‘Marvel’s Avengers’ Has Lost $67 Million In Development Cost

2020 hasn’t been kind to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Not only has the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic prevented Black Widow from arriving on the big screen, but the latest game based on the Avengers hasn’t been getting a good rep. Since its launch, Marvel’s Avengers has been plagued with a number of bugs and technical issues, forcing the developer to work hard on fixing them. Additionally, the game’s player base has been dwindling to the point where it has lost 96% of its players on PC. Now, it seems that Marvel’s Avengers hasn’t been able to recoup its developmental costs.

In a translated Q&A from Square Enix’s quarterly meetings, President Yosuke Matsuda revealed that the company may lose around 7 billion yen in production costs. That roughly translates to around $67 million. “Initial sales of Marvel’s Avengers were lower than we had expected and unable to completely offset the amortization of the game’s development costs,” said Matsuda. “In the second half of the fiscal year (“2H”), we hope to make up for slow initial sales by offering ample additional content to grow our sales.” Matsuda later added that “another significant factor associated with [Marvel’s Avengers] was the fact that we undertook a major advertising campaign at the time of its launch to make up for delays in our marketing efforts resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Marvel’s Avengers was released on September 7 for PS4, Xbox One, PC and Google Stadia. The game will arrive on PS5 and Xbox Series X sometime in 2021.