As the highly anticipated Marvel movies continue to grow and draw in huge audiences, so do its related games—especially Kabam’s mobile fighting game Marvel Contest of Champions, which is now approaching its third year of operation.
The game continues its strength through regular engagement with users, particularly at events such as the New York Comic Con (NYCC), where Kabam was situated next to the Marvel booth on the show floor and hosted three gaming tournaments where attendees were able to take on a new boss each day. Kabam used the event as an opportunity to announce that Morningstar, a character created specifically for Marvel Contest of Champions, would be added to the game as its newest character. Attendees got a first look at Morningstar a week before her official release, along with the vampire hunter character Blade, who will be joining the game around Halloween.
Players that got through the pre-qualifier challenge moved up to the qualifier to try to beat the boss and get on the leaderboard. Then the top three players from each day went head-to-head on the Marvel show floor to compete for prizes that ranged from iPads to in-game currency and champions. The tournament culminated in the grand final competition held on the third day, where a trophy was given out in addition to other prizes.
“It’s a much bigger competition than we had last year,” Luke Takeuchi, senior producer at Kabam for Marvel Contest of Champions, told AListDaily, describing how the developer varied each day to encourage attendees to return for unique experiences. Kabam began spreading hype for the competition weeks prior to NYCC through its social media channels, and the enthusiasm was amplified by excitement for the upcoming movie Thor: Ragnarok.
“Marvel has been growing like crazy this year,” said Takeuchi. “We’re just about to hit our third-year anniversary, and we’ve had a pretty crazy year in terms of feature updates and new characters. We release new characters every two weeks and we released our Halloween build, which features all the champions we showed off at New York Comic Con.”
Takeuchi then went into detail about how Contest of Champions leverages the film releases.
“We had a lot of great films this year,” Takeuchi explained. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was huge for us, and Thor: Ragnarok is the next beat. We did some stuff for Spider-Man: Homecoming as well. We have a good partnership with Marvel, so we get access to some of that content early to see who the major characters are going to be and what will be some of the major story beats.”
Kabam incorporates characters and showcases top champions in line with theatrical releases. For example, it introduced Yondu and Nebula when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 came out in April. Similarly, Kabam released its version of Spider-Man along with the villain Vulture to coincide with the launch of Homecoming.
“We’re not giving too much away for Thor: Ragnarok yet, but obviously Hela will be one of our main champion releases,” said Takeuchi. “It’s always about the champions and the story. We release champions and ongoing quests along with new features and content.”
Summoners, what do you think about our new Champion, Morningstar? pic.twitter.com/SaOdGkIajk
— MarvelChampions (@MarvelChampions) October 18, 2017
Takeuchi also said that building characters that please both comic book fans and moviegoers is a balance, because the developer also has to consider how the characters will fit into its fighting game system.
“In terms of meeting those expectations, visuals are No. 1,” said Takeuchi. “When we’re picking champions, we make sure to pick the version that fits the iconic image most people have. When it comes to theatrical characters, we work very closely with Marvel so that we have a one-to-one reference, so we’re building it as close to the theatrical release as possible. The same goes for their abilities and how they move. We have a dedicated character team that syncs up every character.”
It’s impossible to completely rely on a movie release schedule to feature new characters and content, so Kabam falls back on Marvel’s vast collection of superheroes and villains during the off months. Sometimes that means that they can ride the wave of enthusiasm from a movie a bit longer. For example, Kabam released The Hood and Dormammu in February as a kind of continuation of the Doctor Strange movie storyline.
“We work our schedule around the major theatrical releases every year, but when it comes to non-theatrical characters, it comes down to fan favorites,” said Takeuchi. “After Spider-Man: Homecoming, we did Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus. We’re coming up on three years, so we’re trying to round out that roster. We’re keeping an eye on Reddit and all our social media channels and forums to see which champions they want to see—which champions are still in demand.”
Kabam also releases a new quest at the start of each month, tying its story and characters to movies whenever possible. Takeuchi explained that regular updates have kept players engaged for the past three years and it may be the key to keeping the game growing years into the future.
“It’s about staying current and making sure there’s always stuff for users to do,” Takeuchi said, explaining how Marvel Contest of Champions remains a top mobile game among a sea of competition. “We’re always looking at what areas we’re deficient in—always making sure there’s enough content, characters, major features and game modes—expanding the game and building it over time. We’re hitting our third-year anniversary, but we have plans reaching out to the next few years to ensure that we’re current and keeping users engaged with new content.”
