Disney Interactive Games and Marvel Entertainment have launched Marvel: Avengers Alliance 2 on the App Store and Google Play.
Its predecessor originally launched as a Facebook game in 2012, before a since-discontinued mobile version was released on both iOS and Android in 2013.
Marvel: Avengers Alliance has shown a surprising staying power, with the original game described by Chris Heatherly, SVP and GM of Disney Interactive Games, as "the most successful social game that we ever did."
"It's four years old, has over a hundred characters, is still going strong," he adds.
Time for an update
This is all despite an ageing 2D aesthetic, so the firm is confident that this new entry - which maintains the team-based RPG combat while ramping up the visuals to an impressive, fully 3D sheen fit for 2016 - can surpass it.
“Marvel: Avengers Alliance 2 expands on the original with exciting new missions and one of the most robust character line-ups in any Marvel game,” says Peter Phillips, EVP/GM of Interactive and Digital Distribution at Marvel Entertainment.
Character and story are important elements in both the original Avengers Alliance and this new sequel, with Iso-8 - a mysterious ore used to upgrade heroes in the game - now being explored in Marvel comics and wider media.
It allows us to expand the Marvel universe beyond comics, movies, and animated series'.Scott Rudi
"That really points to how close a collaboration we have as a combined team... [it allows us to] expand the Marvel universe beyond comics, movies, and animated series', but have it still be consistent to the brand," explains Scott Rudi, Creative Director at Disney Interactive.
Disney takes a three-pronged approach to mobile gaming. Marvel: Avengers Alliance 2 is an example of an internally-developed game, of which the firm releases about 3 or 4 per year.
Then there's also the licensing business, which has seen great success with the likes of EA's Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and Kabam's Marvel: Contest of Champions, and a co-development model that sees the company working closely with smaller studios such as Behaviour and Hipster Whale.
"It shows that our strategy is working," says Heatherly of the firm's 2015 successes. "A combination of internal talent, working with the best external indie developers, and then licensing with the big guys.”
It's this momentum that Disney will be keen to capitalise upon on in 2016, and the fortunes of Marvel: Avengers Alliance 2 will play a big part in that.
