Not a week goes by these days without hearing that Square Enix is shutting down a live service game.

In December, we heard rumors that Marvel’s Avengers, a game from Crystal Dynamics, now part of the Embracer Group, would be shelved in 2023. (Last year, one of Square Enix’s most inexplicable moves was to sell off Square Enix Montréal, which closed shortly after its rebranding, and Eidos Montréal and Crystal Dynamics, and their IPs for pennies to the Swedish conglomerate, which is growing at an incredible pace.) We also heard that new characters (like Captain America and She-Hulk) would arrive before they put the handbrake on content expansions.

Miller Ross, the best-known Marvel’s Avengers leaker, was behind that rumor, and he reported the plans have changed as the digital grim reaper for the game is coming faster. It is primarily tied to the departure of Brian Waggoner, the lead designer on Marvel’s Avengers, who got hit in the head last year for his racially insensitive tweets. Initially, Crystal Dynamics simply removed him from his position as the spokesperson. Still, he has left the company and will not be replaced, as the developers have switched to the new Unreal Engine 5-using Tomb Raider. He even wrote that things like Ironheart and Shuri, Patrol Mode for free exploration, and the (final?) fight against Ultron had been taken off the agenda.

The rumor was that Marvel’s Avengers would remain available, and the servers would stay up and running. Now, Crystal Dynamics has officially spoken: the 2.8 update, due on March 31, will be the last. There will be no more content after that, all cosmetic stuff will be available for free, and the real-money Marketplace will be discontinued. Unspent store credits will become in-game resources, and official support for the game will end on September 30. After that, it will remain playable solo and online, but there will be no bug fixes.

Ir means Square Enix has failed again with a live service game. Babylon’s Fall, Chocobo GP, a mobile Bravely Default, and the also-mobile Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier. To these, we can add Marvel’s Avengers.

Source: WCCFTech