Marvel’s Avengers has been having a very rough time of it. Will Square Enix take the game free-to-play to help save it? There are some fans that hope this is the direction they go in, but many more have harsher criticism of the way the publisher is handling this game. Let’s talk about this and what it means for the future.
There’s no denying that Marvel’s Avengers is in trouble, but it’s seemingly not getting any better. A lot of the game is just the same grind over and over. There’s just not enough content for enough players. Later patches have slow-rolled the content needed to revive the game, but it isn’t coming fast enough. So let’s assume that the game will continue to get content regardless of the monetization model. The game hasn’t gotten much content, but that could still change. New characters like Kate Bishop are being added, at least.
Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics are also trying to add new content with upcoming expansions. Black Panther will arrive alongside a massive free content update called War for Wakanda. War for Wakanda will be free for those who already own the base game. This marks the first major expansion to the game, but is it enough?
From this problem, other issues have stemmed. The game has lost almost all of its players since its launch. That alone should be sending up alarm bells. So what does Square Enix do? They decide to push out a progression-altering patch that makes is much harder for players to progress in the endgame. This patch even included a warning that players should grind the game now, unless they want a much harder climb later.
So considering that it seems the company is struggling to get more people playing the game long-term, what are they going to do?
The question of if Marvel’s Avengers would go free-to-play has been floating around a while. And there are a constant stream of users asking this question. Crystal Dynamics studio head Scott Amos has said in multiple interviews that the game will likely not go free-to-play.
“We have no announcements today.” Speaking to IGN, Amos was a lot more explicit about the strategy he and the development team were taking with the game.
“For us, the model we have is the model we stick with,” Amos declared. “Look, you buy in once, you get into our theme park, as it were, and look at all these rides you can take,” Amos continued. “And all the rides are part of that, and we’re continually adding more content at no additional cost.”
So that looks to be it, as the studio continues to rely on trying to pull in players with more free content.
