DOWNTIME

Marvel’s Avengers fails to win hearts and minds

It seemed like a no-brainer: a blockbuster Marvel’s Avengers game featuring playable versions of each key Avenger, with a substantial single player component and a long-in-the-tail game-as-service model. But it looks like Marvel’s Avengers hasn’t done particularly well for Square Enix, following the game’s launch in September. In addition to the not-quite-scientific matter of declining player counts on Steam (they don’t take into account console engagement, for example), Square Enix company president Yosuke Matsuda indicated during a recent investor Q&A that COVID-19 is partially to blame.

“In addition to the amortisation of [ Marvel’s Avengers’] development costs, another significant factor associated with the title was the fact that we undertook