Today, Gazillion Entertainment officially confirmed that they not only are in development of a Marvel MMO, but also that they've hired Diablo creator and former President of Blizzard North David Brevik to run the project.
Gazillion purchased NetDevil and is now their parent company. NetDevil is also at work on games like Jumpgate Evolution and LEGO Universe.
The announcement also officially re-confirms that the Marvel MMO is indeed back on. Originally, a Marvel MMO project had been in development at Cryptic Studios, but that project was canceled some time ago.
Gazillion Entertainment Names Former President of Blizzard North and Diablo Creator David Brevik to lead Marvel Universe MMO Development
Acclaimed Game Creator Participates in MMO Industry Panel at San Diego Comic-Con
SAN MATEO, Calif. - July 21, 2009 – Gazillion Entertainment, a leading developer, publisher and operator of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games for wide audiences, announced today that former President of Blizzard North David Brevik has joined as Studio Director for Gargantuan. David will lead development efforts of the highly anticipated Marvel Universe MMO for PC and consoles, in addition to heading up the Gargantuan development studio which is located at Gazillion’s headquarters in San Mateo, California.
David Brevik has been a game industry innovator for nearly two decades. Among his many leadership roles, David served as President of Blizzard North for seven years. Notably, David was responsible for creating Blizzard’s Diablo series, for which he was Project Lead, Design Lead and Lead Programmer on both Diablo and Diablo II. The Diablo franchise is one of the top PC titles of all time with over 20 million copies sold. David also launched Blizzard’s online gaming service, Battle.Net and was involved in key initiatives spanning multiple game and technology projects at Blizzard Entertainment. Prior to joining Gazillion, David was a Director at Flagship Studios.
At the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con, David will participate on a panel Q&A entitled The State of MMOs: A Discussion with the Developer with other acclaimed game designers, including Craig Alexander (Turbine), Gordon Walton (BioWare), and Bob Ferrari (Sanrio Digital) on Thursday, July 23rd from 11am – 12pm.
“I’m a huge fan of comic books, Super Heroes, and MMORPGs, so the chance to lead the creative efforts for the Marvel Universe MMO is an amazing opportunity. Gazillion’s mission to bring MMOs to the mainstream while maintaining the depth in gameplay that enthusiast gamers demand is something that deeply resonates with me,” said David. “Marvel is a perfect fit for this mission, and I couldn’t imagine a better venue to announce our efforts than Comic-Con.”
“As the creative and technical force behind the Diablo franchise and Battle.Net, David is an immensely talented game industry veteran who is responsible for bringing role playing games and online gaming more generally to an extremely large and thankful audience around the world,” said Rob Hutter, CEO of Gazillion. “We’re thrilled that he’s chosen to bring his vision and design leadership to the development of our landmark MMO franchise with Marvel.”
