Despite the great expectation that he carried behind his back and being besieged by Crystal Dynamics, creators of the Tomb Rider reboot, Marvel’s Avengers ended up being a resounding failure for Square Enix both critically and among the gaming community. Beyond controversial as the faces of its protagonists, which were not those of the MCU actors, most of the criticism came from the obligation to implement the gambling model as a service instead of doing a traditional storytelling game. The result was somewhat ‘disappointing’, now acknowledges the editor.
“We faced a variety of challenges in the final phase of development, including the need to go to work at home for the pandemic«, Comments Yosuke Matsuda, president of Square Enix, through a statement that accompanied the latest financial report of the company (via VGC). «We were able to overcome those challenges and launch the game, but unfortunately it was not the success we wanted«.
In Matsuda’s words, some guilt can also be recognized for the decision to entrust the project to Crystal Dynamics, despite coming from narrative games and having no experience in GaaS. “However, testing the game-as-a-service model highlighted issues that we will likely have to face in future development projects, such as the need to select game design that matches the attributes and tastes of our studios and development teams«.
Finally, despite the failure of Marvel’s Avengers, the publisher does not rule out implementing game-as-a-service models in future projects. “While the new challenge we are tackling with this title produced a disappointing resultWe are confident that the GaaS approach will grow in importance as games become more service-oriented. How we are going to create new experiences incorporating this trend in the design of our game is a key question that we will have to answer in the future.
Marvel’s Avengers is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S and PC since mid-2020. It is currently available on Xbox Game Pass at no additional cost, just as it was previously incorporated into the PS Now catalog for a time.