Things are not going well with the action brawler Marvel Heroes . Problems seem to have arisen at the management level. After the departure of Diablo’s father Brevik, they have a “Weinstein problem.” Moreover, the Free2Play game on PC is losing players.
From Cinderella to Princess and Back
For a long time, the Free2Play game Marvel Heroes was considered a wonderful success story that created a warm feeling in the stomach. “Look, when you do everything right, you will succeed!”
Development legend David Brevik, who once came up with the idea for Diablo, had over the years created a “Cinderella” story. Starting weak with Marvel Heroes, the game then improved and earned an excellent reputation with community engagement, fair Free2Play, and a focus on fun and events. Dedicated Marvel fans worked on their dream with a lot of passion and expertise. That was the assumption for a long time.
David Brevik left Marvel Heroes in early 2016 – the job as CEO of Studio Gazillion was too much administration and not enough game development for him. After Brevik’s departure, the excellent reputation of Marvel Heroes has taken some hits.
PC Players Feel Neglected
Not much has happened since the port of Marvel Heroes to PS4 and Xbox One with the PC version. Ever since the announcement of a port, it seems everything revolves around the consoles.
As reported by Massively Overpowered, Gazillion has even let the Halloween event drop – events were a major strength of the game for a long time.
The usual update has also been canceled – there has been no news for a while regarding the planned merging of all “versions”. It was originally scheduled for November.
Currently, console players are playing a different Marvel Heroes than PC players. And that has negative effects: The PC version has hardly been further developed, while the versions on PS4 and Xbox One received game content in 2017 that was already present on PC.
Instead, Gazillion announced at the end of September that they are developing a VR game. This has upset the fans of Marvel Heroes significantly. They want Gazillion to continue supporting Marvel Heroes – just like in previous years.
Marvel Heroes Has Much Fewer Players on PC Compared to a Year Ago
A clearly measurable problem has arisen: Marvel Heroes is losing players terribly on PC. This can be tracked on Steamcharts. At its peak in the summer of 2016, Marvel Heroes had an average of 3000 players online, now there are only 430 left.
Fans blame the consoles for this, feeling neglected since the port to PS4 and Xbox One. Simply nothing has come out – while content updates were the great strength of Marvel Heroes.
A “rework of the game” that was supposed to make Marvel Heroes more accessible was not well received by all fans. They found it afterward “too simple and simplified.”
Serious Accusations Against Gazillion CEO – “Inappropriate Behavior Especially Towards Women”
A profound problem seems to have matured in the management level of Gazillion. A former high-ranking employee of Gazillion has made accusations against the current CEO.
The former Creative Director Jeff Donais says, the current CEO is known for his inappropriate behavior, especially towards women. Industry insiders discuss this behind closed doors. It is known even at Gazillion, but they want to sweep it under the rug for fear that Marvel will not renew the license for the game.
They tolerate the CEO’s behavior because he controls the money flow and can talk well.
Fans of the game are now even demanding that Marvel and Disney get involved: Someone like that should not head a studio.
Mein MMO says: It is difficult to evaluate these personal accusations from the outside when you only have forum posts, blog posts from an apparently deeply disappointed ex-girlfriend, and anonymous reviews on Glassdoor. But these are occurrences that are absolutely not usual. That a former Creative Director makes such statements about a current CEO is outrageous.
On a side note: Marvel Heroes felt significantly different in 2017 than in the “good years” under Brevik. That’s just a shame – Marvel Heroes was, alongside Warframe, the great “feel-good” story in MMOs. Nowadays, Warframe seems to be alone in this.
