In 2006, Microsoft and developer Cryptic Studios announced plans to release a Marvel Comics-based superhero MMO game for the Xbox 360 and Windows Vista. It was canceled less than two years later.
Earlier this week, there was a surprise announcement in the game industry. After over 10 years of being “dead”, the superhero MMO City of Heroes is officially back, sort of. A fan-run and funded server, City of Heroes Homecoming, had received an official license from the game’s owner NCSOFT to not only continue operations but also add new content to the game.
This is huge news for the many fans of the game that launched in 2004, but got shut down by NCSOFT in 2012. However, many people might have forgotten that the game had some legal issues early in its run. They were caused by none other than Marvel Comics.
In November 2004, not long after the game launched, Marvel Comics (several years before Disney bought it) filed a lawsuit against City of Heroes’ original developer Cryptic Studios, and NCSOFT. As Games Developer reported at the time, the problem was not with the game itself, but with its character creator. Cryptic had made a character generation system that was, at that time, one of the most customizable ever made for any video game.
Marvel’s lawsuit claimed the City of Heroes character generator was too customizable. It stated the game’s players could make characters that not only looked the same as Marvel’s superhero characters, but also played in the game much like they would in Marvel’s comics. The characters could even be named in the game as their Marvel counterparts.
Cryptic Studios and NCSOFT stated that Marvel’s lawsuit was without merit. In March 2005, the case went to federal court. At that time Cryptic and NCSOFT tried to argue that if Marvel was successful in this lawsuit against the City of Heroes’ character creator, then they should also file a lawsuit against the creators of the pencil or other creative tools.
