Support for Marvel's Avengers will officially end on the 30th September 2023, developer Crystal Dynamics has confirmed. The live service action game will be just three years old by then, having first launched for PS4 in September 2020. You'll be able to keep playing the game after the above date, both in solo and multiplayer, but there'll be no further updates or additional content beyond that point. What's more, it won't be available to buy on digital storefronts.
Starting 31st March 2023, all "Market, Challenge Card, and Shipment cosmetic content" will be made completely free to all players, which is at least a nice gesture. This'll occur alongside the launch of the title's final update, which promises gameplay balance adjustments.
It goes without saying that it's been a rocky old road for Marvel's Avengers. A frankly botched marketing campaign lead to a decidedly muted launch, and the title has struggled to break free from those first impressions ever since, even though the experience as a whole been significantly expanded (and improved) through updates and DLC. Still, Avengers has its fans, and it's always a shame to see a project like this eventually tap out and call it quits.
"We can't thank you enough for your support and for being a part of our super team," reads the developer's farewell blog post.
Are you sad to see Marvel's Avengers go? Did you ever play it? Gather some heroes in the comments section below.
[source avengers.crystald.com]
Comments 77
Shocking. This game was fun in spots but overall ridiculously half baked for such a huge property.
I didn’t realize it was still being supported. This is why a bad first impression is a bad idea. Also, it’s hard to gain positivity again without drastic action, like giving up your MTX like SWBF2 did.
Good lesson: not even Marvel can save a s*** live service.
I know that live service games tend to make a lot more money than SP games, but the fact that this one failed makes endlessly frustrated. We could have had another Deus Ex game.
I flipping hate the term, “no cap”, like hate it with a passion…
But it actually works really well as the tagline… no cap.
@RBMango But can D.C.? We'll find out soon enough!
Does this mean Spiderman will be free for all platforms? 🤣🤣 Jokes aside this is sad but not unexpected. I never had faith in CD to level up in this way so I expected disappointment But still.
Makes me scared that Sony are going to put out more GAAS titles.
I always planned to give this a go. Guess this means I won’t! What a disappointment given how hyped I was when they announced that Squeenix were tackling Avengers.
@ShogunRok If WB is gonna do their usual WB meddling, then that one is gonna be rough.
And this is why paid live service games just don't work and not worth the risk. Would of done better being free to play. Same fate in store for Suicide squad.
Pay attention Naughty Dog.
I'm kinda sad to be honest as i did really like the game but yeah i stopped playing months back, still had it installed but with this news i've deleted it. I don't regret a single second i had with it though.
I think alot of this games issue was it was marketed as more of a single player action adventure game and less about being a live service mp game. They seemed to try and hide that aspect of the game.
Live service games need to die.
Live service is continually shown to be the problem. While I doubt it would happen, I really hope Sony sees all these live service games that are ending and backtracks from their gigantic live service plan of 11 PS Studios live service games by 2025.
@nessisonett To be fair, after March 31st, when everything is free, it might be the best time to jump in and play everything. If you can find a cheap physical copy.
Then again, no one is really playing this game, so you might need to find 4 physical copies for you and your friends, and at that point...prooooobably not worth it.
Dead service game.
They never did release enough characters.
Wait... it's been that long since release?
Clearly my perception of time is totally out of whack.
Oh, and RIP to the game. You were meant to be a fun little single player adventure, and you were bastardized into this mess...
these morons never made the game free either for whatever stupid reason . but 3 years is still a good run , MK11 only lasted 2 or 1 year and a half and that was a success , smh
@Browny cough CO-OP cough
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, you're up! Seriously though, all these studios chasing "live services" is comical, the market is now cornered (Fortnite, GTA, COD, Apex, Destiny, Rocket League, Overwatch, Sports, MMOs, etc, etc), we even saw Halo & Battlefield exit the fight after titanic flops.
Invest in single player, story driven, optional co-op games, not hollowed out skin selling schemes!
@Browny And yet it was, and still is, a fun little single player adventure with Kamala stealing the show. Unfortunately it’s also a whipping boy for people who hate live service games. There’s plenty to enjoy if you can get past that aspect of it and the horrendous menus that came along for the ride.
My dad use to always tell me that an angel receives his wings everytime a live service game dies, though I'm not sure if I'm remembering what he said correctly 🤔
This game would have done well if it would have been a single player experience.
Live service games lol everything game preservation is not. Service goes bust no game any game I have I can play just like the day I bought it.
@Grumblevolcano That would mean Sony cancelling upwards of ten games, which in itself isn't a smart idea. Plus you'll have people complain that they have little games to show in the next few years, so I'm sorry Sony won't be changing, they hugely lack compelling multiplayer games so are addressing the balance.
