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Crystal Dynamics claim 'relief in sight' for bored Avengers players

cormack12

Gold Member
As a service game, Avengers is flailing. The initial excitement over playing beloved superheroes has dulled, thanks to a lack of variety in late-game content. Even players who enjoy the grind of multiplayer looter/shooter games, like our own Ari Notis, are finding their enthusiasm waning. The game’s Reddit is filled with disappointed players, wondering why they should keep playing. Its Steam playerbase is dwindling, with less than 2,000 players online as of this writing.

I reached out to Crystal Dynamics earlier today regarding the lack of content and dwindling playerbase. In response, the developer sent a lengthy statement from studio head Scot Amos. In it, Amos talks about some new mission types coming to the game, the new Outpost, which will serve as a starting point for new story content eventually, and the coming of Kate Bishop and Clint Barton, Marvel’s two Hawkeyes. What Amos does not mention is specific dates, save one—there’s a blog scheduled for next week that will have more details on upcoming content.

Amos statement

To our players: every day we fight to make the best game possible for our community. We have a great community management team at Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix who funnel all of your concerns, suggestions, and feedback to the development team daily. We are listening. We are making fixes, improvements, and additions as fast as we safely can to make Marvel’s Avengers the game we all aspire it to be.

As such, we have a number of new content pieces coming in the weeks ahead including: a totally new War Zone mission type called Tachyon Rifts, a new Outpost that’s a jumping off point for new story missions in the future, and AIM’s Cloning Lab, which requires a coordinated high-level group of four players to beat with new top-end loot rewards for finishing it. And in each of these updates we do tuning and bug fixing to enhance the overall experience.

In addition, we’ve announced two new Heroes coming in the near future: Kate Bishop in Operation: Taking AIM, and after that the double-feature Operation starring Clint Barton… this is the “two Hawkeyes” we mentioned in the last War Table. These new Operations pick up right from where the main Reassemble campaign ended in the core game and will propel the overall world story forward with new mysteries and villains, as well as new multi-player content.

Lastly, we will continue to add new content to the game in the coming months as we address issues and overall game balance, including loot distribution and quality of life features everyone is clamoring for to improve our day-to-day experience from accessibility to co-op communication tools to balancing the economy!

We are confident that we’ll see PC players (as well as those on Xbox One and PlayStation 4) return to the game as we add exciting new late-game content and demonstrate that we continue to be focused on improving the game.

We’ll have more information and details about the very near content drops in a blog scheduled for next week and we have new community communication initiatives coming soon to even more directly share fun and useful information with you.

Thank you for coming with us on this journey to truly realize the best of what Marvel’s Avengers can become
 

martino

Member
giphy.gif
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
As a service game, Avengers is flailing. The initial excitement over playing beloved superheroes has dulled, thanks to a lack of variety in late-game content. Even players who enjoy the grind of multiplayer looter/shooter games, like our own Ari Notis, are finding their enthusiasm waning. The game’s Reddit is filled with disappointed players, wondering why they should keep playing. Its Steam playerbase is dwindling, with less than 2,000 players online as of this writing.

I reached out to Crystal Dynamics earlier today regarding the lack of content and dwindling playerbase. In response, the developer sent a lengthy statement from studio head Scot Amos. In it, Amos talks about some new mission types coming to the game, the new Outpost, which will serve as a starting point for new story content eventually, and the coming of Kate Bishop and Clint Barton, Marvel’s two Hawkeyes. What Amos does not mention is specific dates, save one—there’s a blog scheduled for next week that will have more details on upcoming content.

Amos statement

To our players: every day we fight to make the best game possible for our community. We have a great community management team at Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix who funnel all of your concerns, suggestions, and feedback to the development team daily. We are listening. We are making fixes, improvements, and additions as fast as we safely can to make Marvel’s Avengers the game we all aspire it to be.

As such, we have a number of new content pieces coming in the weeks ahead including: a totally new War Zone mission type called Tachyon Rifts, a new Outpost that’s a jumping off point for new story missions in the future, and AIM’s Cloning Lab, which requires a coordinated high-level group of four players to beat with new top-end loot rewards for finishing it. And in each of these updates we do tuning and bug fixing to enhance the overall experience.

In addition, we’ve announced two new Heroes coming in the near future: Kate Bishop in Operation: Taking AIM, and after that the double-feature Operation starring Clint Barton… this is the “two Hawkeyes” we mentioned in the last War Table. These new Operations pick up right from where the main Reassemble campaign ended in the core game and will propel the overall world story forward with new mysteries and villains, as well as new multi-player content.

Lastly, we will continue to add new content to the game in the coming months as we address issues and overall game balance, including loot distribution and quality of life features everyone is clamoring for to improve our day-to-day experience from accessibility to co-op communication tools to balancing the economy!

