Now that I’ve finally seen the rumor somewhere else, I feel okay pointing out that I, too, have heard the rumor that Cryptic of City of Heroes fame is making a Marvel-related online property. Note: this is unsubstantiated from anyone who actually matters.

This is only of note to me because… well… the license has been around. I know that Wolfpack was working on a prototype not long after Shadowbane shipped. The feedback we got was that our demo was awesome, but the deal didn’t happen. Other companies that have been (completely unsubstantiatedly) rumored to be within reach of the prize includes Turbine, Mythic, SOE and, most recently, Sigil. Or put another way, pretty much everyone except Blizzard, who was reportedly ‘a tad busy’.

I had a member of my team once call the license the ‘ghost ship of the industry’. Everyone can talk about how they almost were a part of it, but it just didn’t happen. Like Keyser Soze, it vanishes.

But let’s say that the rumors are true. A Cryptic partnership raises some interesting questions.

1) How close to City of Heroes will the design be?
2) If close, how involved and/or annoyed is NCSoft?
3) Will we finally be able to settle the debate of the value of a license?

Initial comments thread is here.