Marvel’s Avengers small community just scored a huge win against Square Enix after the game’s publishers decided to retract the paid XP boosts that were released in October. The decision comes after the backlash from gamers who called out Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics for outright lying about its earlier August 2020 statement before the game was released.
What’s next for Marvel’s Avengers?
Back in August 2020 Square Enix guaranteed players that all “content purchasable with real money in Marvel’s Avengers will be aesthetic-only additions.” However, the publisher contradicted what it said a year ago just last month. For some reason, Square Enix thought it was a good idea to release paid XP boosts for Marvel’s Avengers. Although the addition did not come with the usual fanfare, eagle-eyed players still noticed it and they were not too happy.
After weeks of complaints, the team working on Marvel’s Avengers finally listened and announced the removal of the pay-to-win mechanic from the game.
We have decided that by the end of today we will remove Hero’s Catalysts and Fragment Extractors for purchase. pic.twitter.com/8am9nSstP2
— Marvel's Avengers (@PlayAvengers) November 2, 2021
We don’t think that players took offense to Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics releasing XP boosts for Marvel’s Avengers. Rather, the main reason for the uproar was that players could pay for it. The mechanic is pay-to-win and, more importantly, unnecessary. It’s not difficult to reach the endgame of Marvel’s Avengers. Not to mention, making it faster to reach the maximum levels in the game is counterproductive, as the game doesn’t have that much endgame content, to begin with anyway.
In our earlier article, we discussed how Marvel’s Avengers biggest problem is that it tries to make players want to stick around but don’t offer much content in return. The actual meat of the game is great; it’s just that there’s little else to do once you’re done with the single-player campaign.
Having said that, Marvel’s Avengers is still an excellent effort from Crystal Dynamics. If nothing else, Square Enix has learned a thing or two from it. Case in point, the much more successful Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy by Eidos-Montreal has no multiplayer component.
Speaking of Marvel games, several others are coming in the next few years. This includes Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Wolverine, as well as Spider-Man 2, and Midnight Suns. The former Uncharted director is also set to work on an untitled Marvel game that’s scheduled to release within the next few years.
