It looks like Oculus Rift exclusive Marvel Powers United could be shutting down in the near future, with the game seemingly no longer on sale.
A Reddit user posted what they claim to be an email from Facebook’s Oculus and Powers United developer Sanzaru Games. The email notes that the “time has come for us to say goodbye to Marvel Powers United VR,” adding that the game will no longer be playable from March 1, 2021. It also claims that the game has already been removed from sale on the Oculus Rift store and, sure enough, we can’t find it there.
Marvel Powers United No More?
We’ve emailed Facebook to confirm that this is indeed the case. No reason was given for the move in the email, though it’s possible that inactivity online or an expiring licence with Marvel itself are behind the news.
Marvel Powers United released in mid-2018, published under Facebook’s own Oculus Studios label. It’s a multiplayer experience in which up to four players choose from a range of iconic Marvel characters and then head into arena-style maps, working together to complete a series of objectives. Characters included fan favorites like Spider-Man, Rocket Raccoon, Wolverine and Deadpool, although Iron Man was never included. Two years later, he got his own VR game.
“We recommend that you delete the game prior to March 1, 2021 to avoid dead space taken up on your device,” the supposed email concludes. The game did have a single-player mode, but it only activated if you couldn’t find people online and replaced them with AI partners. It seems like that requirement could keep you from accessing the single-player portion too.
While it was definitely empowering to embody some of our favorite Marvel characters, we felt the game was far too repetitive in its design.
“Ultimately it’s a little more of a muted take on the superhero VR genre than we were hoping,” we said in our 6.5/10 review. “It’s carried by its best characters, heroes with truly unique abilities that evoke sheer blockbuster comic book joy you’ll keep coming back for. But much of its cast struggles to stand out from a set of templates that limit their capabilities and the repetitive mission structure and forgettable boss battles put a ceiling on the fun.”
The game did see a few updates past its initial launch but, despite a tease from Facebook itself in 2019, an Oculus Quest version of the project never materialized. If the game is shutting down, it seems likely that any lingering hopes for a standalone version are dead.
What do you make of Marvel Powers United possible shutting down? Let us know in the comments below!
