Marvel Entertainment joins forces with Gameloft

It used to be called Marvel Comics, but Stan 'The Man' Lee's baby rightfully changed its title to Marvel Entertainment when it started fishing in deeper entertainment waters. Marvel now owns the licensing rights to all its own characters once again - licenses that have been sold off to high, yet incapable, bidders over the years (for more details see Ghost Rider and any version of the Punisher movies). It's last two films, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, were entirely self-funded, and the increase in quality was quite apparent.

And now, to continue Marvel's deft use of valuable licenses it's joined forces with mobile giant Gameloft in a multi-year, muli-product deal to bring our favourite superheroes to the micro-gaming platform.

"Marvel has introduced some of the most iconic and renowned characters ever created, and has successfully brought them to life via every mass-market entertainment platform available," said Michel Guillemot, president at Gameloft. "We are excited to partner with them and bring a new vision of creativity and excitement to the mobile platform through one of the strongest development and distribution networks in the industry."

The deal will kick off in 2009 with a brand new Spider-Man title, followed by the movie tie-in game for 2010's Iron Man sequel - Marvel's biggest box office earner to date.

"Gameloft has earned its well-deserved reputation for excellence as a developer and publisher of top-selling mobile games," said Ira Rubenstein, executive vice president of Marvel's Global Digital Media Group. "When you combine that level of execution with worldwide distribution, it is easy to see why Gameloft is the ideal partner to bring Spider-Man and Iron Man 2 to mobile."