Dataminers have found evidence of unreleased heroes in Marvel’s Avengers. The news comes shortly after Crystal Dynamics announced its ending development on the high-profile comic book adaption in September, only three years after release. Marvel’s Avengers had a rocky development and an even rockier reception.Marvel’s Avengers, developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix, received mixed reviews from critics and fans alike after its release in September 2020. Reviews painted a portrait of a game that felt caught between a decent multiplayer combat system and several poorly thought-out live service elements. Marvel’s Avengers was criticized for its expensive microtransactions and poor implementation of loot boxes that felt unrewarding. Players and critics took aim at the game’s poor art design, often describing the character models as uninspired knockoffs of their MCU counterparts and environments that felt dull and repetitive.A prolific Marvel’s Avengers dataminer who goes by the name Miller on Twitter found unreleased dialogue from upcoming characters like She-Hulk and Captain Marvel. The data was hidden in the version 2.7.2 update that was released on January 24th. Miller also found text-to-speech files containing dialogue shared between Jane Foster, aka Mighty Thor, and three other characters, including She-Hulk, Bucky Barnes, and Captain Marvel. The inclusion of She-Hulk doesn’t come as too big a surprise. In July 2022, on the official Xbox Twitch channel, streamer TechniqTV accidentally revealed She-Hulk was a part of Crystal Dynamic’s long-term roadmap for Marvel’s Avengers.
The dialogue is designed to be spoken while players explored one of three Avengers outposts – non-combat social environments where players can kick back and have a chat with Avengers team members. The conversations cover a variety of topics. One poignant moment of dialogue between the recently added Jane Foster and Bucky Barnes talking about living in the shadow of more popular and accomplished heroes like Thor and Captain America. There are also some bits of lighter idle chatter where Jennifer Walters asks Jane’s opinion on launching an Avengers softball team.
Crystal dynamics ceasing development on Marvel’s Avengers means that after September 2023 the game will no longer receive updates and will be delisted from online retailers. But that doesn’t mean the game won’t be playable. As long as players keep the game installed after it’s delisted, they can still enjoy its single-player mode and even play online with friends. Though, how long online services will remain running after that remains to be seen. In the meantime, Crystal Dynamics has attempted to please its community of remaining Marvel’s Avengers players with free DLC cosmetics.
Marvel's Avengers is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.