Iron Man: Marvel canceled an open-world game in 2012 from Just Cause Makers

An open-world Iron Man game was canceled in 2012. Marvel and Disney pulled the plug on the title, which was being developed by Avalanche Studios, the team behind the Just Cause games. In an interview with MinnMax, studio co-founder Christofer Sundberg said the Iron Man game had been in development for “a few years” before it was finally scrapped around 2012. Reasons include “company policy with Disney, leading to internal friction and a shortened deadline to complete the Marvel project.

Sundberg notes that the development cycle was a “mess” at the end, as Disney increased the Iron Man game’s budget and cut the timeline by an entire year. “We should have hired 70 to 80 people in the team, for whom I would have had the responsibility of finding a new project. But the development time was cut so short that it would have completely broken the studio if we had agreed to that,” he said in the full interview uploaded to MinnMax’s YouTube channel.

Disney was trying to flood the studio with staff, so Avalanche could meet the revised deadline to complete the game. This put Sundberg under more pressure, as he was asked to find new projects for hires, once the development on Iron Man completed, now with a shortened development time. He remarks that while the project was great from a development standpoint, it wasn’t ideal for his Stockholm-based studio commercially.

It only made sense for Marvel and Disney to bring in the creators of Just Cause, who are known for creating chaotic experiences full of explosions and a rich environment full of unique characters who throw missions at you. Sundberg notes that the Iron Man game was primarily focused on melee combat, where you could knock enemies through walls via the Repulsor Gloves. The now-cancelled Iron Man game also allowed players to simply “pick off and fly anywhere” on the open-world map.

“There were so many great people involved on both sides, and it would have been great. I’m sure of it,” he added. When asked if the title was related to the Robert Downey Jr.-directed Iron Man 3 movie, Sundberg seemed certain it was a standalone game, but couldn’t tell. remember because “it was 10 years ago”.

In 2010, Sega released an Iron Man 2 video game – which recreated iconic moments from the movies – for consoles, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. The game received generally unfavorable reviews, with a Metacritic score of 44.

EA is now reportedly cashing in on the Marvel craze, as leaks point to the Iron Man and Black Panther video games, the latter set to be open-world.

Both games, although not yet confirmed, are expected to launch on all major platforms – PS5, Xbox Series S/X, and Windows PC.