Marvel Heroes Is The Spiritual Successor To Diablo 2, Says Gazillion

By now, most core gamers know a thing or two about Jay Wilson's comments about former Diablo frontman, David Brevik, right? I'm sure there's a link or article or pop-up on this site that has a direct portal right to the article. Anyway, after the vitriolic comments from Jay Wilson about David Brevik regarding Diablo III, Gazillion Entertainment took the opportunity to cash in on the pitchfork and torch affair and wants everyone to play their game Marvel Heroes because it's the true successor to Diablo II...since it's being designed by David Brevik and all.

The whole thing started with an interview at IncGamers and propelled into a flameball affair thanks to Facebook comments. Jay Wilson saying to 'F' that loser sent the internet and Diablo fanboys into a frenzy. They immediately jumped to the side of Brevik given that many of the criticisms Brevik brought up in the interview were sentiments shared by a large portion of the core gaming community.

Eurogamer managed to get interview with Gazillion Entertainment's marketing guru Leo Olebe, who wasted no time in using the fallout as a vantage point to promote Brevik's new title under the Gazillion label, Marvel Heroes, saying...

Dang, they even managed to squeeze in a link. And that folks, is how you use a terrible fallout from mob mentality to sell a product.

I don't know if this will really bode well for David, though, considering that he now has a lot of weight on his shoulders to deliver that “spiritual successor” to Diablo II...a successor, I might add, that didn't quite pan out when he tried before with the game Hellgate: London. I'm not going to get into the mumbo jumbo of why the game died, went to hell and was then resurrected as a free-to-play title, but I will say that Hellgate: London, from what I played, was not a spiritual successor to Diablo II by a long shot.

Nevertheless, even if gamers don't feel the marketing love by Gazillion, other developers around the interwebs are showing Brevik some love, particularly a former colleague of Brevik and current frontman of Red 5 Studios, Mark Kern. GameSpy picked up a few tweets by the man headlining the upcoming free-to-play title, Firefall, where Kern states that...

Ouch. That has got to hurt what little ego Wilson has left, assuming he didn't go back to Bobby Kotick's golden throne and brush his face up against the CEO's leg, purring and asking for forgiveness while Kotick licks virgin sheep blood out of a crystalline goblet. Because if Kotick gently stroked Wilson's face and said “Don't worry my child, this is just another lesson you learn on your way to mastering the Dark Side. Feel the rage of the fanboys, let it fuel your anger.” and then Wilson gets his hubris in a bundle and waits in a corner until Bashiok finishes his level 73 corporate damage control quest, then I doubt Wilson will have changed for the better.

Alternatively, Blizzard could be keeping silent until this whole thing boils over and Gazillion will get a few extra thousand beta sign-ups out of cashing in on the whole fiasco, which seems a lot less likely than the previous scenario.

Diablo III's patch 1.0.4 drops this week and you can learn more over at the Official Website assuming you don't mind dealing with the security protocol, RMAH: The Game. You can also learn more about this “spiritual successor to Diablo II” by visiting the Official Marvel Heroes Website.