Marvel and Square-Enix are testing out a new market. Their recent release of Marvel’s Avengers is a service game. After their success with the single-player Spider-Man, they aim to expand this new entry as time goes on. The Avengers is a team of constantly changing members so it makes sense on paper. Naturally, these games are surrounded by quite a lot of controversy. It is certainly no stranger to it. No matter where one stands on it, the investment seems to be paying off for Marvel.
Avengers has topped the UK physical sales charts. This does not take any digital sales into account. Those will be interesting as they’ve seen a massive increase over the year. To put it into perspective, it sold slightly more than Crystal Dynamic’s last game, Shadow of the Tomb Raider. For another comparison, it had sold less than a third when compared to Spider-Man. Keep in mind that these games have a very different audience and selling point. The web-crawler is also quite the merchandising juggernaut. As such, these are mainly comparisons from a sales perspective.
Avengers focuses on long-term investments. At the time, Spider-Man was the fastest-selling game in the UK. That is not an easy act to follow, especially as this console generation is nearing its end. These elements can have an influence on the reduced sale when compared. It’s closest comparison point would be BioWare’s Anthem. It was considered a disappointment with less than six million sales in its release year. We will see if Marvel’s latest foray into gaming will be able to prove as a lucrative investment. Of course, it also depends on Crystal Dynamics. If they fix the current major bugs and keep it updated, the game could stick in the charts for some time. There is also a good chance will see an extra push once Spider-Man is added to the game next year.
Source: Games Industry, VG24/7, PC Games Insider
