Marvel MMO Cancellation Imminent??? News

Just days after rumours emerged that a high-profile, first-party title from Microsoft Game Studios was under threat from the imminent, it seems that the identity of the game has emerged courtesy of US-based 1UP - Marvel Universe Online.

According to the report, developer Cryptic Studios has struggled with some of the core dynamics of the MMO Marvel Universe Online, including its combat system, and getting the game to work within the framework of Xbox Live. Cryptic Studios recently severed their relationship with NCsoft by selling the City of Heroes/Villains brand to the MMO publisher, which seemed to suggest that work on the Marvel MMO was continuing as expected. If confirmation about the title emerges from Microsoft in the coming days and weeks then the future of Cryptic surely looking less uncertain now that it's left its previous super-hero title behind.

Earlier speculation of a cancelled MGS title prompted many of the studios working on a first-party title for Xbox 360 to release statements proclaiming that it wasn't them - including Rare, which stated that "the third instalment of Banjo-Kazooie is still in full production, that is to say, it has not been cancelled."

Mmmm...a high-profile Xbox-based MMO being cancelled? Why is there a sense of déjà vu about this whole thing?