There’s no shortage of Marvel-based video games at the moment, but a team of talented developers at Second Dinner — including former Hearthstone and Halo creators — are going to be the next to tackle the comic giant’s massive roster of heroes.
“We’re partnering with Marvel on our first game,” Second Dinner said in a statement on its home page, explaining that the game would feature Spider-Man, the Avengers, and X-Men, among other heroes. “We’re working on the prototype already and we think it might just be the most fun thing ever in the history of fun.”
Second Dinner is led by Hamilton Chu, a producer who spent time at Bungie producing games like Halo 2 before moving to Blizzard to work on World of Warcraft and Hearthstone. Ben Brode, who previously served as game director on Hearthstone, is also on the team as chief creative officer, and three other developers on the team also previously worked on Blizzard’s card game. The studio is currently looking to expand with a client engineer and a technical artist, as well.
With all of those Hearthstone developers working on the same project, it would seem likely that the Marvel game they’re referring to is a card game. However, Marvel just recently released a new digital card game with Nexon called Marvel Battle Lines. It doesn’t play the same as Blizzard’s game, so there’s arguably room for a second Marvel card game, but it’s possible that Second Dinner is working on something outside the genre.
The only tidbit of information we really know about the game, other than the Marvel license, is that it will be “optimized for mobile.” Given the control schemes possible on mobile devices in 2019, this doesn’t exactly narrow it down, though it does mean a Hearthstone-like card game could be in the works.
One other large Marvel game project has remained almost completely under wraps over the last year or so. Back in 2017, Square Enix signed a deal with Marvel Comics to produce games based on its properties, including one called The Avengers Project. Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal are working on the game, with the former apparently leading development.
