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It is a dark day for Marvel fans worldwide as Microsoft has done what Magneto, Galactus and Doctor Doom haven’t managed to do in over 70 years, and that is destroy Marvel Universe Online.

In an interview with MTV, Microsoft Game Studios’ Corporate Vice President, Shane Kim, confirmed what thousands of Marvel fans had been dreading to hear: the online game that was to be centered on the Marvel Comic universe was indeed canceled and production stopped.

“Marvel and Microsoft have agreed to end development on the MMO,” Kim told MTV. “It’s just something that we felt that, for us and for them, it would be better if we ended development…When we first entered into the development and agreement of the development of Marvel Universe Online, we thought we would create another subscription-based MMO. And if you really look at the data there’s basically one that’s successful and everything else wouldn’t meet our level or definition of commercial success. And then you have to look and say, ‘Can we change the business model for that? Is that really viable given how far we are in development?’ And so forth. Does Marvel want to do that? There’s a whole bunch of factors.”

At first when Marvel Universe Online was announced back in 2006, millions of Marvel fans everywhere rejoiced. And when word was announced that Cryptic Studios, the makers behind the popular MMO City of Heroes, a title that first introduced the concept of super heroes to the MMO communities, it seemed very likely that Marvel Universe Online could become one, if not the, most popular MMO ever.

Expectations were high, as Microsoft had attended the game to be an exclusive on the Xbox 360. For Marvel, the game was meant to cross with their comics, as many storylines and features were going to be taking directly from many of Marvel’s most popular stories and events, such as Secret Wars, Civil Wars and House of M.

Marvel Universe Online isn’t the first high-profile MMO to be cancelled by Microsoft who had already giving the axe to Level-5’s True Fantasy Live Online, which was suppose to be released on the first Xbox.

Read [IGN] Also Read [Shack News] Site [MTV Blog]

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