As September 2023 ends Crystal Dynamics’ live service videogame Marvel’s Avengers is deleted from online digital storefronts. While it is likely based on Embracer Group acquiring Crystal Dynamics from Square Enix and realizing this title was not generating enough revenue to cover Marvel’s character licensing fees, it is a solemn day to see any game removed from existence in such a way as this.

In March of 2023 Crystal Dynamics announced they would cease all support for the game. No more bug fixes, updates, additional content, etc. All content in the game is entirely free, even the cosmetics which previously would cost in-game and real life currency. Now, in order to play the game if you do not already own it, you’ll have to acquire a physical copy or perhaps some sort of digital code off a shady website for PC. The game was on sale for 90% off or $3.99 in its final weeks in digital stores. It has also been on Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus for some time before it was pulled from digital stores.

The game was never able to outpace the hatred of critics. From the Iconic Marvel characters not looking like their MCU movie counterparts, which is quite the ask for a studio to spend so much money acquiring the rights to said characters, then hiring multi-million dollar movie stars to portray them physically and vocally was a huge ask. The cast of the game is absolutely incredible. From Jeff Schine’s Captain America, Laura Bailey as Black Widow, Travis Willingham as Thor, Sandra Saad as Ms. Marvel, Troy Baker as Bruce Banner, Nolan North as Iron Man, Darin De Paul as Hulk, Jennifer Hale as Maria Hill, Ashly Burch as Kate Bishop, Christopher Judge as Black Panther, Debra Wilson as Okoye, this game was not short on some of the best actors/voice actors in the business.

Avengers was also plagued with some performance issues at launch that didn’t do the game any favors. Frame rate drops, crashes, were ruining the initial experience of the game but were largely fixed within the first month of release. Critics and players alike were not pleased with the live service aspect. Not only were people wishing that Insomniac Games would make Avengers, quite the irrational ask, but that the game be a linear and finite experience.

I on the other hand would suggest live service is the perfect outlet for a comic book game based on Avengers or any other comic book hero/heroes. Why wait 3-5 years for a sequel when you can tell dozens of stories over ten years through storyline updates? Every few months could be a new character update, new missions, and modes, but once a year a massive expansion could drop akin to the War for Wakanda Expansion that was added to the game in 2021. The Wakanda expansion was a short lived success for the game that brought more people back to the game but once the content was exhausted players would move on, not everyone was grinding for gear, another of the games’ flaws. Grinding for gear that only effects the statistical or elemental powers of your hero wasn’t something that was super necessary and not something Crystal Dynamics as a studio was suited for. Destiny, The Division, Warframe, all have dedicated teams highly skilled in gear, tailoring looks, perks, and vital statistics to tune the experience to be challenging, fun, and rewarding. Avengers never found that balance, but the Raid Gear in Wakanda proved to be some of the best gear in the game, completely destabilizing the elemental powers and loot economy in the game.

The game had already seen the addition of Kate Bishop and her mentor Hawkeye as downloadable characters with short storylines known as Operations, but War for Wakanda was the first major expansion to the game, and the last.

So even when the game did something right, like drop an expansion with a new character, a massive new biome, new enemy types, a raid, gear, and fun gameplay adjustments, the gaming press united on bashing the game. Either by reminding readers of this games’ previous failures, or by obscuring the good that the game has done in the space and how entertaining some of the content can be, even if it’s not a game you’d want to play daily, this game was a dream for many Marvel fans.

I’ve always maintained that Marvel’s Avengers has had an incredible and well written story, with engaging and well acted characters, and combat reminiscent of the Batman Arkham games that have become the gold standard in superhero gaming.

One of the big issues confronting the game initially after its reveal at E3 2019 was that Spider-Man, one of Marvel’s most well known characters would be a PlayStation exclusive character to a multi-platform game. This was not well received by critics and gamers alike. There would never be an end to people constantly requesting even post-shutdown of this game to make Spidey available on PC and Xbox. This was a licensing deal struck with Sony/PlayStation meant to improve sales of the game on PlayStation, but only left a sour taste in all gamers mouths.

Not only was this a poor choice by the Studio/Publisher but it took several years after launch before Spider-Man was available in-game and it was a rather lackluster affair for all the hubbub. He launched alongside a few takedowns, outfits, and a short campaign of mostly beating up bad guys playing old missions. Crystal Dynamics didn’t even bother with a full storyline, an iconic villain, or unique missions. They mentioned that because he was only available on one platform, that they didn’t want to make too much content or anything that other players would feel like the missed out on. OTHER THAN THE MOST ICONIC MARVEL CHARACTER OF ALL TIME.

Sean Chiplock voiced the character and did well, the combat was unique but also somewhat similar to Insomniac’s Spider-Man game, but the traversal was more reminiscent of older Spidey games where webs would attach to the sky and he would fling wildly uncontrollably throughout the space.

After War for Wakanda, developer communication grinded to a halt, the roadmaps they promised became a thing of the past, and almost a year later we would finally receive an update on the next character and content coming to the game, Jane Foster the Mighty Thor. While this release in June of 2022 was perfectly timed with the Marvel Movie: Thor Love and Thunder in theaters, the game once again would receive a short boost in new players until the content and leveling up the new character was quickly exhausted. Although Jane Foster became one of the most powerful characters in the game, her storyline was relegated to animated cartoon still images, no motion captured cutscenes or dramatic story events. Nothing but more audio logs and oddly timed still images with narration.

The final character to be added to the game was none other than Bucky Barnes a.k.a. The Winter Soldier. At the end of November 2022 The Winter Soldier was added to the game, once again with audio logs, narration, and odd still image cutscenes with cartoon art instead of the initial games praised motion capture voice acting. The character was unique and amazing, along with all the other heroes, each with their own style and gameplay. It would only be announced months later that this game would be ceasing support and Crystal Dynamics would move on to work on the next Tomb Raider.

Crystal Dynamics at the time was already split, working on Tomb Raider and Perfect Dark as a support studio to Microsoft’s “The Initiative” studio. However nothing on these games has been shown and Perfect Dark has been in the shadows for years, no one even knows what kind of game it is or what it is about. So not only was there a small team working on Avengers, there was no way they could keep up with the demand for more heroes and more stories in a timely manner without a bigger studio.

Sadly, this proved to be a complicated issue for the studio. Many members left the studio after being harassed by fans, by the dead end form of content, and sometimes the low bar of quality that was being met in the story developments post Wakanda. It felt like the studio simply stopped trying. Hiring more people and training them to work on this live service title proved impossible.

Marvel’s Avengers had a lot of promise. It was a game with amazing combat, some of the best portrayals these Marvel heroes have ever had in videogames. A heartfelt storyline about conflict, growth, and the reassembling of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes after they fail to save the day. The additional characters and content was ambitious, the branching storylines, the teasing of new villains, the cosmetic outfits from movies, comic books, and TV shows. The RPG mechanics, the skill trees all allowed for build variety and for you to craft your favorite way to play as your iconic hero. The move sets took inspiration from the comics and the movies, the passion and the effort was there throughout that process. Which makes it harder to accept that something so great, could also fail to be received more widely and enjoyed by more gamers. You can see how the build variety changed in some of my video builds I made for characters.

For more Marvel's Avengers Character Builds Check this Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSiKflGZp7VqBbnxKdn_KbwpKNNWcdIuV

Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll ever see another Avengers game quite like Marvel’s Avengers, and that’s what we should really be mourning here today.

Thanks for reading. Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below.