Getting into character. Building that approach into games, which are not inherently a narrative medium like film or comics, takes ingenuity. “It’s a very long term process,” said Rosemann. “The moment we settle on the story points, we start thinking about how to bring in gameplay elements and character designs.”

Phillips said that the narrative thread connecting the movie to the games is the concept of two groups of good guys and one time allies divided, with each side thinking they’re right. New gameplay elements in many of the titles support that by enabling group play, allowing users to play different characters and different costumes, and picking up threads from the movie in some of the objectives and visuals.

Phillips emphasized that the slate of games arriving ahead of Captain America: Civil War don’t adapt the movie directly. They start from central points in the movie that fans will recognize, but take the story in directions appropriate to the game design and audience. He said there are no direct tie-ins where games pay off story threads in the movie or vice versa. “The content in the games supplements the movie in a nice way but its not a requirement.”

Riding the revenue wave. Many of the games are already proven hits with fans on the basis of the design and gameplay, topping the charts on mobile app downloads, and hitching the games to one of the most highly-anticipated movies of the season is a proven money-maker.

“Last year, we saw big increases in games tied to film events,” said Phillips. According to Phillips, the Contest of Champions game from Avengers: Age of Ultron saw a 25% increase in engagement and a 225% spike in downloads. Overall Age of Ultron and Ant-Man generated a 30% lift in monthly revenues across all monthly titles.

With Captain America: Civil War poised to upend box office records, this big coordinated effort across multiple titles, gaming formats and platforms shows that Marvel Games isn’t playing around.