It’s probably safe to say Marvel’s Avengers hasn’t been the superpowered success story Square Enix hoped it to be. Now, following the publisher’s quarterly financials, it seems the Crystal Dynamics punch-up has yet to even recoup its own developments costs—but Square aren’t ready to give up on the hero brawler just yet.
That news comes courtesy of a translated transcription of Square Enix’s latest financial results Q&A, which saw company president Yosuke Matsuda respond to reports that the publisher suffered a seven billion yen operating loss between April and September this year—the period in which Square launched their licensed Avengers looter-puncher.
« Absent factors associated with “Marvel’s Avengers,” the sub-segment would have been in the black, » Matsuda said, suggesting that they would have turned a profit if not for Avengers. « 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. »
Later, when more directly confronted with Avengers’ underperformance, Matsuda adds that they « engaged in ample preparations ahead of the launch, but it is true that there were aspects in which we were wanting. »
Matsuda reckons there’s still hope for the beleaguered game, though. Going into the next quarter, Square’s « first and foremost » intention is to push sales of the game with new hero Kate Bishop arriving next month, and next-gen console releases due sometime in the new year.
Marvel’s Avengers isn’t a terrible game, by any means. But it desperately wants to be a years-long time sink of a live-service game, a lofty goal that ultimately hinders what could have been a perfectly good single-player Ms Marvel game.
« If Marvel’s Avengers wants to keep loyalists sweet and expand its player-base, it needs a lot more flesh on its vibranium skeletal armature, » Robert Zak wrote in his Marvel’s Avengers review. « If only the game could carry some of its narrative prowess from the campaign over into the endgame. »