2002
August, 2002
The response to HeroClix has been quite amazing. Having played it ourselves we believe it is as exciting a game as any so far. WizKids, the makers of HeroClix, have just launched DC HeroClix... and Marvels next Updated is scheduled to come out in November.
July, 2002
There still seems to be no interest in Marvel re-publishing OverPower, although their new role playing game "HeroClix" seems to have a pretty good following. More on HeroClix later...
May, 2002
Re-Charge Marvels newest collectible card game to everyone's disappointment will not be compatible with OverPower. We haven't played it but we have heard the latest buzz... Needless to say it doesn't seem to anywhere near as good as OverPower.
2001
For now Marvel Overpower cards are no longer being published. There may be something in the works for the future, but we just don't have any solid facts as of yet. Although there was some talk about the new website www.overpower.com (it's a dead link now though) and also an impressive online version of Marvel Overpower, we have yet to hear anything further.
For now we can only wait, and hope...
2000
Marvel and Fleer officially stop all publishing of their Overpower card game on December 1999.
1999
Several weeks ago, Ron Perazza (OverPower's main man since its creation), left Marvel Interactive for greener pastures with DC. And now, many, many weeks later, there is still no one who has stepped into his old role with OverPower. Although I'm glad Ron's on to bigger and better things, he was one of OverPower's biggest stabilizing forces. He carried the game from it's inception, through the transfer from Fleer to Marvel, and back up to it's return last Fall. So now we get to see if OverPower can survive without him.
January 1999
There is a serious error in the cutting of the X-Men cards. In short, the cards are roughly 1/16th of an inch larger than all other OverPower cards. Nearly imperceptible to the human eye…but it is a fact. This 1/16th of an inch difference in cut could very well affect deck cutting, shuffling, and game play.
How this happened is unknown to me at this time. Marvel Interactive has started to contact WildStorm in order to solve that riddle and determine what impact this will have on the game as a whole. Tomorrow (1/6/99) we will most likely have more time to discuss and arrive and some solid conclusions. I want everyone to be aware of this before they purchase a single pack of X-Men cards. I *cannot* stress this enough.
Also, for reasons that are still not known to me at this time, X-Men OverPower was printed on a different card stock than what we have come to know as the traditional OverPower card stock. It is my belief that this switch in card stock will not affect game play whatsoever. In fact, longtime fans will remember that this is not the first time we have switched card stock. The very first set of Marvel OverPower was printed on a non-textured card stock. This is merely a surprise, but not an altogether damaging one. Tomorrow, I hope to have some light shed on how this occurred, in addition to the aforementioned cutting error.
Marvel Interactive will be in contact with WildStorm to determine the reason for these changes and errors, and we will arrive at some sort of solid decisions as to what to do about them. I will keep all of the fans and players aware of what conclusions we have reached.
With everything that happened with the X-Men OverPower Expansion from postponed pre-release tournaments to late wrappers to bad cutting, you have every right to be disgusted. I know I am. Explanations will be forthcoming.1998
Return of OverPower
There's good news, comic fans. The #1 comic book card game, OverPower, has found a new home and is coming back at you.
As those who read this column know, Fleer/SkyBox International, the company that originally published OverPower, pulled the plug on the game last November in spite of the fact it was not only one of the best selling card games in the business (ranked #4 behind Legends of the Five Rings, Magic and Star Wars), but was making a steady profit. A traditional trading card company plagued with the financial woes of the sports and entertainment trading card industries, Fleer decided to cut over 20 of its staff at that time. Among the casualties were the entire OverPower staff (Steve Domzalski, Ron Perazza and part-timer Kathy Probe among them). With no support staff for the game, Fleer then felt it couldn't handle the game.
As it turns out, a number of game companies were interested in picking up the license from Fleer. As reported last November, each expansion sold about 1,000 cases of product, which came to about $500,000 to $1 million per expansion. They saw the profit in that. They didn't get it, though.
