While Square Enix has acknowledged on numerous occasions that its Crystal Dynamics-developed Marvel’s Avengers was a “disappointment” and a commercial failure, the publisher suggested for the first time in its latest financial report that it doesn’t think its choice of development studio was the right one.
To say that Crystal Dynamics isn’t well-versed in GaaS (Games as a Service) is an understatement. The developer is known for its single-player games and had been working on the Tomb Raider franchise for a significant proportion of its existence. Marvel’s Avengers was quite a departure from its past work, and Square Enix thinks that’s perhaps part of the reason the title didn’t do well.
President Yosuke Matsuda wrote:
Marvel’s Avengers was an ambitious title for us in that we took on the GaaS (Games as a Service) model. We overcame a variety of unexpected difficulties in the final phase of the game’s development, including needing to transition to work-from-home due to the pandemic. We were able to surmount these challenges and release the game, but it has unfortunately not proven as successful as we would have liked.
Nonetheless, taking on the GaaS model highlighted issues that we are likely to face in future game development efforts such as the need to select game designs that mesh with the unique attributes and tastes of our studios and development teams. While the new challenge that we tackled with this title produced a disappointing outcome, we are certain that the GaaS approach will grow in importance as gaming becomes more service oriented. How we go about creating new experiences by incorporating this trend into our game design is a key question that we will need to answer going forward.
Following fan backlash, Marvel’s Avengers recently pulled paid XP boosts from the in-game store.
[Source: Square Enix]
