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New start up company Gazillion Entertainment has announced a 10 year contract with Marvel to use their 5,000 characters in a new MMO game which is aimed as competition for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft.

Blizzard currently dominate the MMO industry with a turnover of over $1 billion each year with 11.5 million subscribers.

Simon Philips, Marvel’s president of worldwide consumer products, said the company’s stable of more than 5,000 superheroes was “tailor-made for massively multiplayer entertainment that will appeal to a wide audience”.

“Despite the tough economy, the video game industry continues to grow, and MMO games for mass audiences represent the next big opportunity for the upcoming decade,” said Gazillion president and chief executive Rob Hutter. “This is particularly the case for established global entertainment brands like Marvel, which possess hundreds of millions of touch points with fans worldwide.”

The first game in development is a casual MMO for younger audiences based on Marvel’s Super Hero Squad. It is due for release in 2010.