"Officially, OverPower is now part of Marvel Interactive, a division of the Marvel Entertainment Group. We'll be taking stewardship of its marketing, production and mechanics," says group manager Dan Buckley. "We felt it was a property that had done well in the past as a collectible card game. Marvel Interactive can take it a step further as far as depth and breadth by ramping it up into CD-ROM and net games. We have been planning the online movement of this game for the last year and a half, which is when I moved over from Fleer to Marvel."
For the record, Buckley acknowledges the contributions of Domzalski, Probe and Perazza to the game and will be attempting to bring them back in the fold. As of press time, negotiations were underway, but nothing firm on that just yet. There's a lot of reasons for this.
"We couldn't move until we had cut a deal with Fleer, from a licensing standpoint of ownership," says Buckley. "We may own the characters, but they owned the game mechanic. We wanted to get that cleared up because we feel card games are still a profitable market. Even when Fleer closed its game division, the game was one of the best selling ones in the market."
"The holidays also played into this. Even though we wanted to get the game moving, we couldn't reach a lot of people because they were away on vacation. Also, I think the game falls more into our focus than what Fleer does. They are a traditional trading card company and don't understand the amount of support that's required. Marvel Interactive is more into a gaming/entertainment aspect regardless of what form it takes."
"As far as the details as when we are going to start releasing new product, we'll start announcing that in the next 2-3 weeks," Buckley promises. "I would say the first thing we have to do is get back to everyone we left hanging. We want to process all the OverPower Legion applications we have, we want to get the rating system back in operation, there was a lot of things that were sitting in limbo for two months."
"I would say the first thing we are going to do is get the OverPower phone number (1-800-OPRULES) back into use. It was a very effective tool. Once it's back up it will answer a lot of questions for people. What most people don't realize though is we have to get that moved from Philadelphia, where Fleer is, to New York, where we are. That's going to take a few weeks to just get that straightened out." **BREAK "Also, our web site has to get back up and be updated," Buckley continues. "We still have to do things like put up the checklist for Classic OverPower, which isn't up. We have to get the OverPower chat room up on AOL. We've begun that process already. That's not to forget we also want to get Steve (Domzalski), Ron (Perazza) and Kathy Probe back on board. I think that would be good from a traditional point of view. That means we also have to get our budgetary stuff ironed out. Those are the hard and cold facts of it. There's still a lot of paper that has to be ironed out."
On the other hand, one thing Buckley does promise is the first new set of OverPower cards will be the delayed Image OverPower set. This has made a number of people at Image quite happy.
"We were pretty glum over here last November when Fleer made the announcement they were getting out of the game business," says WildStorm Vice President Jeff Marriotte. "We had done a lot of original art that we thought would never see the light of day. When we got the phone call last Thursday, it made us feel like all our work wasn't for nothing."
"I would say Image OverPower will come out sometime between June and July," says Buckley. "I think we will have everything back in place by that time. The only reason why we are holding that off for so long is so we can get it listed in the Diamond Preview catalog. I also want to have the infrastructure for tournament support worked out, but before we do that we have to get all the other stuff rockin' steady before I think about that."
The interesting thing is it appears Buckley has just about the next year of OverPower timelined out. He knows what he wants done and when he wants it to happen by.
"The 800 number, the Legion and tournament support will happen simultaneously," Buckley states. "I think those have to get going in order to make sure people know we are back and ready to support them. The first thing we will have to do is get those things cleaned up. Putting another release out without having all that stuff resolved is kind of pointless. It wouldn't be doing anyone any favors. I would say that will take about 30-60 days."
"We've been talking to the fulfillment house about the Legion already, so we have a handle on that. They will be getting out letters telling people what's happened and that we will be getting back to them shortly thereafter with their numbers, exclusive cards and such shortly thereafter. After all, one of the main reasons why they joined is for their number and their exclusive Galactus and Beyonder cards. The next step will be to get the newsletter out on a periodic basis. Then the web site will be reflective of what happens after we get OverPower Legion back. The tournament section will be after that." **BREAK "The important thing is to get all the support up and running before we come crashing through with new product. Why should we ask people to buy when we haven't delivered on a lot of other things we promised? By doing this we'll make the fans, stores and distributors much more comfortable with us."