Well it was going to happen sooner or later. I was never going to play it as the only two Marvel properties I like are Spider-Man and X-men. Then I saw it was a live service for a style game that just doesn't jive well with such a model and well here we are.
Hopefully CD can bounce back with the next Tomb Raider and Perfect Dark.
To the surprise of no one, another live service bites the dust.
What i'm sad about is that they didn't just make it a single player game without all the effort on the multiplayer online service.
@Korgon huh? What does CD have to do with perfect dark? That's a microsoft game.
They have Tomb raider, Legacy of kain and Gex.
Maybe you confused with Deus Ex from Eidos Montreal ?
@Nem
Microsoft struck a deal with them to be a co-developer on The Initiative's Perfect Dark game a little while ago.
Here's a link talking a bit about it.
https://www.purexbox.com/news/2021/09/crystal_dynamics_is_absolutely_thrilled_to_be_working_on_the_new_perfect_dark_game
Real Shame,
You can have some fun with the characters but it had a lot of problems. Hopefully they updated the game so DLC missions can be started offline. You can play and even finish them offline but you can start them unless you're connected to the internet.
It actually sounds like it's going to be a lot more fun without the live service elements, considering the final changes they're planning to implement are a lot more gamer friendly. Go figure.
Tried for a couple hours and already got too repetitive for me. It's unfortunate as I am a marvel comic fan.
Another one for the live service graveyard. Who's next?
^Depending on how its handled, it could very well be Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
On-topic: No surprise there.
The game was dead within the first few months of release, may you finally rest in peace live service garbage 🙏
It doesn't matter. The campaign was the only good thing about the game and anyone interested in it can still play that. I say good riddance with the failed multiplayer.
I bought it dirt cheap last year but haven't gotten around to trying it yet, i might as well wait until april now and get all the extra content for free and blast through it and then delete it lol
This reminds me, I loaded up Anthem the other day, a crying shame it was abandoned it had all the makings of a great game.
Though im not the biggest fan, its not the service model thats the issue here so much as the terrible end game loop which is just not fun. If your not having fun, you dont play, its genuinely that simple.
Square enix seem blind to what players want, but have learnt the hard way that even an excellent licence wont save a poor game design...
Shocking that this game still going.
Each characters gameplay was good but the mindless uncreativie just blast everything missions and repeat was awful.
The single player story was good when you managed to get to it.
But reality is that it wasn't an avengers game it was a ms marvel game.
And dont get me going on the lack luster copy and past dlc characters apart from the odd selection, not even being original and actually giving us the proper avengers line up to begin with.
Always cashing in with whats about at the time, which didn't work because most was just shoved into the blasting mission's
But there road map of dlc characters which weren't even the original avengers was very lackluster. I mean what a way to start there dlc off with a clone of hawkeye with Kate bishop.
Great single player game, really enjoyed the story but the live service side was pretty dire, I did get the platinum on it though.... more fool me
Yet another live service triumph.
Live service when it's done well can be great. From giants like Fortnite and GTA V, Rocket League to smaller games like Battlefront 2015, Battlefront 2, Injustice 2 etc, there are lots and lots still going for a good reason. I mean it doesn't help that Avengers just felt...boring to play, and also the insulting install size.
@AdamNovice Yeah, but 10 in the next three years? Over half are bound to fail. Who has that much time to play all these live service games?
Sony only gets like 3 or 4 major releases every year, so if 3 of them are going to be live service for the coming years that would be a disappointment.
@AdamNovice Doesn’t need to be cancelled, could be adjusted to get rid of the live service aspect. Online multiplayer was handled very well in the PS3/360 era with live service being pretty much non-existent outside of sports games.
@Korgon Oh. Didn't know that. Very peculiar.
Tbh I’ve had way more fun with Marvels Midnight Suns than I ever did with Marvels Avengers.
While I did enjoy the first hour or so the game falls completely flat after that. Compare that to how great Guardians of the Galaxy was and it's clear how much the story and characters can make or break a gaming experience. Single player narrative focused will always win in that regard imo.
Ironically once the marketplace is all ‘free’ then it keen to get stuck in 😂
@Nem
Yeah I say co-developer however it sounds like The Initiative ran into development trouble on their own. They also have had a good portion of their dev talent leave the company so some people think Crystal was bought in to essentially become lead developer more or less.
Of course these are just rumors but considering how radio silent that game has been I can't say I'm surprised rumors like that started up. I wonder if The Initiative was also hit by Microsoft's latest round of layoffs.
I'm a bit confused as to why it's being delisted? If we can still play it both on and offline (looking at you Babylon's Fall) then why remove it?
@Amnesiac You only get one first shot to reel in the people and with liveservice they somehow always release the most barebone game.
