Marvel’s Avengers hasn’t exactly enjoyed the hugely successful start to life that Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics had perhaps hoped for.
Despite being developed specifically as a live service title intended to retain players for extended periods of time, the core gameplay loop and launch content available from day one have failed to achieve that goal, with recent figures suggesting, on PC, at least, that superhero fans have already grown tired of what’s on offer and gone elsewhere for their adrenaline fix. A disappointing performance, then, no doubt, and only compounding that issue further is the recent revelation that the first batch of post-launch content lined up for the action-adventure outing has been pushed back until further notice.
This includes, among other additions, an expansion to Marvel’s Avengers‘ roster in the form of Hawkeye and Kate Bishop, as well as PlayStation-exclusive character Spider-Man, who is presumed to arrive sometime in the New Year. While we wait for more solid details on those three newcomers, however, data miners have uncovered what appears to be several other familiar faces likely releasing in the not-too-distant future, as you can see below.
Black Panther and War Machine are essentially confirmed to be making an appearance in-game at some point down the road, then, and it’s worth noting, too, that the art above has been created specifically for the title. That being the case, it’s certainly interesting to note that Crystal Dynamics has opted to go in a markedly different direction for its own version of Black Panther when compared with Chadwick Boseman’s portrayal in the MCU.
War Machine, on the other hand, looks more or less as one would expect of Iron Man’s partner in crime, and we’re still curious to see whether he’ll end up being a variant of sorts rather than a standalone entity separate to Tony Stark in terms of gameplay. Watch this space for more details.
Marvel’s Avengers is out now, for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. See here for our review.