MMORPG.com: How far you guys have come since launch! What's the last year been like, from your perspective?
Dave Brevik: The game has come a long ways since launch. The team has done an incredible job. We have worked very hard on trying to make Marvel Heroes the best ARPG in the world. There have been many late nights, many constructive conversations with the community and a lot of team-pride as the game continues to grow. We have doubled our DAU in the last six months and we continue to see fantastic growth. With this anniversary, it is an opportunity to expose the game to new players and have them join in the fun.
MMORPG.com: What do you think was Marvel Heroes' biggest hurdle to overcome in its first year?
Dave Brevik: There have been many hurdles, but our rocky start and thin feature-set were big problems. This created an opinion of the game that stuck with it for a long time. I think we are well past that, but it remains a secret with gamers. There have been many other free-to-play games that launched a bit early, but became big hits after a lot of iteration.
So, rather than giving up, we invested in what we had and spent the last year making thousands of improvements. I am really excited about the next year.
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MMORPG.com: Of all the additions and changes, what's been your personal favorite?
Dave Brevik: My favorite addition was the very first: Eternity Splinters. It was my favorite for a number of reasons. First, I thought it showed the community that we are willing to change anything. All features and designs can be improved and we were not satisfied. We changed the business model with that change, allowing players to earn any hero in the game by playing. Secondly, it really showed off our ability to listen to the community and react to their feedback. And lastly, it happened so quickly, it set the standard and pace of our changes. We patch every week. We have added more content and features to this game than any other product that I know about.
MMORPG.com: Now the flip-side... what change do you wish you could go back and do-over?
Dave Brevik: I don’t think there has been a feature that I wish we could do-over. With weekly patches, we can rapidly iterate on anything we do. The only do-over I wish we could have done would have been to label the game “open-beta” at launch and lifted the beta tag after several months, Gmail-style.
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MMORPG.com: What sort of plans do you have coming up for the anniversary? Care to shed the light on what that counter's all about?
Dave Brevik: The countdown timer is all about the anniversary. Marvel Heroes has changed so much in the last year, it deserves a new name. Our first season has come to an end and our second season is beginning. Marvel Heroes will now be called Marvel Heroes 2015. You see this naming style used in sports-games, office software and even the auto-industry. We are proud to break this ground for MMOs.
We have an incredible amount of fun things happening in-game for the anniversary. First, we are launching our first Raid featuring Surtur, the Omega system end-game advancement, server-wide shared quests, trading, Mac Open Beta and many other features in this month of celebration. Next, we are having an incredible give-away this week. We are handing out 365 gifts, including a Punisher costume, a free stash tab, unique items and many other fun things. Lastly, there will be live events happening and special bonuses given.
MMORPG.com: Will Marvel Heroes be showing us anything at E3?
Dave Brevik: We have some meetings there, but no plans for the show floor this year. We may end up doing a few of the other shows later this year. It was just too close to our anniversary to focus on a booth as well.
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MMORPG.com: One final, personal question... how come we can't play Agent Coulson, yet? Or at least have him run around with us as a pet. Work it out!
Dave Brevik: Agreed! Putting our top people on it immediately. Top. People.
