Summary
Marvel extends its cachet of characters into gaming and the internet without having to make any investments as it did to expand into movies. Gazillion gains an existing marketing machine and branding engine with decades of experience and an extensive fan base that now transcends the gaming sweet spot of 20 to 30 year olds, from those baby boomer 60 year olds comic book aficionados to kinder-gamers in Spiderman diapers. Sound like a cash cow just waiting to be milked, to me.
Analysis
Finally a gaming vendor is tapping into the cachet of Marvel Comics.Marvel's proven success in transistioning across media, from print (comics) to film for their characters literally begs for the conquest of the 21st media darling...gaming and the internet.
My first thought upon reading this article, 'why had no one thought of this before?'
Gaming has been (and still is) the driver behind technology development in the personal computer segment.
From the limitations of the compute power of the central processor was born graphic acceleration hardware chips, specialized high speed memory, and the migration of more speed, more transistors and more polygons up to the screen.
Content-wise, software game vendors had to introduce their own characters, and hope they could build a loyal following. Some of them made the transition into our lexicon, such as Mario and Sonic, most did not.
Marvels comic book characters have been around for decades! Already branded and merchandised.
This deal is an automatic money maker, and extends the market beyond the current demographic of gamers, both down and up on the age scale.
The only way they could screw this up is by their inability to execute and get the games out there.
