Meta shut down MARVEL Powers United VR (2018) back in 2021, the online co-op game released exclusively on Oculus Rift by Meta-owned studio Sanzuru Games. A recent fan project dedicated to reviving the game gave fans a glimmer of hope that they may even be able to play online again, but Meta has now shut that down too.
As reported by Video Gamer, the short-lived ‘Powers Revival’ project has been shut down, citing copyright infringement by IP holder Meta.
“Unfortunately, we regret to announce today that the ‘Powers Revival Project’ will be closed and completely removed in the following days,” organizers announced in the project’s Discord over the weekend. The Discord first opened its doors on August 20th, making for a fairly rapid response by Meta.
The project’s scope was to promote software tools so users could select game levels, and therefore play all of Marvel Powers United VR’s single player content. It also appears Powers Revival came fairly close to releasing multiplayer servers too, which is a shame.
Issues appeared to stem however from the group providing players with direct links to torrents so users could install Marvel Powers United VR content in its entirety, reasoning that many such legitimate owners had already deleted their game files as suggested by Meta back in 2021 “to avoid dead space taken up on your device.”
“While we, in good faith, wanted to help legitimate game owners download the game as most had already uninstalled it at Meta’s request after shutdown, that ultimately ended up being a terrible decision as we were unintentionally infringing on the copyrighted files belonging to Meta Platforms (MP). As would be expected, they’ve kindly asked us to take down this project and any infringing files.”
The revival group said over the weekend they’re still attempting to negotiate with Meta, although admits “it’s highly unlikely and if we don’t hear back positively the [Discord] server will be deleted as scheduled.” An announcement message from group organizers notes today is the “dawn of the final day. 24 hours remains.”
In its wake, the Powers Revival project is urging players to sign the Stop Killing Games initiative, which seeks to end the practice of publishers deleting video games they have sold to customers.
What’s more, all of this was in service of a game that received mostly middling scores for essentially offering up a super hero-flavored wave shooter, albeit letting you play as 18 different Marvel heroes, such as Black Widow, Captain America, Spider-Man, Storm, The Hulk, and Wolverine.
Still, its overall production value and ability to let you cosplay as your favorite superhero was a highpoint not worth overlooking. At the time of this writing, the fan revival Discord has nearly 6,000 members.
Thanks to Antony Vitillo of Skarred Ghost for pointing us to the news.