Marvel’s Avengers had a less than stellar launch on PC, as it was plagued by technical issues that led to frequent crashes. Yet despite these issues, developer Crystal Dynamics probably never expected the game to fall as low as it has. According to Steam Charts, Marvel’s Avengers now sees less than 2,000 players per day and its all time peak is only ~28,000. It’s normal to see player counts drop off from launch week numbers, but not that much. This is a AAA title bearing the Marvel Avengers name, after all. The developers have a plan to fix player engagement though.
The lack of player interest likely relates to a plurality of factors. While the gameplay is fine, it’s nothing particularly special. Die-hard super hero fans are surely enjoying it, but with so many other options on the market, it needs to do everything else right. Unfortunately, there lies the problem. While the game looks good, it requires a powerful PC to run well and is still far from optimized on top of that. Another issue is that it launched with a number of technical issues. These caused plenty of players to see system crashes or odd bugs. Crystal Dynamics has delivered multiple patches since then, but there was no reason for this game to have such a bad launch.
Better gameplay and endgame content
In a recent interview with Kotaku, Crystal Dynamics CEO Scott Amos discussed the problems facing the game. He also laid out a plan for how the studio will improve things. The first thing Amos specified was that the development team is listening to feedback. Crystal Dynamics is also committed to supporting and improving the game with updates and DLC.
“We are confident that we’ll see PC players (as well as those on Xbox One and PlayStation 4) return to the game as we add exciting new late-game content and demonstrate that we continue to be focused on improving the game.”
That’s easier said than done though. While it’s not impossible to take this game and turn it into a real winner, the studio certainly has its work cut out for itself. Not only does it need to optimize the existing game, but also introduce compelling new content that turns public opinion. It would be super to see Marvel’s Avengers jump back up on the Steam charts though.
