Marvel's Avengers is yet to make back the money it took to develop. The online co-op focused adventure game where you take on the role of the titular Avengers, has suffered quite a significant loss but Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics hope to make a profit from the title through releasing extra content and DLC.
This IGN report tells us that Square Enix's company president, Yosuke Matsuda confirmed the losses in the briefing. He says, "Sales of Marvel's Avengers were lower than we had expected and unable to completely offset the amortization of the game's development costs. In the second half of the fiscal year ("2H"), we hope to make up for slow initial sales by offering ample additional content to grow our sales." At least as a silver lining the president notes that "the MMO sub-segment is performing well".
We've already heard that Marvel's Avengers had suffered a heavy loss. GAMINGbible has previously reported that Square Enix only managed to sell 60% of planned product which analyst David Gibson says meant a ¥6.5 billion loss.
Now Square Enix is saying that the causation for these losses was mainly COVID-19 related. Yosuke Matsuda answered questions about the losses and he made it clear that the focus for SE is "first and foremost to work to expand sales in order to improve its profitability."
Advert
The president says "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."
Right now it looks like the best way for Square Enix to try to make the game profitable is through releasing new missions and characters post-release. The next release is Kate Bishop, who historically in the comics has gone by Hawkeye, but her mission seems to be having Clint Barton (also Hawkeye - it gets confusing) in the game.
There are also murmurings of Black Panther being released soon too - perhaps that will be enough to draw fans back into the game after at least 96% of players have moved on from the title since release.
Featured Image Credit: Square EnixTopics: Marvel's Avengers, News, Square Enix
