There' s a Q&A with Shane Kim on MTV Multiplayer Blog talking with the head of Microsoft Game Studios at the DICE summit. Along the way they ask Shane about rumors that Marvel Universe Online is canceled, and he confirms the superhero MMORPG that was being developed by Cryptic Studios is indeed dead, with the reason offered implying that Microsoft would only consider an MMOG successful if it equaled the staggering success of World of Warcraft:

I don’t think it’s necessarily a case of what went wrong. I don’t know that that’s the right way to put it. For us we look at our priorities and all of the things we have to do. It’s a tough space. It’s a very competitive space. And it’s a space that’s changing quite a bit. …When we first entered into the development and agreement of the development of ‘Marvel Universe Online,’ we thought we would create another subscription-based MMO. And if you really look at the data there’s basically one that’s successful and everything else wouldn’t meet our level or definition of commercial success. And then you have to look [and say]: ‘Can we change the business model for that? Is that really viable given how far we are in development? And so forth. Does Marvel want to do that?’ There’s a whole bunch of factors.