Microsoft's Kim Confirms Marvel MMO Cancellation

Microsoft Games Studio head Shane Kim has confirmed that the long-uncertain Cryptic Studios MMO based on the Marvel Comics universe is canceled. As part of an extensive interview with MTV Multiplayer, Kim said, “I’ll confirm. Marvel and we have agreed to end development on the MMO. It was an amicable decision… It’s just something that we felt that, for us and for them, it would be better if we ended development. Which is disappointing, because that had a lot of promise. But sometimes you have to make these decisions.” The licensing agreement between Marvel and Microsoft was announced in 2005, and since then, the ultimate fate of the MMO has remained uncertain. Kim told MTV that numerous factors contributed to the cancellation, including competition in the MMO market and competing in the arena of monthly subscriptions with "the one [subscription-based] MMO that's successful," and the challenges of new business models. Said Kim, "Clearly there are emerging models that have come about. At the end of the day, all of those combined for us to say, 'look, it’s probably in the interest of both parties for us not to continue.'”