A former executive from Blizzard and Cryptic Studios has just been named as the new head of Disney Interactive's Marvel Comics games division. The company announced today via an email press release that Bill Roper is now the Vice President of the Marvel Franchise at the video game division of Disney. The company acquired Marvel Comics back in 2009.
Roper gained fame as one of the leaders of Blizzard North who helped to create the first two games in the Diablo action-RPG series. Roper and several Blizzard North team members left the company to form an all new game development company, Flagship Studios. However the company's first game, a first person action-RPG title called Hellgate London, was a critical and financial failure when it was released in 2007 and caused Flagship Studios to shut down in 2008. Later that year Roper was hired by Cryptic Studios and helped to lead development of the company's super hero MMO Champions Online which was released in 2009. Roper left Cryptic Studios in 2010.
According to Disney's press release, "In his role, Roper will be responsible for establishing the long term strategy and the future creative direction and vision for DIMG published Marvel Games. He will also identify key talent and developers to partner with on product development."
Currently Marvel has a number of games that have been licensed by other publishers. This week Sega releases the movie themed action game Captain America Super Soldier. Activision will release two Marvel based games later this year, X-Men Destiny and Spider-Man Edge of Time. In addition Gazillion Entertainment is working on a Marvel Universe MMO game.
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