Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda said that Marvel’s Avengers performance was disappointing for the company in their annual report.
Matsuda described Marvel’s Avengers as “an ambitious title for [the company] in that we took on the GAAS (Games as a Service) model.” Matsuda went on to say, “We overcame a variety of unexpected difficulties in the final phase of the game’s development, including needing to transition to work-from-home due to the pandemic. We were able to surmount these challenges and release the game, but it has not proven as successful as we would have liked.”
Interestingly, the GaaS model is not something the company is giving up on. “While the new challenge that we tackled with this title produced a disappointing outcome, we are certain that the GaaS approach will grow in importance as gaming becomes more service oriented.” Arguably, MMOs fall in line with the GaaS model, so Square Enix have that in FFXIV.
Marvel’s Avengers being disappointing likely means there won’t be a sequel for the game. It’s unsurprising Square Enix feels this way. The game’s short history is full of controversies. The game received paid XP boosts despite promises it wouldn’t, which months later have now been removed. It struggled to recoup development costs, and even sold less copies than Monopoly in 2020.
The GaaS model is a tricky one. From a business perspective, it makes sense to make one game with regular updates. This adds longevity to the game, and saves money on making an entire new game. But it also requires players to constantly be playing to stay up to date. This can be exhausting for both players and developers, and lead to burnout. Whatever Square Enix ends up doing in future, hopefully it won’t ask too much of players.
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Featured Image Credit: Square Enix/Crystal Dynamics