For over a decade now, Marvel fans and moviegoers alike have been treated to a multitude of stories set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Beginning with Iron Man in 2008, the MCU has grown tremendously with 23 films expanding the stories of classic Marvel heroes, culminating with Avengers: Endgame in 2019. And while movies about these comic book characters seem to be a smash hit bringing in incredibly large sums of money, video games based in the same universe have not seen nearly the same success.
In the same amount of time that the MCU has existed, Marvel has also released close to 60 video games, but it seems that none of them have been met with the same type of enthusiasm that a new film has. Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4, which is likely considered to be among the best Marvel video games released, still has had a difficult time penetrating pop culture in the same way that any of the MCU movies have, but it’s one of the closest. While some players may see this as a challenge for the gaming branch of Marvel to rise to the movie adaptations’ standards, it seems likely that these games will never live up to the hype.
One of the key aspects that seems to separate the MCU from any of the Marvel games released over the past decade is the direction and vision imagined for the projects. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been spearheaded by Kevin Feige since the project began with Iron Man. Since then, many have stated that it’s been Feige’s reverence for staying faithful to the source material that has given the MCU an edge in the creation of building an evolving saga of films.
Games based off of Marvel’s properties, however, have not been as lucky. Many different studios have tried their hands at making titles using characters from its comics, from Nintendo with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 to Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics with Marvel’s Avengers. And because multiple teams have had their hands on the Avengers and other members of the classic comic book company, there’s been little in the way of continuous storylines between the numerous titles. This isn’t to say that those who directed these games are not as passionate about the properties as Feige is, but having one person in charge who seems to have a very clear vision of continuity between projects seems to be a major key to the MCU’s success.
Another issue that Marvel games seem to have compared to their silver screen counterparts is an issue when it comes to identity. The MCU has established itself as a series of action-packed popcorn films, with very few movies straying from that formula (such as Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Thor: Ragnarok). While this can make most of these movies a bit predictable (sometimes to the point of repetitious), it makes going to see a Marvel movie a safe bet as something most people will enjoy viewing.
Marvel video games, on the other hand, have seemingly had a difficult time establishing what is the “best” direction to go in. These games have had a variety of different genres they’ve inhabited from action, to adventure, RPG, and even fighters. It might be easy to convince a player to purchase a game that has Spider-Man on the cover, but there’s no guarantee that the same player will prefer RPGs over a beat-’em up brawler. Without that universal appeal, Marvel games have a difficult hill to climb if they hope to ever be as popular as the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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