Fresh from the news of a drastic drop in its player count since launch, Marvel's Avengers publisher Square Enix has revealed that the game has failed to live up to expectations.
In its latest financial results briefing, the company posted a 7 billion Yen loss for the final quarter of the financial year, which equates to somewhere in the region of $67 million.
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Speaking on the subject of the game's expensive marketing campaign, Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda noted:
“In addition to the amortization of that game’s development costs, another significant factor associated with the title was the fact that we undertook a major advertising campaign at the time of its launch to make up for delays in our marketing efforts resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic".
“There is a certain amount of development costs still to be amortized in 3Q, but we want to recoup it by growing our sales going forward.”
Matsuda notes, however, that the company still intends to provide new content for players.
Square Enix plans “to make up for slow initial sales by offering ample additional content”.
Presumably, that'll be more episodic DLC featuring the likes of Kate Bishop, while a leak suggested fans can expect famous faces like Winter Soldier, Captain Marvel, and She-Hulk among others.
Last month, developer Crystal Dynamics noted that the PS5 and Series S/X optimised versions of Marvel's Avengers have been delayed until 2021, while the upcoming release of Kate Bishop has also been pushed back to early December.
For more on Marvel's Avengers, check out our full review here.
I jumped back into the game on PS5, and without optimisation, it runs a little more smoothly and I've been having fun Hulking out and levelling up.
For more articles like this, take a look at our Marvel's Avengers page.