Games as a service, colloquially known as GaaS, are a difficult sell for everyone except publishers.
An unending game where players are expected to continue to interact with the title consistently as they churn through the same content, engaging in microtransactions until the publishers gut ruptures from overeating.
It sounds like a publishers fantasy for good reason; they haven’t done particularly well as of late; GaaS refers to a title continuing to monetize after its release, typically through in-game microtransactions, and users don’t find them appealing when they can peel back the curtain to understand the mechanics at heart.
From Fifa to NBA 2k21, it’s constant gambling and purchasing with an end never in sight until users shelve the title and purchase the next annual iteration.
For Marvel’s Avengers, it’s constantly releasing heroes that look almost accurate while purchasing microtransactions to unlock special moves and skins, while opting into every advertisement that Square Enix can find, from Intel to Verizon.
We’ve noted recently that the title has plummeted in daily players, and the drop is continuing a bit further with every day that passes as players are simply already worn of replaying the same mission against the same faceless enemies with superpowers that are weak and ineffective in everything expect visual marvel.
Much like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the visuals can be extremely impressive if that is what you’re chasing, the rest of the meal is simply a bit lackluster.
The lack of content is extremely noticeable, and a lack of a road map isn’t necessarily inspiring any confidence in fans that eagerly bought into the power fantasy that Marvel’s Avengers could have offered in an alternate timeline.
Kotaku managed to clinch a response from Crystal Dynamics where studio head Scot Amos notes that more content is absolutely on the way; they just aren’t sure as to when it will arrive.
If you’re getting Star Citizen vibes, you shouldn’t: Crystal Dynamics has Square Enix acting as publisher, so we can well presume that there are hard dates to show upcoming content, that data simply isn’t public-facing at this time. Granted, that lack of public-facing data has fans frustrated and feeling a bit bamboozled in purchases, yet it ultimately falls on the relationship between developer and publisher (and leaks) to dictate when that data becomes available.
Of course, this leaves the question to be a rather simple one that desperately needs to be answered: how long must fans wait until Marvel’s Avengers finally shirks what it is, and becomes what it could be?