An MCU-Style “Marvel Gaming Universe” Could Have Been a Reality if Disney Execs Had Invested

Marvel Rivals is enjoying quite a bit of success, despite some unfortunate layoffs, thanks to its exciting lineup of Marvel heroes. But what if I told you there was once another ambitious plan for Marvel’s iconic characters to join forces in a different way? We could have witnessed a “Marvel Gaming Universe” akin to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, that enticing idea never saw the light of day.

This intriguing concept came up in a discussion with Alexander Seropian, co-founder of Bungie and former vice president of game development at Disney Interactive Studios, alongside Marvel Rivals writer Alex Irvine. They shared this tidbit during a recent episode of The Fourth Curtain podcast, delving into why the idea ultimately fizzled out. It seems executives weren’t too keen on tackling some of the complex lore questions it posed.

When Irvine first began working on Marvel games, there was this fascinating idea floating around: a Marvel Gaming Universe paralleling the MCU. Unfortunately, as he mentioned, “It never really happened.” Seropian chimed in, noting that the initiative was his brainchild, and the vision was to interconnect Marvel’s games within a shared universe and timeline. Interestingly, this pitch emerged before the MCU had even begun to take flight in the movie world.

Disney, however, never put its financial weight behind it. Irvine expressed his frustration, “That was so frustrating because we came up with all these great ideas about how to do it,” he lamented. He even shared a few of the concepts they had in mind.

“I was coming out of ARGs at that point,” Irvine reminisced, pondering, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we had some ARG aspects?” The idea was to have a central hub where players could transition seamlessly between games. There were plans to integrate comic elements and even original content, creating a rich tapestry of interconnected storytelling.

But why did the MGU remain a dream? Irvine speculated that the problem lay in the numerous questions about executing it effectively. “Even back then,” he recalled, “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?” It seemed the complexity of these questions deterred Disney executives from moving forward.

As a result, we missed out on the possibility of linking games like Insomniac’s Spider-Man with the anticipated Wolverine title or even other projects such as Skydance New Media’s Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra and Arkane’s Blade game. Nevertheless, we still have Rivals to enjoy—for now, you can have fun pitting Venom against a shark named Jeff!