Many Marvel fans have had a wonderful experience in seeing virtually every major comic book superhero in the Marvel stable turned into a movie, a video game or both. One major film that the Marvel faithful have been looking forward to is Iron Man, set for release in May of 2008. The movie will star Robert Downey Jr. and will be totally financed and produced by Marvel. This summer, Activision dropped the development of the Iron Man video game, and refused to comment about the reasoning behind the unexpected decision.
In an official announcement, the home of Sonic the Hedgehog said, "[Sega] has been granted the exclusive interactive rights to develop and distribute games based on both Marvel’s Iron Man feature films and the classic comic book iterations of the character."
Simon Jeffery, president and COO of Sega beamed, "Sega is excited to be publishing the next-gen interactive entertainment based on Iron Man, the first Marvel Studios project being brought to the wide screen.”
The Marvel-Sega alliance may continue past the tie-in game. Sega stated that the initial contract for an Iron Man title was only "a first step in a strategic partnership between Marvel and Sega to bring at least one additional Marvel Superhero property to next-gen platforms."
Activision,s Marvel based games have done generally well with the gaming public, with the exception of the release of the Fantastic Four game last year. The game received weak reviews with an average rating in the mid to low 60s, and the film was a critical flop.
