening studios to make the kinds of games that previously would have only been expected on PCs and consoles.
- "Marvel Future Revolution" will let players fight and talk their way through zones based on various interpretations of the Marvel super-hero universe.
- The developers say players will explore huge areas that they'll share with other players.
What they're saying: "We forecast open world will become one of the major genres [on mobile] in the future," Netmarble U.S. president Simon Sim told Axios during a demonstration of the game.
- Open-world games allow players to explore vast worlds, freeing them from the restrictions of linear corridor-based layouts.
- Such games are rare on mobile due to their technical complexity and the presumed appetite of the audience, but miHoYo's open-world "Genshin Impact" proved a huge hit on mobile last year, earning $1 billion in its first six months, according to Sensor Tower.
What's next: Netmarble is promising hosts of characters, costumes, multiplayer options, added zones and additional story, suggesting this is a long-term project for the studio.
- Marvel's last ambitious super-hero team game, "Marvel's Avengers" from Square Enix, was one of the most high-profile flops of last year due to disappointing gameplay, but Marvel and Netmarble officials declined to say if they learned any lessons from that.
- Instead, they pointed to their last collaboration, "Marvel Future Fight," a simpler game which has drawn 120 million players.