The past couple of years have seen some AAA games with the biggest budgets not live up to the hype that it was able to create pre-release. There have indeed been a lot of disastrous releases since 2020, but not many have been as iconically abysmal as the one we will talk about today. Released in September 2020, Marvel’s Avengers was one of the year’s most anticipated launches, especially because the movie franchise dominated the box office for well over a decade.
Based on the fan-favorite group of Avengers from the Marvel universe, the game had over $100,000,000 invested into it. However, on release, Marvel’s Avengers was one of the worst-rated games of the year.
The reception for the title was so bad that by the end of 2022, almost two years later, it could only meet 60% of the expected sales, with an additional 67$ million operating loss during the company’s Q3 2020.
Why was Marvel’s Avengers one of the most disastrous games of this decade?
There is not one particular reason why Marvel’s Avengers did so poorly. That said, there were three issues with the title which stood out more than the rest:
1) Poor loot system
Marvel’s Avengers core design and character developments revolved around a loot box system that players did not appreciate. There were microtransactions at every corner, and it felt quite overwhelming to those who paid full price for the title but would have to pay more to get more powerful outfits and gear for the characters.
Anti-consumer and predatory practices were at the heart of the title, and it did not come as much of a surprise to many when the game got overwhelmingly negative reviews.
Although Square Enix did look to change stuff around in the later updates, it was not enough to save the title.
2) Poorly designed missions
The missions and the narrative played out very poorly. Instead of having a linear or an open-world design, the developers chose to center exploration on just one ship where players select the next missions, and there would be a loading screen, and they would be on their way.
It felt lazy to many players, and poor gameplay design was one of the title’s biggest criticisms apart from its predatory practices.
3) Some Avengers felt off
While some of the Avengers felt really good to pilot, most of the cast felt off, and their movesets did not go well with the core design. Some even felt that the mechanics felt so off-putting that some of the Avengers were simply not worth playing.
Leave a Reply