Since its release last year, Marvel's Avengers has had its fair share of ups and downs. Unfortunately, Marvel's Avengers wasn't the success that Square Enix was hoping that it would be and many of those who have played it are likely inclined to agree. One of the game's saving graces, however, was the promise that Marvel's most popular character Spider-Man would be included in it at some point in the future for those playing the game on the PS4 and PS5. As more details are revealed about the character as the web-head's late-November release date draws closer, however, he's begun to already be a disappointment for fans.

It was revealed today that the upcoming Spider-Man DLC for Marvel's Avengers won't include any major story content like what's been included for characters like Black Panther, Hawkeye, and Kate Bishop. This comes as a major disappointment for fans as Peter Parker's story is often viewed as one of Marvel's best, but, in retrospect, it seems to make a lot of sense that he wouldn't be getting the same treatment as all the other characters for one simple reason: he's a PlayStation exclusive character.

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The Cost of Spider-Man's PlayStation Exclusivity

Marvel's Avengers Spider-Man DLC Future Roadmap

It's no secret that Sony owns the rights to Spider-Man, a problem that's caused Marvel headaches for years, so when he was announced to be coming to Marvel's Avengers as a Sony console exclusive character, it made a baseline level of sense given how protective Sony has been of the character in recent years. That said, with how early on in Marvel's Avengers' life he was announced, fans have been speculating what the character will be like for over a year, but it seems clear now that he wouldn't be treated like the rest of the game's roster due to his exclusive appearances on the PS4 and PS5.

Simply put: it doesn't make much sense for Crystal Dynamics to devote a lot of resources to the character given the parameters of his release. Marvel's Avengers doesn't have a major player base with SteamDB citing that the game's PC version has peaks of less than 1,000 players logging in at any given time. While Crystal Dynamics hasn't clarified specific numbers for its console player counts, they're likely seeing similar numbers as their Steam counterpart meaning that PlayStation consoles might also be having less than 1,000 active players signing in at one time.

It costs a lot of money to develop content for live-service games and, unfortunately, Marvel's Avengers can't spare a lot of resources to support a character that's only accessible on one platform. The failures of the game in its early months should probably have set off warning signals to everyone excited for his inclusion because, looking at the evidence now, it makes sense that he wouldn't get the same major story DLC as a character like Black Panther who would be available on all platforms.

Marvel's Avengers' Highly Specific Wording

Marvel's Avengers Spider Man Age

One of the biggest tells that Spider-Man's inclusion in Marvel's Avengers might not be what fans are hoping for was the way that his inclusion was spoken about by Crystal Dynamics. Earlier this year, the studio confirmed that Spider-Man's content would include "cutscenes," but while that implies some level of story content, it doesn't confirm that the DLC will include new missions or story content outside of some cutscenes explaining his inclusion in the world. The clarification that he would bring cutscenes with him without touching on the other content should have been another red flag, but it seems like fans were assuming the best in the game and hoping that Spider-Man would be able to be a refresher for it, so no one was looking for reasons to be cautious about the DLC. Unfortunately, it seems like the signs have been there that Spider-Man might not be all he's been talked up to be, but hindsight is 20-20.

Marvel's Avengers is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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