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Marvel’s Avengers Developer Says DLC Characters Won’t Be Reskins

One of the first solid details we learned about Marvel's Avengers back in June was that it would contain microtransactions. In the absence of any gameplay to fawn over, however, audiences on the show floor at E3 and around the world immediately latched onto the revelation and voiced their concerns over how publisher Square Enix would monetize the lucrative license. We've since learned, of course, that the superhero adventure's optional content will be purely cosmetic in nature, and that all meaningful content - new characters, areas, etc - will arrive free of charge.

Marvel's Avengers

One of the first solid details we learned about Marvel’s Avengers back in June was that it would contain microtransactions.

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In the absence of any gameplay to fawn over, however, audiences on the show floor at E3 and around the world immediately latched onto the revelation and voiced their concerns over how publisher Square Enix would monetize the lucrative license. We’ve since learned, of course, that the superhero adventure’s optional content will be purely cosmetic in nature, and that all meaningful content – new characters, areas, etc – will arrive free of charge.

In an age of hyper-awareness when it comes to loot boxes and other questionable (especially in full price, triple-A titles) practices, Marvel’s Avengers‘ approach is a refreshing change of pace. The jury’s still out, of course, on whether the price of such luxuries will be of an acceptable level, but at the very least, players won’t have to spend so much as a dime on any additional characters that eventually join the base cast.

Speaking of which, developer Crystal Dynamics recently dedicated some time at an event at PAX West to further discuss how it plans to approach new characters. Addressing the press, studio head Scot Amos detailed how those heroes that join Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and Black Widow post-release will be much, much more than simple reskins.

We want to make sure it feels like, ‘Wow this is who this character should play like.’ So it’s not like, ‘Oh this is just a reskinned version of X, Y, Z. That wouldn’t be fun for us. There are so many unique purposes for each different Avenger, we don’t think about them as class and style. We say, ‘What’s great about this hero, what’s great about this character?

Whether Crystal Dynamics can deliver on those ambitions ultimately remains to be seen, though given how wholly unique each of the game’s existing cast has proven to be in early demos, we have faith. As for which hero is likely to be first-in-line for a job at Avengers Tower, our money’s on Ant-Man.

Marvel’s Avengers is out May 15th, 2020, for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC and Google Stadia.