The players:

* Microsoft recently announced an alliance with Marvel at Comic-Con International, the largest comic-fan gathering of the world. Famous for superheroes such as Spider-Man, Hulk and the X-Men universe, this huge franchise is now aiming for a piece of the multiplayer online games market cake. It has been said, the product is going to be exclusively for X-Box 360, which would be rather bad for PC-owning superhero nerds like me. A release date of 2008 has been reported by Reuters.

* Sony Online Entertainment, infamous for their recent screw-ups with Star Wars Galaxies, signed a deal with DC Comics to build a MMOG based on heroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Sandman. The release of this MMOG for PC and console is scheduled for winter 2007.

* NCSoft known for their highly successful portfolio with games such as City of Heroes, City of Villains, Guildwars and Lineage already has a secure foothold in the market with their twin-games City of Heroes and City of Villains, both of which I rather enjoyed playing.