"Marvel Gaming Universe Concept Unveiled but Funding Falls Through"

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has revolutionized entertainment with its interconnected series of films and TV shows, weaving a long-running, cohesive narrative that captivates audiences worldwide. However, Marvel video games operate in a different realm, where each title tells its own unique story, disconnected from the others. For instance, Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man games and Eidos-Montreal's Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy exist in separate universes, with no shared continuity. The same can be said for upcoming titles like Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, Marvel's Wolverine, and Marvel's Blade, which also lack any connective tissue.

Yet, there was a time when Disney considered creating a Marvel Gaming Universe (MGU), mirroring the MCU's success in the realm of video games. This ambitious project aimed to unite Marvel's gaming efforts into a singular, interconnected narrative. So, what led to its demise?

On The Fourth Curtain podcast, hosts Alexander Seropian and Alex Irvine, who both worked on the MGU, shed light on its fate. Seropian, known for co-founding Bungie and developing Halo and Destiny, later led Disney's video game division before departing in 2012. Irvine, a veteran writer in the Marvel gaming scene, contributed to the world-building and character development of games like Marvel Rivals.

Irvine reminisced about the initial vision for the MGU: "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 confirmed that the MGU was his brainchild but lacked the necessary funding: "When I was at Disney, that was my initiative, 'Hey, let's tie these games together.' It was pre-MCU. But it didn't get funded."

Irvine, who had previously worked on the innovative Halo alternate reality game I Love Bees, shared his vision for the MGU: "That was so frustrating because we came up with all these great ideas about how to do it. 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 project may have contributed to its downfall. Irvine elaborated on the challenges they faced: "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 might 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, allowing for character crossovers and a grand, Endgame-style event.

Looking forward, fans are curious about Insomniac's Marvel's Wolverine game. Will it share a universe with Marvel's Spider-Man? Could we see Spider-Man or other characters from those games making cameos in Wolverine?

Ultimately, the MGU remains a fascinating "what if" scenario in the world of gaming. While it never came to fruition, it's a reminder of the creative possibilities that exist, perhaps realized in another universe somewhere.