We are confident that we’ll see PC players (as well as those on Xbox One and PlayStation 4) return to the game as we add exciting new late-game content and demonstrate that we continue to be focused on improving the game.

We’ll have more information and details about the very near content drops in a blog scheduled for next week and we have new community communication initiatives coming soon to even more directly share fun and useful information with you.

Thank you for coming with us on this journey to truly realize the best of what Marvel’s Avengers can become

You can almost feel sad for the guy. That did not read at all like something they expected to write at this point in the game’s lifecycle with all the money they poured into it.
 
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-Arcadia-

Banned
I don’t know why they didn’t just make an awesome 10-20 hour traditional game, which should have been well in their grasp after coming off two Tomb Raiders.

Granted, this game always looked kind of wonky, from Kamala Khan virtue signaling, to looking like Avengers: A Porn Parody, to some early, uninspiring gameplay, but being a Destiny-alike just completely ended my interest in it.
 

DonJorginho

Banned
Normally a live service game has to beg players back with content after 3-4 months, not within the space of a single month 😂

This game is woeful, Anthem was a better, more fun to play product than this, and to think they had the most popular IP in the world and they fucked up this badly 😂
 

cormack12

Gold Member
You can almost feel sad for the guy. That did not read at all like something they expected to write at this point in the game’s lifecycle with all the money they poured into it.

Yeah, I hope people don't start chasing GaaS, it's a relatively small market and each one that takes hold drains playtime from other titles. I think the risks are too big unless you're doing something new or have a strong established core already.
 

InDaGulag

Member
Bexause the bean counter in a suit only accepted the promise of a huge return of investment that the likes of Fortnite or Destiny bring in and they will be happy to chase it and wreck games and studios in that journey.

If only the suits had more knowledge about GAAS. Launching one without crossplay or cross-saves in 2020 because of a money hat for an exclusive DLC character was astoundingly stupid of whatever SE executive made that decision.

They should have released a polished AAA co-op PVE game staring Kamala with cameos from other Marvel characters, and crossplay. Not a gimped Destiny.
 
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Umbral

Member
I don’t know why they didn’t just make an awesome 10-20 hour traditional game, which should have been well in their grasp after coming off two Tomb Raiders.

Granted, this game always looked kind of wonky, from Kamala Khan virtue signaling, to looking like Avengers: A Porn Parody, to some early, uninspiring gameplay, but being a Destiny-alike just completely ended my interest in it.

Ahahahaha. God damn that’s perfect.
 
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noxvenala

Banned
Seems like Battlefront 2, in spite of its redemption, has set a bad precedent. No matter the decrepit state a GaaS game releases in, all will be 'forgiven' if you slowly malleate the game into an acceptable state later. I extend no sympathies towards those who bought this shit at launch; Anthem should've been your lesson.

I'll check this game out 2 years later when all the content is actually delivered.
 

Codes 208

Member
Seems like Battlefront 2, in spite of its redemption, has set a bad precedent. No matter the decrepit state a GaaS game releases in, all will be 'forgiven' if you slowly malleate the game into an acceptable state later. I extend no sympathies towards those who bought this shit at launch; Anthem should've been your lesson.

I'll check this game out 2 years later when all the content is actually delivered.
The difference is that battlefront 2 eventually got good. This...I don’t expect any miracles.
 

Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
You already can play as most of the good avengers adding a hawk eye won’t help much and more missions punching the same fucking robots won’t help either.

Spider man won’t even save that sinking ship. Cut your loses while you can CD you fucked up.


edit:

In a way they are right. There is relief in sight for board Avenger players. Cyber punk and Destiny expansion come out soon.
 
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Yeah, I hope people don't start chasing GaaS, it's a relatively small market and each one that takes hold drains playtime from other titles. I think the risks are too big unless you're doing something new or have a strong established core already.

Unfortunately, I feel that many more developers will chase after the GAAS model in the future which would be very bad for the industry imo. Didn’t even Microsoft say that GAAS will be a something they will focus on more or even primarily in the future?
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
looking at the fuck ton of MTX sheit glad i stayed the hell away from this trainwreck
 

A.Romero

Member
This game won't recover like Destiny or The Division.

It will suffer the same fate as Anthem.

And this is fine. They will learn from this experience and improve in the future. CD should go back to single player story driven games.
 

Sejan

Member
These GaaS need to ensure that they have a solid amount of post release content lined up for the months after launch ahead of time. It feels like everyone thinks they’ll be able to release a fully polished, bug free experience and immediately get to full steam ahead on new content. In reality, they spend the next months fixing silly amounts of bugs and can’t dedicate anything to the community they are trying to create.

