Marvel’s Avengershas been working towards becoming the game that many fans hoped it would be at launch for the past year now, and it’s made decent progress so far. While the journey hasn’t been entirely painless, MCU cosmetics and the addition of Black Panther in the War for Wakanda DLC have madeMarvel’s Avengersinto a somewhat more satisfying experience. And with the Spider-Man DLC finally coming at the end of November, Crystal Dynamics seems to be delivering on most of the promises it made beforeAvengerscame out, even if it took longer than some may have preferred.
The release ofSpider-Man inMarvel’s Avengerscaps off over a year of anticipation and frustrated patience for many players, and it should prove to be a huge relief when the wall-crawler arrives November 30. Looking towards the game’s future, however, there is a strange silence over what new content there will be aside from cosmetics and quality of life changes. For a live service game, this lack of a plan could be a concerning sign forMarvel’s Avengers, and there are a number of things that Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics will have to do to make sure it doesn’t fall apart completely.
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Marvel’s Avengers' Split Playerbase
Looking atthe current roadmap forMarvel’s Avengers, the plan seems to be to rely on the release of Spider-Man for the rest of the year and fill in any empty spaces with new cosmetics and gameplay updates. While this is a smart move to ensure that Spider-Man gets the proper attention and isn’t overshadowed by any other DLC, there are some flaws to this approach.
The most glaring issue here is that for a large chunk ofMarvel’s Avengers' playerbase, the most recent hero DLC is still Black Panther’s War for Wakanda. Because of Spider-Man’s PlayStation exclusivity, fans on Xbox and PC will be waiting a disproportionate amount of time for a new character to play. When combined withAvengers' persistent endgame content complaints, a substantial portion of players could drop out because they feel they aren’t being supported. And with how muchAvengershas been trying to build up a community through systems likeXbox Game Pass, this could eventually be a major blow to the game’s momentum.
What Marvel’s Avengers Can Do To Keep Fans Interested
The most obvious move for Crystal Dynamics to make withMarvel’s Avengersis to provide even the smallest tease for a new hero. A leak around the launch of the game detailed a list of heroes that could be planned as DLC, and while these leaks were never confirmed, they were filled with nearly endless potential. FromScarlet Witchto the Winter Soldier, setting up these heroes would help ensure thatMarvel’s Avengerscontinues to be a financial success for both publisher and developer. As it stands right now, many fans don’t have a reason to care about the future, and that’s arguably the worst state for a live service game to be in.
It is possible thatCrystal Dynamicscould be waiting for Spider-Man to release before it provides any big future plans, but the uncertainty of the game’s future is not an encouraging sign considering its persistent growing pains. Some kind of 2022 roadmap would at least show fans that the game will still get support going into its second year on the market, which should be enough to keep some players from jumping ship. At the end of the day,Marvel’s Avengersstill has a lot of potential, it will just be a matter of capitalizing on that potential for the foreseeable future.
Marvel’s Avengersis available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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