May 5, 2011 09:37 GMT  ·  By

DC Universe Online from Sony Online Entertainment has managed to chart a path for success for the superhero-powered MMO, but the team behind the upcoming competitor Marvel Universe are saying that their game will raise the stakes by allowing players to actually inhabit the personas of well-known characters from the Marvel pantheon of heroes.

Speaking to industry site Gamasutra, Jeff Lind, who is the studio director at developer Gazillion, has stated, “I have such a great answer that I cannot give you right now.”

He went on to add that some people do not know this answer and are pretty pleased, saying, “I have described this game to our execs and our investors and our partners like Marvel, and this is absolutely the first question I get every time. I think we have a nice answer to it, and is nothing I can talk about right now, but I can totally understand why you’re talking about that.”

Lind believes that allowing players to take direct control of Marvel superheroes is the only way to effectively translate the comic book universe, its storylines and its main characters to the MMO space.

The developer says that the team working on Marvel Universe has been very careful about creating, with the help of an actual writer, a coherent story about the superheroes and about a big number of players being, for example, Spider Man.

DC Universe Online does not allow the players to control DC made heroes, like Batman or Superman, instead allowing them to create their own avatars, choosing power sources, transportation modes and offensive abilities.

The player-made characters then take place in quest lines which allow them to work alongside known superheroes.

At the moment, Marvel Universe is expected to begin a beta stage at some point during 2012 and the game has recently been confirmed as using a free-to-play model.