Avengers is now officially a loss

 Avengers disassemble!

'The Avengers' is a multibillion dollar property in the entertainment medium, and that is a mathematical fact. Say anything you want about Super hero movies, but the past 30 odd Marvel movies have proven that audiences are looking for the sorts of stories that they can become invested in for long periods of time over those one shot stories here and there. In some ways I guess you could say that people are going to the cinemas to watch TV shows nowadays, but I wouldn't want to start a debate about something like that with the movie lovers out there. Such is the power of the Avengers name that the two most recent movies baring it, which released one after the other, grossed 2 and 2.7 billion dollars each; that's almost 5 billion raised by only two movies, think about how many executives straight passed out when they heard about those sorts of figures! Kevin Feige, mastermind behind this movie series, has ridden the wave so well that he used it to clamber up from his position as head of Marvel films to head of Marvel altogether and one can only imagine the number of companies just gnawing at his feet like rats to get a chunk of those profits. And yet, with all that sheer power behind the name, Avengers the videogame by popular publisher Square Enix and the talented folk at Crystal Dynamics is now, officially, a financial loss.

Whilst the player numbers that we were seeing for the game, which are still sub 1000, were not promising, there was still no indication that the game itself underperformed. It was announced to be the best selling game of it's month and the second best selling Super hero game of all time, (trailing just behind Sony's Spiderman) but I suppose many of us failed to take into account that this game, as well as Sony's Spiderman, were unique amongst superhero titles as these were very much primed to be blockbusters, which means that normal success wouldn't be enough to break even. Such was proven during Square Enix's earnings call for this quarter whereupon they revealed that the game sold to just over half of what they needed to break even, basically meaning that the venture has cost they somewhere near to 60 million or 40 million US dollars depending on which sources you pull from. (Certainly not the sort of rainfall one would expect.)

To their credit Square appear to be taken it to the chin whilst promising an impending switching of fortunes. They remain stalwart in the fact that players will soon 'return' to the game given all they have planned in events and expansions, because as a famous game director once said "It's not about what you launch, it about what it becomes." (Or something to that effect, I try to forget the drivel out of Todd's mouth sometimes.) But I and many more wonder honestly about the proof behind that assertation, especially when the sorts of events that they are referring to seem absent from their original launch dates. The 'Two Hawkeyes' event has been delayed (Which is a shame because all of 5 people were looking forward to that) and basic game fixing seems to have taken a priority due to the rampant bugs and frame drops which hit basically all platforms. (Although as I understand it, PC got the worst deal) In many ways this whole saga is reminiscent of another 'promising' live service.

Yeah, I'm invoking the name of Anthem once more, but can you blame me? Both games were hyped before launch based on questionable grounds, both presented decent gameplay that buckled under the weight of the systems meant to support it and both titles since abandoned their roadmaps in desperate attempts to fix the mess they shot out the gate. Although in Anthem's case I believe the gameplay itself was slightly better received, whilst in Avengers I've heard serious doubts about whether or not this game has the ability to secure repeat play even if there were solid loot incentives to keep up the play cycle. Anthem has the potential to turn things around, but they've had to retire to a year long (at least) restructuring project to even be in the running for that sort of comeback, whereas Avengers may not even that have that prospect. (Things are grim, to say the least.)

The question must be asked, at the end of the day; what is the cause of this distinct lack of interest in a game baring the biggest name in entertainment? And yes, I've asked this before, but it is a fascinating topic to discuss, is it not? 'Avengers' should be one of those names that qualify under the 'too big to fail' category of brands but that doesn't seem to be the case and it could spell interesting revelations about the way we look at entertainment. If we take this at it's face-most value, perhaps this could be another concrete example of the way that movies and videogames just do not fix in any fundamental fashion. We already know that the process behind telling a videogame story and a movie story is very different, but this has the potential to prove how even beyond that they the very psyche and public zeitgeist differs; which I suppose makes sense given the sort of investment that each medium demands. Watching a movie is decently inexpensive (provided you're careful with concession stands and don't have a family) and takes merely a couple of hours out of your day, games are roughly six times that cost and demand 10s of hours stretched over months from you; maybe that's the sort of equation that these companies should be taking into account more often.

Then, of course, there are the failings of Square Enix's 'Avengers' itself; and those are plenty fold. First is the plain and widely reported fact that the game is buggy; a pretty big turn off nowadays that folk are wise enough to look out for given how many high profile messes have fallen to that trap. (Fallout 76, Anthem, etc.) Then there is the fact that Square couldn't even be bothered to secure the licenses for the Avengers actors' faces, and maybe that was never on the pitching table, but if so then that is a huge missed opportunity on everyone's part. Avengers is more than just a name, it's a brand that is supported by the talent and investment of the actors and actresses in the roles. There's a reason that securing a Marvel movie is so sought after and that's because it can be a career defining role. (And whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to you) Thus is it any wonder why people are more than a little turned off by the prospect of an Avengers game which feigns a realistic aesthetic yet fails to mimic these famous faces of those heroes? Heck, to be honest the character design is so bad that these don't even look like main characters half the time, how are we supposed to get behind them?

The other problems with Avengers are much more mechanical but equally as difficult to solve. Being a live service, there needs to be some base incentive to return day in and day out, usually to acquire the best possible loot to fit your build, unfortunately there's both not a great enough challenge demanding this gear and not enough cool loot to fuel such a search, leaving most people stuck in those categories. Then there is the gameplay which is fairly mindless and difficult to take advantage of with the limited scope of the enemies in the game. The base story is rather dull, there's not enough bosses to run through over and over again, missions are visually repetitive, objectives are embarrassingly rudimentary; the entire game is just weak in all the most important and basic ways.

And so we're left with a few queries, chief of which being what can be done and is there any hope for the Avengers game? Well I believe there is, though I suspect that Square won't really want to hear it... With the apparent lack of content offered in this game it simply doesn't earn it's premium pricing, however the name and brand is interesting enough to rope in a decent player base if this title were to go free-to-play. And yes, I know that a decently strong monetisation effort would need to be launched to make that worth it, but that's seriously the one way a game as dry as Avengers has a chance in the modern age. Genshin Impact has changed the dynamic for games like these and it's time for Square to shift with the times. But hey, what do I know; I'm only your target demographic...