Marvel Games VP teases big focus on virtual reality: 'There are many announcements to come'

Last June at gaming's annual E3 trade show, comic-book giant Marvel revealed its intentions to "usher in a new era for Marvel Games" following the announcement of Insomniac's PS4-exclusive Spider-Man game at Sony's press conference.

Since that announcement Marvel Games' plans have taken shape. Telltale Games debuted its series based on Guardians of the Galaxy, and in January Square Enix announced a "multi-game partnership" with Marvel and a game based on The Avengers superhero group.

Now, in an interview with Gamespot, Marvel's senior VP of games and innovation, Jay Ong, has discussed the future of Marvel Games, revealing there are "many announcements to come".

Asked about the potential for virtual reality in particular, Ong revealed Marvel "did a deep dive looking at the space towards the end of last year", adding that it offered "some pretty incredible opportunities".

"We can't say anything yet, but believe me, we're not shying away from it."

Gamespot followed this up by asking whether we might hear more at E3 in June, or sometime later, Ong took a long pause and said: "Soon. [laugh] There are absolutely things in the works, but we're just not quite ready to announce them yet."

Asked to speak more generally of Marvel's video game plans for the next few years, Ong said: "It's going to be exciting here. Absolutely expect some announcements in VR, that's something we're really excited about. I think our fans are going to go crazy. The things we're doing there are absolutely amazing.

"We see VR in the same way we see the other platforms in terms of if you want to do something, you need to do something truly amazing. One of the things about our team, and we talked about our team ethos earlier, is that we have almost irrational ambition. It's true.

"When I first started at Marvel, going back to 2014, the things we were dreaming about back then were almost crazy. We wanted to do these amazing console games, we wanted to do these amazing chart-topping mobile games; it was irrational and crazy, but we dreamed and it actually worked because the IP is really strong. And we got lucky with a few things happening the right way at the right time.

"In VR, we have that same ambition. We think if we do something there, it shouldn't be just for the novelty of it. It should be something that defines the platform, that defines the experience.

"Certainly we're looking to build when Spider-Man comes out, it'll be one of the best games on the platform, and when Avengers comes out, it'll be one of the best games on those platforms. We think our efforts in VR will be the same thing."

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