Square Enix: Crystal Dynamics was the Wrong Studio for Marvel’s Avengers - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 11 November 2021 / 3,629 Views
Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda in a statement to shareholders and transcribed by VideoGamesChronicles admitted Crystal Dynamics was the wrong fit to develop Marvel's Avengers as the studio had no experience in the games as a service model.
Matsuda said it will be important of matching studios to games that best suit their experience and skillsets.
"Marvel’s Avengers was an ambitious title for us in that we took on the GaaS (Games as a Service) model," Matsuda said.
"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 unfortunately not proven as successful as we would have liked.
"Nonetheless, taking on the GaaS model highlighted issues that we are likely to face in future game development efforts such as the need to select game designs that mesh with the unique attributes and tastes of our studios and development teams.
"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. How we go about creating new experiences by incorporating this trend into our game design is a key question that we will need to answer going forward."
Marvel’s Avengers released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia in September 2020, and for the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 in March 2021.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Maybe let your developers make the games they want to. If CD was able to focus on making a single player experience, I think the game would have turned out pretty good.
Wow way to throw your developers under the bus...
It is here and there. They are saying they chose the wrong studio but at the same time they are calling that studio incompetent for that work.
Judging the product I would say both are true though. CD is talented no doubt, but this game wasn't a good game.
They did feel like a weird choice for this, not to say that the GaaS model in itself is anything to praise though.
Square enix is at fault,
crystal dynamics makes spectacular single player games,
Why change their bread and butter and then tell them that they are at fault?
Nope. It wasn't the fault of CD being unused to GaaS, the problem is GaaS being choosen.
100% this, along with locking one of Marvel's biggest characters behind a paywall, thereby souring an entire platform's userbase from wanting the game in the first place.
Right Squenix, the developer was the wrong fit, there surely cannot be a problem with the choosen model for monetization.
Honestly, this kinda makes me much more optimistic for Perfect Dark now that they’ll be working on something that works to their greatest strength.
And that Microsoft should buy Crystal away from SE lol
Or the model is the wrong choice in itself. After all SE was able to publish the much better (but sure not PS/Insomniac level Marvel game) Guardians of the Galaxy.
If I play it and have the same impression as you I would be satisfied.
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