Ubisoft and Marvel will release Avengers: Battle for Earth on Wii U and Xbox 360 Kinect this fall -- after THQ passed on an opportunity to release its own tie-in games for the blockbuster movie and comic book franchise.
The game's release will follow the record-setting box office debut of The Avengers film last week. Though it had the biggest opening weekend ever for a movie in North America after earning $207 million, there was no licensed console game to profit on that success.
Media reports last August indicated that THQ was originally set to release an Avengers game for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, but the publisher is said to have cancelled the project after closing its Brisbane and Blue Tongue studios that were working on the titles.
Other game publishers have been able to capitalize on the Avengers movie -- Disney/Playdom put out a Facebook game based on the property, and in the weeks leading up to the film's release, that title saw its audience size spike up to 7.5 million monthly active users and 1.5 million daily users, according to AppData. Gameloft also released a licensed title for mobile devices.
The rights for an Avengers console game eventually reverted to Disney's Marvel Entertainment subsidiary, and now the company is working with Ubisoft Quebec (PowerUp Heroes, Battle of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D) to develop Avengers: Battle for Earth.
As with the Avengers comic books and movie, the game will feature a team of popular superhero characters like Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and The Incredible Hulk, all of whom have received their own individual films and games in the past.
The Xbox 360 version of Avengers: Battle for Earth will require the console's Kinect peripheral, and will have motion controls, while the Wii edition will take advantage of the system's tablet controller.
No they did the THQ thing - dumb, reflexive, two years behind the times. Three years ago the smart publishers abandoned doing console games on these kinds of licenses. THQ is finally catching up to that idea ... just as the smart players are realizing that if done intelligently (i.e., not classic console games competing with COD etc) there is still good money to be made from licensed games.
Keep in mind that THQ had their own developers working on an Avengers game, and the one you are reading about that requires Kinect is not the same game. For all that we know, Blue Tongue could have been working on a more traditional title.
A video of the work in progress Avengers game that THQ threw in the bin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu9wBPuyH5U
A further video with no sound, but it looks awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu9wBPuyH5U
Looks like they could have almost polished it up and shipped it as-is. Must have cost a fortune to get that far, not to mention the cost of the licence.
I'm pretty sure Avatar exceeded its sales expectations and brought in a nice profit, so it was indeed a success. Hoping the Avengers will get more critical acclaim though.
Yeah, that game isn't going to sell very well. THQ did the smart thing.
"Thor brings the thunder"
A further video with no sound, but it looks awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu9wBPuyH5U
Looks like they could have almost polished it up and shipped it as-is. Must have cost a fortune to get that far, not to mention the cost of the licence.
What's the name of the this title? Battle For Earth. THQ is battling to stay on earth!
I would love an Avengers game like that one