The near-finished Daredevil game that Marvel quashed

Sounds like someone almost made Infamous on PS2

As part of the superhero boom in the early 2000s that saw Marvel selling off movie rights to its pajama-wearing characters and saw Colin Farrell kill a man with a paper clip, there was meant to be a Daredevil: The Man Without Fear game. It started development in 2002 as a third-person action game for PS2.

But after Marvel saw (and liked) the first prototype, the company stepped in to oversee the project and had final say in all decisions as the rights-holder to the character. Later, publisher Encore saw potential sales success with the shitty Sony Pictures film and expanded development to PC and Xbox. Then it became an open-world action game meant to release in early 2003 alongside the movie. Meanwhile Sony’s vying for some Tony Hawk-style grind mechanic for Daredevil, Marvel is pissed, and Microsoft doesn’t seem to mind anything. 

Delays, drama, resignations. A finished game that, in appeasing Sony, Marvel felt strayed too far from the character as established in the comics. Marvel apparently pulled the license so the company couldn’t release it. And for however much is strayed, game looked like it could’ve been alright and sat alongside some of the stronger superhero games of the period.

If anyone wants to take another shot at a Daredevil game, Nic has some suggestions.