The next gen update for the Marvel’s Avengers video game is now officially set to launch on March 18th, almost exactly a month from today.
While the Xbox One version of Marvel’s Avengers is playable on Microsoft’s new Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X consoles, this update will enhance the game to improve its framerate, character details, loading times, and other aspects when played on this new hardware.
This update is completely free for current owners of the Xbox One version of the game and full cross-save functionality will be supported after it launches which means that progress will be able to be transferred between the Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X version.
Also launching on March 18th will be the free Hawkeye downloadable content (DLC) which adds the popular Avengers character and a variety of new story and in-game content for players to consume.
While it’s always good to see a major video game get new free content, one does have to wonder if this update will be enough to renew interest in Marvel’s Avengers whose playerbase has decreased dramatically since launch.
To give an idea of just how low the game’s playerbase is, the third-party SteamCharts website currently shows a daily average of just 402 global players for the past 30 days for the PC version available via Steam while PSNProfiles shows only 243 recent players. Xbox stats are a little harder to track though we can see that Marvel’s Avengers isn’t even in the Top 50 most played games right now.
Needless to say, that’s not good at all.
It’s hard to pinpoint why exactly Marvel’s Avengers has failed to maintain momentum though the general consensus amongst players and critics seems to be that it’s due to a combination of unimpressive graphics and gameplay, odd character designs choices, and an assumption by the developers that all players love to grind. Spider-Man being made a PlayStation exclusive character probably didn’t help matters either.
There’s also been an odd lack of synergy with other Marvel properties that has ruined any chance of building cross-promotion buzz. For example, everyone’s talking about Wanda and Vision right now due to the mega-successful WandaVision series on Disney Plus yet those characters aren’t even playable yet in Marvel’s Avengers (they could be coming in the future though according to a leak). Meanwhile, Hawkeye and Kate Bishop will be sharing their own series on the same streaming service a year or so from now yet they’re being added to the game first.
Do you think Marvel’s Avengers will make a comeback or do you see it being put out of its misery in the near future? Why do you think it’s failing? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more Xbox gaming news.
