This may come as a surprise to players who gave up the game a long time ago and assumed that time had come, but Crystal Dynamics and publisher Square Enix have announced the imminent end of online support Marvel’s Avengers.
In a blog post published on Friday eveningthe latter, signed by the ‘Marvel’s Avengers Development Team’, reads in part:
To our amazing community,
After two and a half years and the introduction of twelve of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, we will no longer be adding any new content or features to Marvel’s Avengers after update 2.8 on March 31, 2023. All official support for the game ends on September 30, 2023.
Even after official support ends on September 30, 2023, both single and multiplayer gameplay will continue to be available…
… As a token of our appreciation for our community, starting March 31, 2023, we will be making the entire marketplace, challenge map, and cosmetic content of the game available to all players for free. Every single Outfit, Takedown, Emote and Nametag from the Marketplace, Challenge Cards and Shipments will be free to all players as of this date if you own a copy of the game.
Giving away the entire library of cosmetic content in the Marketplace is a way to say thank you to our community by allowing everyone to experience the breadth and depth of content in Marvel’s Avengers.
We know this is disappointing news as everyone in our community has such a connection to these characters and their stories. We are so, so grateful that you have come on this adventure with us. Your enthusiasm for Marvel’s Avengers – from your epic Photo Mode shots to your discussions about who our next heroes would be to your Twitch streams – has played a big part in bringing this game to life.
We hope that you will continue to play and enjoy Marvel’s Avengers. We cannot thank you enough for your support and for being part of our amazing team.
– Marvel’s Avengers development team
While the opening of the game’s Marketplace is framed here as a gesture of goodwill, it’s of course the same Marketplace –Shackled as it was, to a crazy notion that every game has to be a forever game depending on the grind inherent in a live service experience– that helped kill it. ‘
During Embracer struck a deal last year to buy the game’s developers and separate them from the publisher who did it avenger license agreement, it was clarified at the time that all games released before the sale would continue to be supported. Which suggests that this decision was simply due to not enough people wanting to play or buy stuff Marvel’s Avengers more.
As the note says, this does not mean that the game will disappear from the internet entirely. You can also play it in multiplayer mode. There simply won’t be any more updates or even technical support for it after September 30th.
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If you’re a gamer and want to see the details of what’s being shut down, when, and what that means for individual updates, You can check that out in a series of charts and FAQs here. One of these includes the deeply hilarious reminder that even in death, Spider-Man must remain a PlayStation exclusive.