Once Buckley gets his ducks properly lined up, that will be the time for Image OverPower. I wouldn't be surprised if another OverPower expansion is then done before the year's out. That leaves just the CD-ROM/Internet version of the game.
"I think we can get the online version of the game up and running in about a year," Buckley figures. "I really don't want to get into that right now because that is a whole other kind of business. I wouldn't be surprised if we eventually do two different versions of the game, one that will be easy and can be learned in 15 minutes like the Battle version of OverPower. The other will be more complex but have all the diversity and flavor of the version that came out with Classic."
Time will tell if Buckley can get all this done in the time he wants it to. In the meantime, it's good just to see OverPower's coming back.
MARVEL INTERACTIVE TO HELM OVERPOWER(TM) THE #1 SUPER HERO-INSPIRED COLLECTIBLE CARD GAME
NEW YORK, Jan. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Marvel Interactive, a division of the Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. (NYSE: MRV) announced today an agreement to become sole producer and distributor of OverPower, the highly successful collectible card game (CCG) based on super heroes from Marvel's own Universe and those of other comic publishers.
Originally published by Fleer/SkyBox, OverPower has been on hold since October 1997 when Fleer/SkyBox began refocusing their efforts solely on the trading card market. Though OverPower sales were strong, Fleer/Skybox's streamlined business plan prevented OverPower from continuing as one of their products.
Marvel Interactive is charged with furthering OverPower as a CCG as well as launching the game into the digital age with OverPower CD-ROM and online versions.
"The OverPower concept is a perfect match with Marvel Interactive," said Paul Kallis, Senior Vice President, Marvel Interactive. "We've wanted this from the moment Fleer/SkyBox made their decision. We'll continue to expand it and we'll take the game to places few could imagine. OverPower has extremely loyal fans -- we're here to cater to them."
All customer support, including OverPower tournament support, the OverPower toll-free help hotline, 1-800-OP-RULES, and e-mail assistance will resume in the coming weeks. Marvel Interactive will also take charge of http://www.overpower.com, the official OverPower web site. Plans for the fan club, The OverPower Legion, which has over 5,000 current members, will be announced by Marvel Interactive in the near future.
The ever-popular Official OverPower Chat on America Online resumes Monday, February 16 at 9 PM ET at Keyword: Marvel.
Marvel Interactive, a division of the Marvel Entertainment Group, is charged with launching the company's world renowned properties such as Spider-Man, the X-Men and The Incredible Hulk into the global new media marketplace via software publishing, online entertainment and interactive licensing. Marvel Entertainment Group is a world leader in the production and licensing of Super Hero-themed entertainment, spanning a wide array of media including comic books, television, film, theme parks and restaurants. Marvel is available on America Online at Keyword: Marvel and can be accessed on the Internet at http://www.marvel.com.OverPower Put On Hiatus 1997
About two weeks ago, Fleer/SkyBox International laid off approximately 20 of their staff. Among those laid off was the entire gaming division. Oddly enough, the entire gaming division consisted of a total of four people: group head Steve Domzalski, his main assistant Ron Perazza, and two more people. Also cut loose was Kathy Probe, who worked onOverPower on a free-lance basis.
Fleer's main game, OverPower, was put into the hands of Steve Charendorf, who heads the company's entertainment trading-card division. By next week, Charendorf will be mailing out a press release stating that the aforementioned next expansion, Image OverPower, is not coming out the end of the month (which Perazza told me was the original target date) or even this December. The game is on indefinite hold because Fleer intends to sell the rights to OverPower to another company.
"It's our intention that OverPower continues as a brand," Charendorf told me. "We're just trying to figure out what's the best way to do it right now. We haven't figured it out. At the moment we don't have all the resources necessary to keep up the pace that people are used to. That doesn't mean a week or a month from now or certainly by January 1, that won't be rectified. I think without getting into any specifics, OverPower players will be happy with the longer term results of this transition. People just have to keep the faith right now."
"I don't expect in the future we won't be managing it here, but it will live on. Right now we're trying to put together the mechanism to do that. I have a pretty good idea how we're going to do that but I can't talk about it right now."