So I'm not really sad it bombed even with a license like this. The stuff was to expensive what you got in liveservice and it was dissapointing.
Maybe rip out the liveservice and release all the singleplayer with expansions in one package.
@InternetUser isn't crystal dynamics - tomb Raider?
@Flaming_Kaiser I can’t speak for the live service or online part of the game, but the single player experience is worth a go. Fleeing the Hulk, fighting off AIM with piecemeal Iron Man armor, and the space level were all memorable moments that can be enjoyed without engaging with the live service aspects. It’s ok to eat the sandwich and leave the crust.
The solo player aspect of this was a good game. I paid £15 for it and expected it to be awful but it just proved most the people vocal hadn’t played it.
The stuff after completion of the main game seems to be focus of the anger. I’m not one to try and play and game for 1000 hours so the standard sized campaign was enough me. Loads of free dlc.
I found it hard to be angry at this game.
But I did actually play it and not just get angry at the tacked on GaaS nonsense.
I will go back and enjoy the masses of free cosmetic content that it’s about to get as I didn’t get caught up in all that and there is loads of it.
I think I still have a few missions and things to do. I haven’t done all the dlc so the free cosmetics will make all that interesting.
Honestly, we all saw that comming. Life service games have, with a few exceptions, a short life. This is good.
@Grumblevolcano It depends on how integrated the live service model was put into the game. We've seen with Avengers that if you bolt on that business model then it doesn't work because the game and content update wasn't planned with it in mind. Likewise if your planning a game with the live service business model but you suddenly take that out it could mean the game struggles to make the revenue to keep updating it.
@Octane If all those games are pretty much the same then sure but it's likely to be completely different style of games that appeal to different demographics. I mean three of them are likely the MLB games anyway.
I'll definitely have to get on this whenever it's next on sale if it's getting delisted in September then.
So it means that after 3 years they fulfill their word and game will have NO MICROTRANSACTIONS, as they promised way before release?
@Stocksy my thoughts exactly. Most of the people who trashed it never actually played it. Hence why most of us who did, agree that the campaign is actually good and worth playing. Unfortunately, that never reached the average gamer, who simply hears that the game is bad.
@MickOnYourFace license issues?
@naruball exactly this. Even at ten quid I saw online people saying I wouldn’t play it for free….. what?!?!? It’s a good game. It could have been better but the story and gameplay for the campaign is very good for a tenner!
I’m looking forward to booting it up again as it’s been a while.
@Constable_What you dont need friends at all, played the whole game solo with AI bots was fun and got both ps4, and ps5 plats
sad to see this go, love marvel and dc, got the plat on avengers ps4 and ps5, now more time for gotham knights, midnight sons, and suicide squad when it comes
@ScepticDK I love it when people who know less than nothing about comics whine about comics. Kamala has been around for a decade, the game didn't invent her, she's one of the very few new characters introduced in the past 20 years that's actually broken through to mainstream popularity and calling her an "uninteresting little girl" does nothing but show your ignorance and bigotry.
@GeneJacket she is uninteresting , there’s already a stretch hero and nobody gives a ***** about him either 😂
RIP Avengers. Not surprised to see this coming, but I am happy they aren't pulling the single player campaign from those that already own the game.
Also glad I already scored a physical copy last year, don't have to worry about the digital version being pulled from PSN.
@Korgon That is something alright. CD never developed an FPS as far as i know, so i don't know why they were chosen for the job. It certainly is odd.
@nomither6 by all means, feel free to speak for yourself.
@Titntin This.
Live Service is fun when it's done right.
This game was simply very uninteresting at launch once you beat the campaign.
It's a shame, because the campaign is a lot of fun.
@Shepherd_Tallon Yes, I think the game itself was ok. Extending it to a live service model is what spoils the game with the not much fun end game loop, but at least I played the fun bit on a service 😀
Guardians of the galaxy was far superior to this good story and characters no live service nonsense and even that didnt do very well
@Amnesiac Thats why I said scrap the liveservice part and release a singleplayer package with all the DLC.
@Stocksy It's not just aboud money. It's time. People value & respect their time and realize it's finite, irreplaceable, and precious.
@Sequel right? And this is a good game. You don’t need to play a game for a 1000 hours like I said. I basically said….. I don’t have enough time to want to play a game for 1000 hours, so this perfectly good game which had an added GaaS aspect tacked on the end of a good solo campaign was a worthwhile investment at £15 you’d get 20 hours of fun out of it at less than a £1 a hour.
I’d also buy your logic about how precious time is but your on a thread about said game reading 100s of comments about said game typing a reply to say your time is too precious to actually play said game….
Ok then
@Toadie It's worth about 10 hours of your time and that's it.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...