Electronic Arts and Marvel Comics have signed a deal for new video games to be published by EA. The games will star superheroes from a pool of about 100 Marvel characters (though probably fewer will actually be included in each game), as well as original EA characters created exclusively for these games. The deal covers fighting games only, a genre EA is certainly not well known for but is perhaps looking to test in the market.

There is no information on the original EA characters. The publisher currently lacks a strong lineup of its own characters, due to the fact that most of its successful games are in the sports genre or licensed from movies. The new characters created for this deal will be licensed back to Marvel for use in tie-in comic books.

Reuters also notes that EA has previously acquired licenses for Batman and Superman. Some of Marvel's characters, including the Punisher and the Hulk, are not covered in the EA deal due to exclusivity with other publishers. However, the new agreement does include Spider-Man and the X-Men, who are eligible outside Activision's licenses because EA is creating fighting and not action games.