While we just got a new Marvel’s Avengers game update earlier this week, Crystal Dynamics announced some not-so-good news today. The Marvel’s Avengers next-gen release date got pushed back to an unannounced date in 2021! What’s more, the Kate Bishop DLC drop that’s planned for this month has been pushed back “out of October,” with no definite release date set just yet.
The bad news was announced by Crystal Dynamics boss Scot Amos, in a long letter to the game’s fans. While players might be focusing on the bad news, there’s some good news as well. Crystal Dynamics is giving a sign of appreciation to players in the form of Credits, Upgrade Modules and more!
As a sign of our appreciation for being with us from the start of this journey – beginning at 10:00 AM PDT October 22, players will receive a digital thank-you bundle, which includes:
- Credits: 1500 – Enough for a Legendary Skin and Nameplate from the Marketplace
- Units: 7000
- Upgrade Modules: 250
- DNA Keys: 20
- A Sarah Garza-Inspired Nameplate (Because seriously, you’re the best.)
This bundle will be available until 10:00 AM PDT on November 5.
Amos also listed some of the fan feedback-driven features the studio is looking into! Expect these additions/changes in the coming months (not necessarily in one patch):
We’re actively working on new community-driven features for the coming months, including but not limited to:
- Avengers Initiative Ping System: A system that will allow players to mark objectives, resources, health crates, and enemies, allowing players to command AI companions to hack/smash doors or prioritize specific enemies.
- Reassemble Campaign Replay: An option to reset the Reassemble campaign and replay it with your Super Hero’s level and gear intact.
- High Contrast Mode: An accessibility feature that will allow the player to apply solid darken veils behind text to improve readability.
- Hero Icon Visibility: An option to adjust the display of identifying icons above a Super Hero’s head to be on by default or dynamic.
- Mission Reward Clarity: Improved clarity around mission-specific rewards when viewed on the WAR TABLE. This will allow players to more strategically take on missions to meet their current goals and seek out specific gear and resources.
- Offscreen & Ranged Enemy Attack Indicators: Better feedback for players to avoid offscreen and ranged enemy attacks.
In addition to the rewards and features the studio is working on, Amos also listed the four key areas the studio is focusing right now.
Performance & Stability
In the past several weeks we’ve uncovered and corrected several systemic issues that were creating a number of game crashes or freezes. Through our metrics tracking we’ve seen a significant decrease in these crashes week-over-week.
However, on some PCs we are continuing to see a higher number of crashes than we’d like, especially those that are the result of GPU hangs and GPU driver crashes. We have a dedicated team tracking these as highest priority fixes across all platforms; including bringing in external partners to help isolate any remaining issues to maximize our stability.
We are actively working with NVIDIA on specific issues that some users have reported with performance degrading over time. With the latest Patch V1.3.3, we’ve added NVIDIA DLSS, which significantly improves framerate while maintaining high quality visuals for NVIDIA RTX hardware. We’ve also added DLSS support for ultra performance mode and Dynamic Resolution scaling. More information about NVIDIA DLSS can be found here.
Multiplayer/Matchmaking
We’ve made some meaningful improvements to the multiplayer and matchmaking systems since launch, including expanding power-level matching speed so a broader range of diverse players can connect faster.
Moving forward, our philosophy for multiplayer improvements is to rework the way we group players. The goal is to draw from a larger pool of online players and provide faster ways to jump into desired content. This will help with quicker matchmaking so you can get to the fun faster. We are also exploring ways to better make use of the quick match feature with greater rewards for joining in to help others out. Stay tuned!
Rewards
We know how important meaningful rewards are to our fans. Our philosophy is that rewards should always feel worth the time you’ve invested to earn them. The upcoming AIM Cloning Lab will guarantee an exotic drop for the first completion per week, and a notable chance of exotic drops for subsequent runs. You should also feel that exotic drops are more unique to late-game play; Tachyon and future AIM Cloning Labs missions draw from special reward pools. When you do get exotics from these late-game activities, they will also feel more significant with reworked attributes and perks.
Reward tuning will be an ongoing pursuit to ensure we hit the sweet spot with players, and we commit to transparency through patch notes when changes are made.
Late-Game Content
Launch was only the beginning for Marvel’s Avengers. We have both refinements to existing content and sweeping additions coming that will introduce new mission types, characters, regions, and even higher global stakes.
Mega Hive: To support our late game players, we recently dropped the Mega Hive. Mega Hives are a weekly mission type for fans who prefer to fly solo, testing their top-tier roster in a gauntlet of descending floors with increasingly difficult enemies. We’ve heard loud and clear that players want a multiplayer option for the Mega Hive, and that is something we are working towards in the coming months.
Tachyon Missions & SHIELD Substation Zero: A new outpost, SHIELD Substation Zero, dropped this week in the Pacific Northwest. SHIELD is investigating new temporal anomalies that have begun forming across the world and need the Avengers’ help. Visit this space to meet new characters and activate new rituals.
You can read the entire letter to fans right here.
While it’s a bummer that the new content is being delayed, it’s good to see the studio owning up to the game’s mistakes and wanting to make it a better title for the gamers.