Marvel's Midnight Suns - Card-Based Combat

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Game Developer talked with Jake Solomon about the combat system of Marvel's Midnight Suns:

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Marvel's Midnight Suns director worries the card-based combat kept players away

Did a complex card system keep Marvel's Midnight Suns from being a hit?

At a Glance

• Firaxis' tactical role-playing game Marvel's Midnight Suns won praise from critics, but stumbled in sales.
• Midsummer Studios co-founder Jake Solomon admits the card-based combat system may have deterred players from trying the game.

Firaxis Games' 2022 game Marvel's Midnight Suns won praise from critics and dedicated players for its crunchy in-depth strategy (and surprisingly robust narrative design), but the quality of its gameplay wasn't enough to drive sales. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told Bloomberg in 2023 that the game wasn't living up to expectations, saying at the time that the game's December release window may not have been "perfect."

But if there's anyone who has reason to do a postmortem on Midnight Suns, it's Midsummer Studios cofounder Jake Solomon. Solomon, who departed Firaxis in 2023 after the game released, was the brain behind the game's card-based combat system.

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