At long last, Marvel is starting to take video games seriously. We just got Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: A Telltale Series, we are due to get the PlayStation 4 exclusive Spider-Man later this year, and Marvel and Square Enix have announced a multi game partnership that kicks off next year, too.
With these games, Marvel is planning on becoming ambitious. It sounds like it will be pushing some tech with future games, such as virtual reality. In a recent interview with GameSpot, Marvel’s senior vice president of games and innovation Jay Ong expressed excitement for the potential of VR in Marvel games.
“We did a deep dive in looking at the space towards the end of last year, and it offers some pretty incredible opportunities, in terms of delivering really cool experiences. We can’t say anything yet, but believe me, we’re not shying away from it,” he said. “There are absolutely things in the works, but we’re just not quite ready to announce them yet.”
When asked explicitly about fans can expect from Marvel in the VR field, he went into a bit more detail. “Absolutely expect some announcements in VR, that’s something we’re really excited about. I think our fans are going to go crazy. We see VR in the same way we see the other platforms in terms of if you want to do something, you need to do something truly amazing.
“When I first started at Marvel, going back to 2014, the things we were dreaming about back then were almost crazy. We wanted to do these amazing console games, we wanted to do these amazing chart topping mobile games; it was irrational and crazy, but we dreamed and it actually worked because the IP is really strong. […] In VR, we have that same ambition. We think if we do something there, it shouldn’t be just for the novelty of it. It should be something that defines the platform, that defines the experience. Certainly we’re looking to build when Spider-Man comes out, it’ll be one of the best games on the platform, and when Avengers comes out, it’ll be one of the best games on those platforms. We think our efforts in VR will be the same thing.”
This is extremely exciting- imagine an Iron Man game in VR; the very notion makes me giddy. It will be very interesting to see what kinds of experiences Marvel has planned for the format.