Activision, Marvel Team for Super Hero Fest

By Digital Trends Staff April 27, 2006

Activision and Marvel are getting ready to bring a whole lot of super hero action your way as they today confirmed development of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, an action/RPG hybrid which will be available for all next-gen gaming systems as well as current-gen, handheld and PC platforms this fall.

In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, according to this Activision press release posted at Comic Book Resources, over 140 Marvel characters will be brought together in the largest roster of comic book characters ever seen in a video game. Players assume the roles of more than 20 Marvel Super Heroes including Spider-Man, Wolverine, Blade and Captain America, and â€œthrough their actions determine the fate of both planet Earth and the Marvel universe â€“ revealed in one of multiple epiloguesâ€.

Features of this all star super hero affair, being developed by Raven Software and C.B. Cebulski, include total super hero team customization, character level up options by individual or team as a whole, a combat system which emphasizes fighting moves, powers and environmental objects, an interactive storyline which is influenced how the story plays out and a multiplayer component where fans can band together with friends as their favorite Marvel super heroes.

â€œMarvel: Ultimate Alliance delivers a new twist on action/RPGs where players’ actions and choices ultimately determine what happens to the Marvel universe,â€ states Will Kassoy, Vice President of Global Brand Management for Activision, in a statement. â€œThis coupled with the game’s enormous character roster will deliver an action-packed experience that comic book fans have been waiting for.â€

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Digital Trends Staff

Digital Trends has a simple mission: to help readers easily understand how tech affects the way they live. We are your…

Gaming

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 sets an incredibly high bar for future PS5 games

EMBARGOED FOR 9/15 8 AM PT Miles leaps through the air in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

When Sony set out to highlight the power of the PS5 and its SSD, it did so with a modified version of Marvel's Spider-Man. We were treated to a flythrough of the city from end to end at speeds greater than even our web-slinging hero could hope to match without a hiccup or drop in graphical quality. That makes it fitting that the first game that feels like it fully lives up to the promises the PS5 was sold on is none other than Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

This generation has had a notably more drawn-out separation from the previous. Nearly all of Sony's first-party releases, including God of War Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West, have seen dual releases on PS4 and PS5. Having played the technically astounding Spider-Man 2, it now seems clear that developers had been holding back to get their games to run on older hardware. Even Insomniac's own Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, a PS5 exclusive, now feels like an opening act that was warming us up for the headliner. Spider-Man 2 finally feels like the first game that could not exist on any console other than the PS5.
Tipping the scale

Gaming

Microsoft has acquired Activision Blizzard: What does that mean for you?

The key art from when Microsoft finally acquired Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft now owns Activision Blizzard. After Microsoft worked to appease regulators and fend off litigation, the $69 billion acquisition first announced in January 2022 is finally complete. Now that Activision Blizzard is officially part of Microsoft and a sister company to Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax Media, that raises an important question: What does this acquisition mean for you as a player?

Following this acquisition, Microsoft will own more gaming studios, the availability of Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard franchises will shift, and unionization efforts within Activision Blizzard could gain a bit more ground. If you're wondering what happens next, here's our thorough examination of how the deal could impact players moving forward.
Microsoft's new game studios
With this acquisition, Microsoft will now own all the developers under the Activision Blizzard company. That includes the teams at Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, and King, the latter of which is the developer behind the wildly popular mobile series Candy Crush. The acquisition encompasses the following subsidiaries as well: Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, High Moon Studios, Beenox, Toys for Bob, Activision Shanghai Studio, Solid State Studios, Demonware, Digital Legends, and Major League Gaming. Microsoft now also owns the rights to all of the games and IP Activision Blizzard previously released.

Gaming

Microsoft finally closes its $69B Activision Blizzard acquisition

Xbox acquired Activision Blizzard on January 18, 2022, and gained the rights to Call of Duty, Candy Crush, and more.

It's done: Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The $69 billion deal means that some of gaming's biggest franchises, including Call of Duty, are now Xbox properties.

First announced in January 2022, the blockbuster deal has faced tons of scrutiny from regulators like the CMA and FTC, with there being worry that it'd be unfair to competition in various parts of the game industry. Ultimately, Microsoft proved that wasn't the case, defeating the FTC in court and finally getting the CMA to retract its objection to the deal earlier today. When the CMA did that, an Activision Blizzard spokesperson told Digital Trends "The CMA’s official approval is great news for our future with Microsoft, and we look forward to becoming part of the Xbox Team.”