There are only two options to release a GaaS well:
1. Launch the game with tons of content so you don’t need new material.
2. Have new content made ahead of time that you can release while you fix bugs during launch.

Anything else leads to a guaranteed post launch content drought.
 

martino

Member
This game won't recover like Destiny or The Division.

It will suffer the same fate as Anthem.

And this is fine. They will learn from this experience and improve in the future. CD should go back to single player story driven games.
didn't know destiny was in a bad situation ? how bad is it ?
 
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Kronos9x

Member
You can't make a game about just the Avengers. It's just a small fraction of the Marvel franchise. You need to add The Xmen, F4, Spiderman , etc. Even Ultimate Alliance3 did it. As long as it has a big number of characters to choose from, it can have great replay value.

This game has potential to be very good next gen after many updates and more characters are added.
 

Lone Wolf

Member
You can't make a game about just the Avengers. It's just a small fraction of the Marvel franchise. You need to add The Xmen, F4, Spiderman , etc. Even Ultimate Alliance3 did it. As long as it has a big number of characters to choose from, it can have great replay value.

This game has potential to be very good next gen after many updates and more characters are added.
Well, Spider-Man is coming, just not for Xbox or PC.
 
“Relief in site.”
I’m just imagining a bunch of starving people standing around a war-torn countryside, waiting for a relief package of avengers content to fall from the sky.
 

Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
didn't know destiny was i a bad situation ? how bad is it ?

D1 was suffer before taken king but no where this bad, also had a slump before forsaken.

Might not be at its best now (personally I liked the old dlc vs season pass version now) but still fun as hell.

just played for a few hours today after not playing for a month or so. What a fantastic playing shooter.
 

Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
Uninstall, right click, hide in library. Never have to look at it again
 

Dibils2k

Member
i will hop back on this when next gen patch releases

i still enjoy the novelty of playing captain america or thror, just missions are either too long and/or too repetitive
 

Pantz

Gold Member
The story stuff seems cool but putting loot on a superhero is too weird in the first place and doesn't seem like a good incentive to keep playing over time.
 

tryDEATH

Member
Go chase money and get fucked, simple as that.

This game looked like a rocky from the beginning, turned into a mess with the exclusive Spider-Man fiasco due to chasing some more money and peaked when it actually released and how it played plain boring and stale.

Fully deserve it, absolutely no sympathy from me.
 
Wow. Have you tried maybe not putting out half a game and charging full price for it?
And to think, these bastards are going to be charging $70 for this garbage. They’ve gutted these games to their “minimally viable” state and drip feed critical components over time. Games have for a long while cost more than $60, the consumers just haven’t been cognizant of it like the proverbial boiling frog 🐸
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
This was supposed to be SE's big game and it's gotten very little hype or been talked about. That's crazy considering how big the Avengers franchise is supposed to be.
Nobody has said it's bad, but Im not seeing it as being a must play.

Maybe making Kamala Khan, the single player focus wasn't such a great way to market it.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
No need to rub it in, Cyberpunk 2077 about to take a steaming mud pie on Deus Ex's corpse and all Square can do is watch from the sidelines while remaining Avengers players leave to go play it. Seriously though, Deus Ex could have been as big or bigger than Cyberpunk and they pissed it away.
I have no issue maintaining that Deus EX HR and MD were two of my favorite games. MD, though suffered from feeling unfinished. I really hope that game get it's well deserved sequel with Michael McCann doing the soundtrack.

It's also totally strange that pretty much the ONLY game SE hasn't re-released is Human Revolution on current (and next) gen consoles. Seriously.
 

Fbh

Member
It's always the same with these GaaS.

Launches to average reviews.
Playerbase drops quickly and remaining users complain about a lack of content.
Dev/publisher rushes to announce there's new content on the way.
By the time the new content releases it's too little too late.
Dev/publisher announces a roadmap that will "fix everything"

At that point it either dies or somehow manages to retain a decent userbase that's probably nowhere near as big as the publisher wanted .

With any luck in 2 or 3 years you see some article on IGN that's like "the game is actually decent now!!"
 
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Kronos9x

Member
That's only true if your knowledge of the avengers is the MCU movies. tons of characters have been avengers members:



A lof of people got the idea that this was a game about the movies. I remember on Reddit a lot of fanboys were even saying "you can't add any X Men because this is an Avengers game!" downvoting posts and topics about future additions or DLC's. I wonder what they think now.

If you think about it the only 2 big A listers so far are basically Hulk and Iron Man. Spider Man will soon join the group. That's it. Of course people are getting kinda bored after many hours. Can't have a GAAS with such a small roster.

After playing the beta for over 30 hours, 2 things were obvious to me: This is a next gen game and they need to expand the roster. This game still has all the potential to be good.
 
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