Disney Severs Relationship With Gazillion, Marvel Heroes To Be Shut Down

Update: Gazillion has posted a message on the Marvel Heroes forums giving a shutdown date of Dec. 31. Real-money purchases appear to still be active -- possibly another sign that the shutdown notice came rather abruptly -- but they will be "removing real money purchases as soon as possible."

Original story: We've been talking about Gazillion's odd silence regarding Marvel Heroes for weeks now, and finally the (Thor's) hammer has fallen. Today Kotaku received a statement from Disney, the holder of the Marvel license, that serves as the death knell for the four-year-old game:

"We regret to inform our Marvel Heroes fans that we have ended our relationship with Gazillion Entertainment, and that the Marvel Heroes games will be shut down. We would like to sincerely thank the players who joined the Marvel Heroes community, and will provide any further updates as they become available."

No precise reason was given for the game's demise, though it's possibly related to the sexual harassment allegations levied against Gazillion CEO David Dohrmann, allegations that were attested to by former Gazillion employee Jeff "Doomsaw" Donais via Reddit. That said, one would think that the proper option in that case is to remove the offending party rather than blow the whole thing up, so either negotiations to do so went straight to hell or Dohrmann himself wielded so much power that he was unwilling to cede control of the company.

As of this moment, Marvel Heroes is still playable on Steam, but there's no indication as to how long that will remain the case. We've reached out to Gazillion for a statement regarding the cancellation of Marvel Heroes and will update this article if we learn anything more.