In a Discord message circulated on ResetEra, a former employee of Marvel Heroes developer Gazillion revealed that all staff have been laid off, and Marvel Heroes will close as early as this Friday. This report was corroborated by Brian Waggoner, a Game Designer at Gazillion, and Andrew Hair, a Senior Software Engineer. Hair and Waggoner also reveal that the team won't be paid a severance package, nor will paid time off be disbursed. As of writing, Gazillion has not released an official statement, and Waggoner said in another response that he doesn't expect Marvel Heroes to survive into the weekend.
https://twitter.com/Asros/status/933462063095181312
https://twitter.com/andrewhair/status/933472896319569920
Andrew has also been publicly commenting on what the team was working on before the sudden cancellation of development and later studio closure.
https://twitter.com/andrewhair/status/933481694811758592
Marvel parent company Disney had originally put out a report publicly severing ties with Gazillion and stating that Marvel Heroes would be closing at the end of the year. Gazillion also gave the same date in a Twitter statement while immediately removing real money purchases from the game.
Official Statement from Gazillion pic.twitter.com/mievTz6pjn
— Marvel Heroes Omega (@MarvelHeroes) November 16, 2017
The latest version of Marvel Heroes, known as Marvel Heroes: Omega, launched on console only a few short months ago. Players responding to the ResetEra thread have reported mixed results in attempting to get refunds for the funds they had pumped into this free to play title. The console release of the game had offered a number of bundles, ranging in price from $5 to $60 for various characters, skins, and other in-game items. They had also recently added limited time loot boxes with exclusive costumes to both the PC and Console releases.
TechRaptor has reached out to representatives at Disney, Marvel and Gazillion and will update when any further information regarding Marvel Heroes' closure is made available.
Have you invested in any release of Marvel Heroes? Keep your thoughts out for those who are out of work today and share your thoughts in the comments below!