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 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, with each title telling its own unique story, disconnected from the others. For instance, Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man games are entirely separate from Eidos-Montreal's Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Similarly, upcoming titles like Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, Marvel's Wolverine, and Marvel's Blade are standalone experiences without any shared universe.

Yet, there was once a vision at Disney to create a Marvel Gaming Universe (MGU) that would mirror the success of the MCU in the gaming world. So, what led to the abandonment of this ambitious project?

On The Fourth Curtain podcast, host Alexander Seropian and guest Alex Irvine, both of whom worked on the MGU concept, 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 for Marvel games, contributed to the world-building, dialogue, and character backstories for the recent hit, Marvel Rivals.

Irvine reminisced about the early days of his involvement with Marvel games, mentioning the initial plan to establish a Marvel Gaming Universe akin to the MCU. "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," he said. "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," Seropian explained. "But it didn't get funded."

Irvine, who had previously worked on the innovative Halo alternate reality game (ARG) I Love Bees at Bungie, 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 been its downfall. Irvine suggested that the intricate questions about how the MGU would differentiate itself from comics and movies, and maintain consistency, overwhelmed some at Disney. "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," he explained.

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 games make appearances in Wolverine?

Sadly, the MGU remains a fascinating yet unrealized concept in the annals of video game history. Yet, in some alternate universe, perhaps it thrives as a reality.