No, we don’t mean that Spider-Man, the PlayStation-exclusive character, is still not in the game: they didn’t get it any more right than that with Marvel’s Avengers.

In September 2020, Marvel’s Avengers sold 2.2 million copies digitally. It wasn’t enough: Square Enix’ HD Games segment (one that deals with PC/console games) suffered a roughly 63-million USD operation loss, revealed in the results briefing held on November 6. “The HD Games sub-segment posted an operating loss as initial sales of “Marvel’s Avengers” were lower than we had expected and unable to offset the amortization of the game’s development costs completely. In the second half of the fiscal year (“2H”), we hope to make up for slow initial sales by offering ample additional content to grow our sales,” Yosuke Matsuda, Square Enix’ CEO, said.

In the Q&A portion, he added: “Absent factors associated with “Marvel’s Avengers” the sub-segment would have been in the black. In addition to the amortization of that game’s development costs, another significant factor associated with the title was the fact that we undertook a major advertising campaign at the time of its launch to make up for delays in our marketing efforts resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a certain amount of development costs still to be amortized in 3Q, but we want to recoup it by growing our sales going forward.”

The game is now up on the Xbox Game Pass, and it recently got the War for Wakanda expansion, too. According to Benji-Sales on Twitter: “Marvel’s Avengers is in the Top 10 most popular games on Game Pass and has risen into the Top 15 Most Played Games on Xbox overall in the United States since being added to Game Pass last week. It looks like entering the service saw a huge boost in player counts.” So there is an improvement on Xbox, at least. However, players aren’t happy on the game’s subreddit.

The game’s newest patch introduced gameplay-related microtransactions in the form of ‘consumable’ boosts that increase the experience you get while playing the game or the resources collected. You can only buy them with real money. In other words, there are more than just cosmetic microtransactions in the game. Crystal Dynamics’ community director, Meagan Marie, vowed at E3 2019 that there wouldn’t be random loot boxes or pay-to-win scenarios in Marvel’s Avengers.

It’s not a random comment: a blog post dated August 28, 2020 (days before the game’s launch), we saw the following: “We’ve committed that content purchasable with real money in Marvel’s Avengers will be aesthetic-only additions, which will ensure we can keep the game fresh for years to come.” Way to throw this away.

Source: WCCFTech