While most of the gaming press pretty much shrugged and moved on regarding Gazillion (or in the case of some blogs, sneered – but hey, that’s what blogs usually do) Ben Fritz at Variety* did that crazy ‘journalism’ thing and got the right people on the phone to comment.

In the process, he discovered a whole bunch of new facts which are very interesting, and led me to some more thoughts. You absolutely should read the article, but I’ll pull out some corkers here:

1. Gazillion has eight ‘projects’ in the works.

Four we know about (LEGO Universe, Marvel Super Hero Squad, Marvel Universe, Slipgate Ironworks’ MMO) but that leaves four more they’re keeping under wraps. That’s pretty huge. Again to give you context, while at NCsoft there were usually half-a-dozen or more MMO projects in various stages of development in Korea, it was rare any of them were made public.

Right now, again by comparison, NCsoft has four MMOs in development that you know about (Guild Wars 2, Aion: The Tower of Eternity, Carbine Studios’ MMO, Blade & Soul) but I guarantee you more are under wraps.

Still, of those projects you’re aware of, some have been in development since 2005, and hey, you’ve known about others since 2006. With Gazillion’s announcement and lots of speculation that they’re releasing Marvel Super Hero Squad in 2010, they’re already ahead of the game. I have a sneaking suspicion other publishers may try to follow this ‘late breaking’ approach in future.

2. Of those four secret projects, three are based on existing properties.

Huge, huge respect to Ben for finding this out, so I have to quote:

Marvel isn’t the only license with which Gazillion is working. See those four “unannounced MMOs” listed above? The three that don’t say “original” are also based on licenses. Gazillion won’t yet say what they are, but Hutter did note that they will be brands with an ongoing presence, not one-off movies or TV shows.

Oh-ho, now it gets interesting. Care to name some potential hot IPs for MMOs these days? I’ll give you the usual suspects: Harry Potter, Terminator, Robotech, Transformers… I’ve seen those names plenty of times before (plus the usual mention of ‘Shadowrun’ from the tabletop fans – hey, I agree with you). I think any of those four are good potential matches for MMO licences, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Gazillion and others are pursuing them.

However, if you’re looking for “ongoing presence”, the list gets shorter. Star Wars and Star Trek? Covered. How about… Doctor Who? Difficult, but not impossible. Mission: Impossible could be interesting. Would Lost work as an MMO?

I could spend another post throwing out possibilities, but this just confirms part of Gazillion’s gameplan: go after well known IPs to gain recognition and potential traction, while building your own original properties to get some IP money in the bank.

3. Almost certainly, it was Microsoft that killed the previous Marvel MMO, not Marvel.

I’ve seen plenty of blogs and postings since the news broke trying to pour cold water on the idea of the Marvel licence, suggesting as it’s been tried before in MMO form, that somehow it’s a bad idea. For some reason though, everyone seems insistent on blaming Marvel for the failure of Marvel Universe Online, but for some reason no-one seems to want to point the finger at Microsoft (who were supposed to publish it) or Cryptic (who were developing it).

Considering we never saw anything of Marvel Universe Online publicly (a CGI movie doesn’t count), and we’ve been told Champions Online sprung from it, if you ask me you can see what a Marvel MMO by Cryptic might have been like by looking at Champions Online. Maybe that just didn’t gel with what Marvel wanted to see. But I think more likely, the answer lies with the money men: Microsoft.

With that in mind, Ben Fritz asked the question that you need to ask: “So can Gazillion make a successful “Marvel Universe” MMO after Microsoft abandoned the project?” and got this telling answer:

[Gazillion CEO] Hutter said Microsoft simply didn’t want to prioritize a Marvel MMO and his company will. “There was a lot of thinking at the Xbox division about where they should be spending their time,” he explained. “Should they enable an MMO or pursue a partnership with Netflix? I think it was driven around the changes in strategic emphasis more than the market capability.

In other words, almost certainly… Microsoft cancelled the Marvel Universe Online project, not Marvel. Would Marvel give up the chance to make an MMO with their characters? Of course they wouldn’t: they’re a licencing company, as I explained before, and that means they want their characters licenced. And if they failed previously, they’re going to try again.

4. Marvel knows it’s a hot IP, and Gazillion does too.

Gamers want a Marvel MMO. Hell, I know I want one. I’d be surprised if you don’t. As Robert Hutter points out:

“IGN did a poll and ‘Marvel Universe’ was the number one most anticipated MMO. I don’t think there’s any lack of appetite.”

No, I don’t think there’s a lack of appetite either. If anything, I think post-Champions Online and (probably) post-DC Universe Online, there’s going to be a huge demand for a Marvel MMO… and that’s before you factor in the Marvel movie factor, which gives us at least one major movie every summer for the next three years.

Oh and incidentally, there was a good reason why Gazillion signed a ten-year licence – they realise Marvel’s in this long-term:

[Marvel's Simon Phillips] also notes that Gazillion’s long-term deal will make it easy to tie “Marvel Universe” into his company’s slate of films. “There could be various expansion packs that launch around a movie schedule,” he noted. So if the game was already operating, for instance, you might see a Wolverine expansion in May.

A new Asgard zone to tie-in with the Thor movie, perhaps? A time-travelling World War II expansion to tie-in with Captain America: The First Avenger?

Of course this is before you even think about Marvel Comics tie-ins. Geoff Johns and others on the DCUO team have already talked about getting the comics to cross over into the game, but if you ask me, Marvel’s even better poised to cross over with an MMO (not least because their universe-wide events make more sense on paper, unlike, say, *cough* Final Crisis *cough*).

Can you imagine Secret Invasion as a game-wide event? A massive Skrull attack? NPCs who’ve been in the game since day one turning out to be Skrulls? Huge saucers packed with ‘missing’ heroes descending in Central Park? How about logging in and being presented with the opportunity to turn your own character into a Skrull sleeper agent?? Yeah. I think you can see that working.

5. (Bonus fifth thought!) Gazillion knows what it’s getting into.

When a company ‘de-cloaks’ after three-and-a-half years of secrecy, understandably there’s scepticism – especially when the President and CEO has no industry experience in MMOs.

However, it’s becoming obvious that Gazillion know what they need to do to make a competitive product in the MMO space. They’re already talking about the full range of potential business models, and while you might have heard this song before, it’s pretty important to hear it being sung:

“Licensed MMOs are only a winning proposition if you can convince folks to spend time for six months and beyond,” Hutter affirmed. “That long-term relationship means your audience is a check on quality. It’s very different from a one-shot retail sale where you’re just going off the marketing of another property. The safest strategy for us is a high quality title.”

Amen to that. High quality licenced MMOs? Let’s hope.

* Yes, Variety, the Hollywood newspaper. Funny how something that ostensibly isn’t a games news outlet does a better job of covering games than most.