"Marvel Gaming Universe Concept Unveiled, Aimed to Link All Games Like MCU, Funding Fell Through"

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has revolutionized entertainment with its interconnected web of films and TV shows, weaving a long-running, cohesive narrative that captivates audiences worldwide. However, Marvel video games operate in a vastly different manner, each telling standalone stories that do not intersect. For instance, Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man series exists independently from Eidos-Montreal's Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Similarly, forthcoming titles such as Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, Marvel's Wolverine, and Marvel's Blade, lack any shared universe elements.

Yet, there was a time when Disney contemplated the creation of a Marvel Gaming Universe (MGU) that would emulate the MCU's success in the realm of video games. So, what led to the abandonment of this ambitious project?

On The Fourth Curtain podcast, host Alexander Seropian and guest Alex Irvine, both involved with the MGU concept, shed light on its development and ultimate demise. Seropian, notable for co-founding Bungie, the developers behind Halo and Destiny, later led Disney’s video game division before departing in 2012. Irvine, a seasoned writer for Marvel games, contributed to world-building and character development in the popular Marvel Rivals.

Irvine reminisced about the initial vision for the MGU, stating, "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, but it failed to secure funding from Disney's higher-ups. "When I was at Disney, that was my initiative, 'Hey, let’s tie these games together.' It was pre-MCU," he explained. "But it didn’t get funded."

Irvine, who had previously worked on the innovative Halo alternate reality game (ARG) I Love Bees, elaborated on the potential mechanics of the MGU. "That was so frustrating because we came up with all these great ideas about how to do it," he said. "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 complexity of the MGU concept may have contributed to its downfall. 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 intriguing to ponder what could have been if the MGU had received the necessary funding. Perhaps Insomniac's Spider-Man games would have shared a universe with Square Enix's Marvel's Avengers and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, featuring cross-game cameos and culminating in a grand, Endgame-style event.

Looking forward, questions linger about Insomniac's upcoming Marvel's Wolverine game. Will it share the same universe as Marvel's Spider-Man? Could characters from the Spider-Man series make appearances in Wolverine?

Ultimately, the MGU remains a fascinating "what if" scenario in the annals of video game history. In some alternate reality, perhaps, it thrives as a testament to what could have been.