"It remains to be seen how involved we will be," Charendorf continued, when asked about Domzalski and his team. "I can assure you that the people that were involved will remain very much a part of the fabric of the gaming industry. I don't want you to take that away as for sure. It is possible. It's certainly a goal of mine to see if those guys can remain involved. I think continuity with those guys involved would be good. If it's not them, then it would be other people with strong reputations in the gaming industry."
"We are putting out a release saying the product is going to be delayed," Charendorf added about Image OverPower. "The last thing I want people to do is interpret this release as OverPower's being canceled. Under the circumstances, to me it doesn't make much sense to put this thing out and not be prepared for the things we need to do."
"My guess is we'll have these broader issues taken care of soon, and then we can get Image OverPower out. My guess is the early part of 1998 we'll get Image OverPower out."
For the record, the latest sales charts I've received put OverPower as the fourth best selling collectible card game on the market, behind Magic, Star Wars, and BattleTech. An informed source tells me an OverPower expansion generally grosses Fleer somewhere between $250,000 to $500,000 per set. In all, that means OverPower makes Fleer about $1 to $2 million a year.
Now I know gaming companies that would be dancing in the street if they put out a product that made that kind of money. Thing is, the average sports issue makes Fleer about $1 million per set. Further, Fleer is a classic trading card company. It is used to putting out the product and not having to support it as extensively as a gaming company does its product.
One thing the trading card industry has over the gaming industry is a much more active distribution network. In fact, using the internet and such private exchanges such as Information Networks Inc. (owners of the industry only SportsNet and ComicNet), a regular trading card company usually only has to produce the cards and the distributors and retailers do the selling for them. In gaming, it doesn't matter if it's a major company such as Wizards of the Coast or a small one such as Atlas Games, the manufacturer is very active in grassroots marketing, something a company like Fleer or its major competitors (such as Topps, Pinnacle Brands and Upper Deck) do very little of.
Interestingly enough, according to my source one of the companies that is supposedly interested in taking OverPower on is Fleer's parent company, Marvel. Apparently, Marvel expects to be over its current financial problems shortly and has intentions of not only continuing the card version of the game, but a network version as well. That's right, eventually you might be able to play an online version of OverPower . That would be interesting to say the least.
Other companies the game has purportedly been offered to include Wizards of the Coast and Decipher Inc.
Whatever the situation, Charendorf did want it understood that OverPower will still be around come next year. He hopes to make an announcement as to who will be picking up the game by the end of this month.
Oct 24, 1997
by Steve Fritz
webdate: 10/24/97Ask any comic book fan, one of the ways comic fans love to spend their time is to argue for hours which of their favorite superheros (or villains) can kick the butt of another. Captain America v. Batman, Superman v. Majestic, Grifter v. the Punisher, Zealot v. Wonder Woman v. Elektra, it doesn't matter which spandex-adorned SPB it is, comic fans will stand there and say their particular fave can clean the clock of another's fave. Also, they usually also say the co-published crossovers tend to stink worse than a skunk in a garbage dump, but this is a gaming column.
Well, the next OverPower expansion set will never settle these debates, but at least it promises some more fodder to the fire.
Hot on the heels of Fleer/SkyBox International's Classic OverPower expansion will be Image OverPower As the name implies, all the characters in this set are from all five studios that are still part of Image Comics. Now OverPower fans not only have Marvel and DC characters beating each other up, but they also have the likes of Spawn, Witchblade and members of Gen13 to add to the fun-loving chaos.
"It feels great," says Kris Oprisko, who supervised the project from Jim Lee's WildStorm Studio. "When it comes down to kids who read comics and play the game, they care very little what company puts out what characters. All they want to do is play their own favorite characters. That's all we want to do, make it fun for the kids."
The Image OverPower set owes its origins to F/SI's DC set. After Fleer introduced the likes of Superman and Batman into the OverPower universe, the seed was planted for a set the Fleer team calls CrossOverPower.
"It all started at the Philadelphia comic book show two years ago," Fleer's Ron Perazza recalls. "At that time DC OverPower was either just out or just about to come out. So we were sitting back thinking wouldn't it be cool to cross over to all the other comic universes. That led to the much rumored CrossOverPower, which is yet to be officially approved. From there, we thought if we could just get all the characters from the Image universe, that would be a good start, not to mention a good set in itself."
