UPDATE 21/1/23: Following yesterday’s report on the imminent demise of Marvel’s Avengers, developer Crystal Dynamics has made it official, confirming the game’s final update will arrive on 31st March this year with support ending on 30th September.
Marvel’s Avengers’ single-player and multiplayer components will remain available when support ends in September, Crystal Dynamics explained in a blog post, but last November’s 2.7 update, which introduced the Winter Soldier, is now confirmed to be the game’s final content release, and March’s 2.8 update will bring final balancing.
Additionally, no new cosmetics are coming to Marvel’s Avengers - making the recent, highly unpopular helmet-less cosmetics the game’s last - and the paid Marketplace will be switched off in September when development officially ends.
From 31st March onward, premium in-game Credits will no longer be purchasable, and players’ remaining Credit balance will be converted to in-game resources, as shown below.
Finally, as a “show of our appreciation” to the game’s community, all Marketplace, Challenge Card, and Shipment cosmetics - including Outfits, Takedowns, Emotes, and Nameplates - will be made free to all players from 31st March “onwards”.
ORIGINAL STORY 20/1/23: Crystal Dynamics is reportedly preparing to announce the end of development on its beleaguered live-service superhero action-adventure Marvel’s Avengers, with official news said to be due “as early as next week”.
That’s according to reliable Marvel’s Avengers leaker Miller Ross, who, citing sources at Crystal Dynamics in a story for Exputer, says the studio had initially intended to continue supporting the game into the back half of 2023, but recent events surrounding lead developer Brian Waggoner - who has reportedly now left the company after being publicly chastised for his past offensive tweets - has accelerated the project’s demise.
As part of a planned “exit strategy” for Marvel’s Avengers following official news of its demise, Crystal Dynamics will reportedly release a number of key systems changes, including the removal of artificial time-gating and an overhaul to cosmetic microtransactions. Additionally, a final scheduled update will supposedly address mobility balancing across the current superhero roster in response to complaints older heroes feel “more sluggish” than newer additions.
Marvel’s Avengers will reportedly remain on sale digitally until “at least September”, with efforts being made “to keep the game playable for existing owners as long as possible.”
Current and former employees approached for Ross’ report are said to have described the Marvel’s Avengers project as a “fountain of potential kneecapped by inept studio management and Marvel Games bureaucracy”, with unreleased content - which will now never see the light of day - including a free-roaming boss-based bounty mode known as Patrol Mode, plus additional heroes She-Hulk and Captain Marvel.
Marvel’s Avengers’ most recent big update arrived in November, adding Bucky Barnes - AKA the Winter Soldier - to the superhero line-up. Since then, community goodwill has been sapped by Crystal Dynamics’ decision to sell helmet-less versions of existing cosmetics for $14.
