The response to Square Enix and Crystal Dynamic’s Marvel’s Avengers has been pretty underwhelming since its launch back in September. The game’s player count has fallen significantly since then, and while a new DLC is on its way, things seem pretty grim at the moment. While Square Enix has yet to reveal the actual figures of the game’s sales, company president Yosuke Matsude recently revealed during an investor call that Marvel’s Avengers hasn’t yet recovered its development cost.
Earlier this month, Square Enix revealed the quarterly financial report for the company which confirmed a loss of over 6.5 billion Yen for its Digital Entertainment section. While this isn’t entirely representative of the repercussions of Marvel’s Avengers, it still plays a significant role in this as it was the biggest launch for the company this season. While the exact development cost of the game isn’t known, popular game analyst David Gibson reported that the company sold only 60% of its planned units, thereby indicating that the game’s development cost around $100 million, while the game sold around 3 million copies.
Matsude has now indirectly confirmed what Gibson had reported earlier. He said,” Sales of Marvel’s Avengers were lower than we had expected and unable to completely offset the amortization of the game’s development costs.” Matsude further explained to an investor, saying that the game would have performed better and made more profit if only it had launched in a different quarter. Matsude also blamed the ongoing pandemic that severed the company’s marketing plans for the game.
He said, “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.”
Being optimistic, he further added that he expects Marvel’s Avengers sales to pick up with the addition of free updates that will add new characters, missions, etc, while also making some quality of life changes. The next big update will add in the much-awaited Kate Bishop, who will be tracking down her former mentor Hawkeye with the help of Avengers. Furthermore, Square Enix has confirmed a free next-gen upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S players that is dropping sometime in 2021.
While Marvel’s Avengers may not be the best live service title out there, it does a few things right. The game’s main story has been widely praised by fans and critics alike, with some fine performances by the likes of Troy Baker, Nolan North, Laura Bailey, and Sandra Saad, who also won the award for best performance at this year’s Golden Joystick Award. While the narrative front seems promising in the future updates, Marvel’s Avengers still need a lot of love from the developers if they want it to thrive in the coming years ahead.
Marvel’s Avengers is now available on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X versions also in development.
Source: IGN
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