Marvel Future Revolution signals Netmarble’s aggressive global expansion in second half

In an ambitious push for a global audience, South Korean game firm Netmarble on Tuesday showcased Marvel Future Revolution, an open world role-playing game featuring Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Captain America and other beloved characters from Marvel Comics.

During a media showcase held at its headquarters in Guro-gu, western Seoul, Netmarble executives unveiled the details of the new title, set for a global launch in 240 countries and territories in the second half of the year. The event also kicked off preregistrations for the game.

“Marvel Future Revolution offers simplified controls and aims to absorb light users who feel difficulty playing massively multiplayer online RPG,” said Cho Doo-hyun, a project executive at Netmarble Monster who spearheaded the development of the game. Netmarble Monster is a game development studio under Netmarble.

Cho added that when users play Marvel Future Revolution, they would feel as if they’re playing three different games -- a scenario-based console game, action game and role-playing game.

Marvel Future Revolution starts with numerous Earths converging across all dimensions to form an entirely new world. As villains invade the planet, the users’ mission is to select their favorite heroes and work together to defend the universe from the villains.

Netmarble took a twist on the simplistic narrative with dynamic content. In the game, users can enjoy defense objectives, raids and search and rescue missions. Also, the game supports 4 vs. 4, 10 vs. 10 and 50 vs. 50 real-time combat modes.

Marvel Future Revolution is Netmarble’s third project with Marvel, following Marvel Future Fight and Marvel Contest of Champions, which garnered 120 million and 250 million users, respectively.

The game’s main business model revolves around costumes. Marvel Future Revolution will offer 800 million combinations of costumes so that users can customize their heroes. More heroes will also be added to the game in further updates.

For Netmarble, which generates 70 percent of its revenue overseas, Marvel Future Revolution is the latest attempt to channel the soft power of popular global content, as exemplified by Second Country: Cross Worlds, a mobile RPG whose graphics were designed by Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio best known for “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Spirited Away” and “Howl’s Moving Castle.”

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)