The concept behind CrossOverPower is simple in theory. Comic fans love their various characters, so why not have them fight it all out in the OverPower game? Of course, no good idea goes unpunished, as Perazza will be the first to tell you.
"CrossOverPower is something that's everybody here wants to do, but will be real tough to complete," Perazza admits. "Nobody can quite figure out how to do it, from the business standpoint. Image is a nice first step because they are the five separate studios all in one set. The nice thing is you only have to deal with one agency. To do CrossOverPower right, you have to deal with a lot of different companies to get a lot of different characters. You wind up with a lot of different things to deal with from a business standpoint. The paperwork involved is much more extensive."
While we probably shouldn't forget WildStorm's work on the Heroes Reborn series (and the Heroes Reborn chase cards it produced for the WildStorms CCG Image Universe set), it should be noted that the regular trading card arm of F/SI just happened to be working on another idea, a trading card set called Marvel v. WildStorm. That really got the wheels rolling.
"When we started planning the Marvel v. WildStorm set, we also started talking about the Image OverPower set," says Perazza. "To our delight, all the guys at Image were into it. It just rolled from there."
The Marvel v. WildStorm set included six chromium chase cards featuring selected Marvel and WildStorm comic characters such as Crystal and Voodoo. That was just the first salvo in what was going to be an ongoing relationship between the two companies. The second salvo, oddly enough, was the just released Classic OverPower expansion.
"We had started our relationship when we did some art and coloring of the Classic OverPower set," says Oprisko. "We designed the box, the wrapper and some other stuff like that. We all realized it was pretty natural to do an Image OverPower set since we already had some experience with the game. Also, we did the Marvel chase cards in the WildStorm card game which was a lot of fun."
"What I really think it boils down to is every comic fan wants to pit this character against that character. What we end up doing is expanding the OverPower universe quite a bit by throwing in the Image characters."
According to Oprisko, the list of characters in the first set of the Image OverPower include: Fairchild, Grunge, Grifter, Zealot and Backlash from WildStorm; Darkness, Ripclaw, Striker, Velocity, Witchblade and Killrazor from Top Cow; Erik Larson's Savage Dragon; Jim Valentino's Shadowhawk; and Spawn, Kurse, Tiffany, Violator, Overtkill from Todd MacFarlane. Each hero or villain will have six Special cards associated with them. There'll also be Image-designed Location, Power, Tactic and Universe cards. There will be slightly over 200 cards to the set and they will be sold in regular booster packs. The cards will have their own unique Image-oriented back, but fans of the game know that black-back card protectors are legal in tournament play, so this is no big deal. The set will ship this November. Also, the character cards introduced in the Marvel v. WildStorm set will not be repeated in the Image OverPower set, but there will be three specials for each of those characters. In the meantime, plans are already underway for a second Image OverPower set.
"We certainly hope so," says Oprisko. "As you can probably tell by the list, there's room for a lot more characters from the Image Universe. With this first release we wanted to get out the most popular characters, but we are sure people will eventually want to complete the Gen13 and WildC.A.T.S teams, for instance."
"Let me make it clear that CrossOverPower is not dead," adds Perazza. "It's a dream we are still working for. We have sets planned through all of 1998. After Image will probably be another Marvel set. We're not sure which one we'll do. The difference is past Marvel sets have been themed around mechanics. For instance Monumental introduced the Location cards, Classic introduced the Artifacts. For 1998, we're probably going to take a slightly different position and start theming the sets around the characters. Mechanically, they'll have a little bit of everything going for them and we'll even introduce some new stuff."
"But Classic also kind of introduces where we want to go," notes Perazza. "In Classic, we concentrated on the classic Marvel characters we hadn't done in the past. Maybe the next set will focus on all the cosmic Marvel characters or something like that. Maybe we'll do a totally X-Men set with variants. Time will tell." Which, of course, is something you can never say about the debates about which character can beat another. On the positive front, maybe now comic fans can do their arguing with OverPower matches instead of boring everyone else to death of who could beat whom.