Robert Purchese 10:47 (BST)
12/02/2008

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Microsoft Game Studios boss Shane Kim has confirmed that the Marvel Universe MMO has been canned.

He believes most games based on the subscription-based business model it was following do not make enough money to be deemed commercially successful. It was too late for Marvel Universe to begin exploring other possibilities - especially with many other titles taking higher priority on the list.

"I'll confirm. Marvel and we have agreed to end development on the MMO. It was an amicable decision," Shane Kim told MTV Multiplayer.

"When we first entered into the development and agreement of the development of Marvel Universe Online, we thought we would create another subscription-based MMO. And if you really look at the data there's basically one [game] that's successful and everything else wouldn't meet our level or definition of commercial success.

"And then you have to look [and say]: Can we change the business model for that? Is that really viable given how far we are in development? And so forth. Does Marvel want to do that? There's a whole bunch of factors," he added.

Marvel Universe Online was in development for Xbox 360 and PC, and announced to the public at Microsoft event X06. Cryptic Studios of City of Heroes fame was developing, having finally got the Marvel licence under its belt.

Last month Marvel and Electronic Arts terminated a development deal that saw the two companies co-create intellectual property.

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