Earlier today, Miller Ross, writing for eXputer, broke the news that Marvel’s Avengers, the Crystal Dynamics developed Games as a Service title starring Earth’s Mightiest Heroes was about to get blipped with no Infinity Stones to save it. He further stated that the announcement of Marvel’s Avengers sunsetting could come as early as next week, but Crystal Dynamics themselves debunked that news as the studio issued a statement today that support for the game will stop in earnest by the end of March.
From Crystal Dynamics:
To our amazing community,
After two-and-a-half years and introducing twelve of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, following Update 2.8 on March 31, 2023, we will no longer add new content or features to Marvel’s Avengers. All official support for the game will end on September 30, 2023.
Even after official support ceases on September 30, 2023, both single- and multi-player gameplay will continue to be available. See below for more information.
Update 2.7, which added the Winter Soldier Hero and Cloning Lab Omega-Level Threat, is the last new content to be added to the game. No new cosmetics are coming to the Marketplace, and all final balance updates will occur in Update 2.8 in March.
Along with the end of development, we’ll also be turning off the cosmetics Marketplace. When Update 2.8 launches on March 31, 2023, Credits will no longer be purchasable and all remaining Credit balances will be converted into in-game resources to aid ongoing adventures. Here is a table with the resources that will be granted based on existing Credit balances:
As a show of our appreciation for our community, starting March 31, 2023 we will make all the game’s Marketplace, Challenge Card, and Shipment cosmetic content available to all players for free. Every single Outfit, Takedown, Emote, and Nameplate from the Marketplace, Challenge Cards, and Shipments will be free for all players from this date onwards if you own a copy of the game.
Gifting the full library of Marketplace cosmetic content is a way to thank our community by letting everyone experience the breadth and depth of content in Marvel’s Avengers.
We know this is disappointing news as everyone in our community has such a connection to these characters and their stories. We’re so, so grateful that you came on this adventure with us. Your excitement for Marvel’s Avengers – from your epic Photo Mode shots, to your threads theorizing who our next Heroes would be, to your Twitch streams – has played a large part in bringing this game to life.
We hope you continue to play and enjoy Marvel’s Avengers. We can’t thank you enough for your support and for being part of our super team.
– Marvel’s Avengers Development Team
Since it’s release in September of 2020, Marvel’s Avengers has been fighting an uphill battle after experiencing a rocky launch, long stretches with no significant content, controversial Spider-Man exclusivity to the PlayStation family of consoles and, perhaps most recently, the silencing of one Brian Waggoner who joined the team post-launch. This was a result of offensive comments made on social media by Waggoner, who also worked on the now defunct Marvel Heroes, rising to the surface from years before he even joined Crystal Dynamics.
While the writing has been on the wall that this was coming, it’s still sad that the potential of Marvel’s Avengers was never truly realized. An ongoing game featuring characters from the Marvel Universe seemed like a license to print money, but even after a next-generation update and a bolstered user base after coming to services like Microsoft’s Game Pass, Marvel’s Avengers never achieved even a fraction of the success as the team’s cinematic outings.
In a recent NoClip documentary about the history of Crystal Dynamics, it was stated that the original vision for Avengers was a traditional single-player action-adventure like the studio’s previous work. Seeds of that can still be seen in the finished product, and for all its faults, the underlying mechanics of Marvel’s Avengers truly made you live the fantasy of being heroes like Iron Man, Thor and Captain America.
In another part of the multiverse the heavily hyped Marvel’s Avengers 2 featuring new villains, worlds, and characters is one of the most anticipated games of the year. For this universe, however, the Avengers are getting ready to disassemble once again.
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