The Square Enix conference at E3 2019 brought with it our first look at Marvel’s Avengers, the long-awaited collaboration between Marvel, Square Enix, Crystal Dynamics (creators of the recent Tomb Raider games) and Eidos Montreal (creators of the recent Deus Ex games). While we got a small look at the game’s story and a brief look with how it will play, what about any Marvel’s Avengers DLC for the game? Will there be loot boxes, microtransactions, skins or cosmetics? and how will Marvel’s Avengers DLC work, exactly?
There are a lot of questions about Marvels Avengers DLC and how it will come out, so we’ll do our best to answer with everything Square Enix and the developers have revealed so far. How often will DLC come out? Will there be pay to win aspects, or microtransactions in that DLC? Will there be new heroes released regularly, or story expansions? How will it all work, really? Let’s have a look.
How often will Marvel’s Avengers DLC come out?
Marvel’s Avengers will be a live-service game, or at least have Games as a Service elements, which means it will be getting frequent content updates to keep users addicted to the game. As the game’s still a year away Square Enix and the developers have been cautious not to say how often new content will actually come out, but it will appear “at regular intervals.” This could be anything from basic character costumes to whole new characters and story expansions, of course. We’ll have to wait and see, for now, until it gets confirmed how often new DLC will drop.
Will there be Marvel’s Avengers microtransactions or pay to win?
The big worry with any game with DLC these days is if there’s some form of microtransactions, or some other little chunk of paid DLC that doesn’t offer much but clean out our wallets just as easily. The good news is that it has already been confirmed by Square Enix, at the game’s reveal event no less, that there would be “no pay to win scenarios” in Marvel’s Avengers, so no microtransactions that can give players an advantage over other players strictly by how much money they throw at the screen.
However, this does not mean there will not be any microtransactions at all in Marvel’s Avengers. For instance, Randy Pitchford of Gearbox Software recently got into trouble by claiming that there would be “no microtransactions” in Borderlands 3, when he just meant pay to win DLC and loot boxes, as players will still be able to buy cosmetic stuff as DLC. Will the same be true of Marvel’s Avengers then?
Will there be Marvel’s Avengers cosmetics or character skins?
This will be a big deal for any Marvel fans, especially any unhappy with the sort-of Marvel Cinematic Universe-but-not-really-esque designs of Thor, Black Widow, Iron Man etc. in the E3 trailer. There are so many iconic costumes across so many decades of comics, cartoons, movies, and other media that everyone will have their own favorite look. One of the best parts of Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4 was the wide range of costume changes available. Will the same happen in Marvel’s Avengers?
Good news then, because Marvel’s Avengers will definitely have cosmetic options, such as new skins, and they will be entirely separate from the gear system. As confirmed on Twitter by the game director and lead combat designer: “We have both cosmetic stuff for the characters, which is costumes and attire which you can customize fully, that do not affect the character’s gameplay attributes. We also have a pretty robust gear and progression system which does after the gameplay. It was important for us to separate those two.”
Which is excellent news, and presumably there will be many costumes for the characters added as DLC, just as Spider-Man got. But what about Spider-Man himself, or Hawkeye?
Marvel’s Avengers Q&A: E3 Day 2 https://t.co/j7fzbRD935
— Marvel's Avengers (@PlayAvengers) June 13, 2019
When will new heroes come to Marvels Avengers as DLC?
The main story trailer Square Enix showed off introduced us to the core Avengers team, who we will get to play as in the story for the game. They consist of Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, and Thor, and Hank Pym’s Ant-Man/Giant-Man was introduced later. That’s a rather small roster for such a big game, and doesn’t even include the complete line-up for the first Avengers movie — where’s Hawkeye, or Nick Fury?
While the developers confirm in the Twitter question and answer session above that “you unlock certain characters” as you progress through the story, what about DLC? Surely a near-infinite amount of Marvel characters can be added, from Spider-Man and Dr. Strange to even the X-Men and Fantastic Four — maybe even the villains, too? “Such a big world allows for many characters to be introduced,” the developers confirmed, and “at regular intervals, we intend to release new superheroes and new regions for free.” Excellent news. Can’t wait to play as Captain Britain.
Will there be story expansion DLC or new regions?
Costumes and characters are all very well, but what about extensions to the story and new areas of the game world to play in? Well, these have been confirmed too. As the developers note in the quote above about new superheroes releasing, they also confirm that Square Enix will be adding “new regions for free” to the game as well. We already got a glimpse of a space-based mission in the first trailer, so we’ll definitely be going outside of San Francisco. Perhaps to Spider-Man’s New York, Wakanda, or Latveria? We’ll find out later.
