There Was Once an Idea for a 'Marvel Gaming Universe' That Would Tie All the Video Games Together Like the MCU, but 'It Didn’t Get Funded'

The Marvel Cinematic Universe's success in creating a cohesive, interconnected narrative across films and TV shows has been phenomenal. However, Marvel video games haven't followed suit, existing as largely independent entities. Insomniac's Spider-Man games, for instance, are completely separate from Eidos-Montreal's Guardians of the Galaxy, and upcoming titles like Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, Marvel's Wolverine, and Marvel's Blade maintain this isolation.

But there was a time when Disney envisioned a Marvel Gaming Universe (MGU), mirroring the MCU's success in the video game realm. So, what went wrong?

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Alexander Seropian (co-founder of Bungie) and Alex Irvine (writer on numerous Marvel games, including Marvel Rivals), both involved in the early MGU concept, discussed its demise on The Fourth Curtain podcast. Seropian, who previously ran Disney's video game division, revealed the MGU was his initiative but lacked funding from Disney's upper management.

Irvine elaborated on the MGU's potential, explaining the envisioned interconnectedness between games, incorporating ARGs (alternate reality games), comics, and original content to create a truly unified experience. He highlighted the frustration of seeing these ideas unrealized due to a lack of funding.

The MGU's failure to gain traction, according to Irvine, stemmed from the complexity of maintaining consistency across different games while differentiating it from existing Marvel comics and films. This complexity deterred some within Disney.

The unrealized MGU leaves us wondering what could have been. A shared universe might have seen Insomniac's Spider-Man games intersecting with Square Enix's Marvel's Avengers and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, featuring crossovers and culminating in a large-scale event. The future of Insomniac's Marvel's Wolverine also raises questions about potential connections to the Spider-Man universe.

Ultimately, the MGU remains a fascinating example of a scrapped video game concept—a "what if" scenario for the Marvel gaming landscape.