At an event held at DC Comic’s offices in Burbank, California — fittingly, on a Wednesday — Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that the upcoming free-to-play, superhero MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena game) Infinite Crisis — which is being made by Turbine — will start its open beta (a.k.a., soft launch) on May 14th, and that there will also be a corresponding comic book series and line of action figures.
For those who haven’t kept up with its development, Infinite Crisis is set after the events of the 2005/2006 comic book series of the same name. Which was, in turn, a sequel to the 1985 comic book series Crisis On Infinite Earths. Infinite Crisis features different versions of such DC Comics characters as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the Super Friends from alternative dimensions.
The open beta will feature three maps: the three-lane Gotham Heights, a two-lane one called Coast City Marina, and another three-lane one called Gotham Divided that is unique because it’s split between two different versions of Gotham City, Earth-0 (the regular DC Universe Earth that ran from the 1985 comic book series Crisis On Infinite Earths through 2011’s Flashpoint series) and Earth-19 (an alternate Earth from Infinite Crisis that’s still in the midst of the Industrial Revolution).
Along with the game’s beta being open to all, May 14th will also see the release of three new characters: Green Arrow…
…Aquaman, shown here just loungin’…
…and Mecha Godzilla, I mean Mecha Streisand, I mean Mecha Superman.
May is also when DC will launch a weekly Infinite Crisis digital comic, which will explain what happened since the original Infinite Crisis series up through to the beginning of the game. Like all of DC’s digital comics, the Infinite Crisis ones will eventually be collected in books that will be available on a Wednesday at your local comic shop.
Lastly, DC Direct will also be releasing a series of Infinite Crisis action figures, including Atomic Poison Ivy…
…Atomic Green Lantern…
…Renaissance Batman (of whom they didn’t provide a photo, but he kind of looks like a cross between The Dark Knight and a Big Daddy from BioShock), and my personal favorite, Pajama Party Harley Quinn.
Unlike the previously released Infinite Crisis statues — which included Nightmare Batman, Atomic Wonder Woman, and Arcane Green Lantern — the action figures will be articulated, and while they didn’t announce a price for any of them, they did say that they would be cheaper than the statues, which were $124.95 each.
You can learn more about Infinite Crisis at the game’s website.
