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Marvel To Self-Publish Punisher PSN Arena Shooter

Marvel is getting into the video game publishing arena, and its debut effort appears to be a Zen Studios-developed arena shooter based on the Punisher licensed and distributed exclusively for PS3 through Sony's PlayStation Network -- details within.

Chris Remo, Blogger

September 23, 2008

1 Min Read
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Arena multiplayer shooters may not be en vogue like they were around the turn of the century. But Marvel hopes to kick some life into the genre with the upcoming PlayStation 3 exclusive The Punisher: No Mercy, based on the heavily-armed Marvel Comics character and distributed solely through Sony's PlayStation Network downloadable service. The game is being developed using Unreal Engine 3 by Budapest-based Zen Studios, which claims prior downloadable game development experience by way of the Xbox Live Arcade titles Pinball FX and Rocky and Bullwinkle. Since there is no retail publisher attached to this title, it appears that No Mercy represents Marvel's video game publishing debut. Marvel has traditionally licensed its properties to third party publisher; Activision in particular has been a prolific publisher of games featuring Spider-Man, X-Men, and other Marvel characters, and holds multiple property licenses through 2017. In another first, Zen Studios managing director Zsolt Kigyossy points out that this will be Marvel's inaugural foray into the first-person perspective on consoles. While arena multiplayer FPS action seems to be the main focus, Zen is also developing a single-player component featuring art (inlaid above) by Marvel's Mike Deodato. According to Kigyossy, speaking in an official PlayStation Blog post, the "No Mercy" subtitle was chosen due to the "merciless" quality of the game.

About the Author

Chris Remo

Blogger

Chris Remo is Gamasutra's Editor at Large. He was a founding editor of gaming culture site Idle Thumbs, and prior to joining the Gamasutra team he served as Editor in Chief of hardcore-oriented consumer gaming site Shacknews.

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