Marvel signs up for movie deal, game tie-ins expected by the dozen

The company has signed a 7-year, $525 million loan agreement with Merrill Lynch, using the film rights to their comics as collateral they intend to produce the movies in-house and distribute them via Paramount Pictures.

Since every Marvel film to date has seen a videogame spin-off this means that we are likely to be seeing videogame adaptations of Captain America, Dr. Strange, Hawkeye and Nick Fury among other lesser known titles such as Ant-Man and Power Pack.

Activision, THQ and Majesco have all produced Marvel tie-ins before, with Activision being the most prolific and receiving the most lucrative deals such as the Spider-Man and X-Men rights, though at this time Marvel is keeping tight lipped about the whole affair, though Captain America looks set to be the first movies - and consequentially, movie tie-in - that we'll see.

Still, we can't help but note with a forlorn tone in our voices that the majority of movie tie-in videogames are simple, by the numbers pieces of pulp gaming spun out for maximum sales and minimum effort by publishing houses. Given what has been done with comic book type games in the past such as Freedom Force we would be sorely disappointed if the same were to happen to some of Marvels greatest assets. µ