MARVEL Puzzle Quest Development Update

S0kun
S0kun ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 1,079 Chairperson of the Boards
in MPQ General Discussion

With 2026 on the horizon, we’ve been taking a thorough look at MARVEL Puzzle Quest in its current post-Unity state and determining our plans for next year. These plans are going to be implemented so we can shape MPQ’s next year into one of excitement with new features and much-needed updates to the game.

Unity has shaped much of our work this year, capped by this summer’s launch of the Unity version of MPQ. We planned for some turbulence and a gradual smooth-out as we integrated the game into our live servers and finally got players to experience what was supposed to be a momentous milestone in the game’s history. While improvements have been continually made, they’re not being made at a steady enough progress to set up the 2026 that we had originally envisioned.

However, on a positive note regarding new content, we also released our first post-Unity features with 6-Star characters and the all new Tower Mode. Both of which show some exciting potential in having a strong foothold in the game’s meta and we’re encouraged by the conversations that are being had around these features. We’ll continue to make adjustments in the future since this is our first rollout and there will of course be room for improvement.

Since MPQ’s handoff to 505 Games, BCS has been a great partner in supporting its day-to-day live service operations and during these last months of Unity, and they’ve been working hard to stabilize the game. However, as we look toward not only the goals we have, but the further improvements needed, it’s clear we need to bring in additional resources to bring MPQ to where it needs to be.

In looking at our options for how to accomplish this, one team came to mind that was uniquely situated to tackle such an endeavor. We're excited to announce that our internal development studio, Infinity Plus Two (IP2), will be taking over the development of MARVEL Puzzle Quest. This change not only brings development efforts in-house to leverage their expertise in creating Unity games and managing live service titles, but it also returns MPQ to its Puzzle Quest roots with the team that created the franchise and defined the Match 3 RPG genre.

Starting in 2026, IP2 will transition into the role of being our main development team in charge of MPQ and its full live service operations. While the IP2 team have already begun familiarising themselves with the project, as you can imagine, MPQ is a big game with a long history, so they will be transitioning over the coming months. Their first priorities will be ensuring content continues to be delivered smoothly and a focus on some QoLs while they come up to speed, before taking bigger swings. But the team is very keen and already making plans. We expect to have exciting things to talk about early next year after the team has had a chance to fully get to know the game. Also a fun fact, our very own IceIX has some very deep roots with this team since he has played an integral role in several Puzzle Quest games in the franchise’s history and will continue to be a key link in this new era of MPQ.

Expect to hear from us early next year as we begin to shape MPQ’s development from the house where Puzzle Quest began. We’ll be focusing on the obvious priorities like stability, but equally important to our players, new exciting refreshes to the game that will be outlined in a new 2026 roadmap. Until then, we look forward to unveiling our newest slate of characters for 2025 including the last two 6-star reveals of the year!

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Comments

  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 6,687 Chairperson of the Boards

    Technically it’s coming in house for the first time, unless someone worked on it before Demiurge.

  • Gymp28
    Gymp28 Posts: 269 Mover and Shaker

    @entrailbucket said:

    @WilliamK1983 said:
    Cliff notes: we hired outside help because we don't know what we're doing.

    Maybe read it again?

    Sounds to me like the publisher is firing BCS and moving development back in-house.

    Yes, that’s what I’m reading as well. Big news, and I’m personally excited for what the change could (and hopefully will) bring.
    If it’s broke, fix it, and this seems to be a huge stride to do exactly that!

  • SuperCarrot
    SuperCarrot Posts: 320 Mover and Shaker

    How many successful companies have the word “broken” in their name? I could look this up or just ponder..think I will ponder.

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 7,814 Chairperson of the Boards

    @SuperCarrot said:
    How many successful companies have the word “broken” in their name? I could look this up or just ponder..think I will ponder.

    Stone Cold Steve Austin owns the Broken Skull Ranch.

    I'm not sure if it's successful, but I wouldn't want to tell him it wasn't.

  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 12,053 Chairperson of the Boards

    Oh. So we have to wait for a new team before we get new stuff because current team are useless*. I guess Devpool looks even more of an embarrassment putting themselves in game now. Until then, I guess we can Meet Rocket and Groot some more.

    *Need additional resources

  • dokiy
    dokiy Posts: 258 Mover and Shaker

    This in an interesting development. Moving things in-house will probably be for the better. Also someone hinted at is that the Unity roll-out was a far bigger mess than they had anticipated, which I wonder, played a part in getting rid of BCS.

  • Tarelgeth
    Tarelgeth Posts: 71 Match Maker

    Strategy successful. I am more willing to see how this plays out than I was to keep playing before this.

  • Hellblazer666
    Hellblazer666 Posts: 405 Mover and Shaker

    Good can't wait to get hopefully a more competent team. Can we throw BCS out the door like uncle Phil did to Jazz from Fresh prince?

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 7,814 Chairperson of the Boards

    @DAZ0273 said:
    Oh. So we have to wait for a new team before we get new stuff because current team are useless*. I guess Devpool looks even more of an embarrassment putting themselves in game now. Until then, I guess we can Meet Rocket and Groot some more.

    *Need additional resources

    I'd avoid taking any of this at face value. The important takeaway here is the what -- they're not going to tell us the whys (and they shouldn't, but I think we can all probably make some guesses on those).

  • toecutter3095
    toecutter3095 Posts: 119 Tile Toppler

    This sounds promising. These guys are the dev team for Gems of War which is a great game. I sunk hundreds of hours into that before I got hooked on MPQ and the daily schedule of MPQ made it impossible to manage both.

  • Phumade
    Phumade Posts: 2,660 Chairperson of the Boards

    @Tarelgeth said:
    Strategy successful. I am more willing to see how this plays out than I was to keep playing before this.

    This is just like those Business Case Study articles. There will be many articles written on how companies manged the transition to Unity/Unreal/Godot. We already saw Football Manager have issues in their Unity rollout.

  • benthemad
    benthemad Posts: 11 Just Dropped In

    Well, I'm not holding my breath, here, but it almost seems like any change could be good change. Put me in the "cautiously optimistic" bucket.

  • Codex
    Codex Posts: 507 Critical Contributor

    This is the best news in the last 20 months.

  • Chrynos1989
    Chrynos1989 Posts: 596 Critical Contributor

    There’s no coming back from infinity, Andy!

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