Activision Expands Licensing Agreement With Marvel

Activision announced today an extension to their existing licensing agreement with Marvel Enterprises. The new arrangement grants exclusive rights for Activision to develop and publish role-playing games that employ Marvel's assembly of superheroes collectively--in other words, RPG's that utilize multiple Marvel properties, such as Spider-Man and the X-Men. Activision hopes this deal will further establish the company as the leader in the superhero genre on both console and PC platforms.

"We are proud of the success we have had with games based on the Marvel licenses," said Activision Chairman Ron Doornink. "This agreement further strengthens and helps to solidify our position as the number one publisher of Super Hero games."

Of the deal, Marvel's vice president of interactive, Ames Kirshen, said, "We have had tremendous success with Activision through the licensing of individual characters and groups such as Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four. Rather than focusing on just one character, this unique license enables Activision to develop role-playing games that tap a broader base of characters from Marvel's expansive universe. We look forward to an even more successful future with Activision."

Activision is expected to reap the benefits of the agreement in the fiscal year 2007, when the first such title is supposed to release. Obviously, there are no guarantees that the Revolution, DS, or any other Nintendo platform will receive a title resulting from the arrangement; but Activision's record of publishing its superhero games on Nintendo platforms (X-Men Legends, Spider-man games, Fantastic Four, et cetera) definitely gives one a measure of confidence that at least one of these formats will. Regardless, fans of the genre and the license should be excited.

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