Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics took a step back after the Marvel’s Avengers players found out about their dirty move. The publisher and the developer have effectively kicked their pre-release promise to the curb.

Previously, we wrote about how in early October, Marvel’s Avengers got expanded with additional microtransactions. Yes, additional: there have been cosmetic ones since the game launched, but the new ones were gameplay-affecting, pay-to-win ones, allowing the players to spend real money to get XP boosts and resources… despite the pre-release promises of such thing never happening.

The players got angry (rightfully so), and now, we have an announcement on Twitter: “We apologize for not responding sooner to your concerns about the addition of paid consumables in the Marketplace. We introduced them as an option for an evolving player base and did not see them as pay-to-win since they don’t offer power directly.

After considering your feedback, we have decided that we will remove Hero’s Catalysts and Fragment Extractors for purchase by the end of today. They will continue to be earnable rewards, and those already owned are still useable. We hope that this can be the first step in rebuilding your confidence in us as a team. It continues to be our goal to make the very best game possible. Thank you for being a part of the Marvel’s Avengers community,” Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix wrote.

Time for us to ask the painful questions: So the XP boost for levelling up was not a pay-to-win mechanic, huh? Also, why take a whole month to get rid of them? Was it just a test to see how many players bought these items? And what about the PlayStation players? They are still waiting for Spider-Man, who was announced a long, long time ago…

Source: WCCFTech