Ouch. The Avengers didn’t assemble as well as Square-Enix had hoped, and the AAA video game wound up losing them $48 million.

According to game industry analysts, the heavily promoted Marvel title massively underperformed, only selling 60% of what they had expected.

Marvel Avengers- it looks like the total cost of the game is closer to $170m-$190m given they only expenses 70% of cost in the qtr plus marketing costs. Why someone didn’t say stop post the multiplayer beta will remain a mystery . Square are adamant they can make a recovery ….

— David Gibson (@gibbogame) November 7, 2020

Square Enix:

Net sales totaled ~ $1.66B in H1 of FY ending March '21, up 43% YoY.

Op Income nearly doubled.

HD Games segment recorded higher sales though returned to an operating loss, on lower-than-expected results for Marvel's Avengers not being able to offset higher costs. pic.twitter.com/PLcZv4tpOX

— Dom (@DomsPlaying) November 6, 2020

Square-Enix, the Japanese developer that is mostly know for RPGs like the Final Fantasy series, has posted an operating loss in its HD Games segment of more than ¥5 billion, or $48 million, for the second quarter, according to PC Gamer.

Scores on Metacritic have been pretty mixed. It looks even worse when compared to Sony’s own Spider-Man game, which came out two years ago.

Could the brand appeal of Marvel’s Avengers be wearing off with the general public after Endgame? Will new Avengers, like Ms. Marvel (who featured heavily in this game), be able to carry the movie franchise forward after the exists of Iron Man and Captain America?

Only time will tell.

But you can’t blame the pandemic on this one. Video game sale skyrocketed during lockdown. Players just weren’t feeling it.

[Source: PC Gamer, Twitter]