During Square Enix's 2021 Annual Report, president Yosuke Matsuda stated that the publisher was unhappy with how Marvel's Avengers turned out and that it was not as successful as the company "would have liked."
Many inside and outside the industry have expressed frustration that Marvel's Avengers was not a good fit for the Games as a Service approach, however, Matsuda declined to use those words, instead saying that Square Enix "need[s] to select game designs that mesh with the unique attributes and tastes of our studios and development teams." Seemingly, Square Enix and Matsuda are suggesting here that Crystal Dynamics, not the type of service, was the wrong fit for the Avengers characters.
The Games as a Service model is something that can be tricky to implement into the creative aspect of game making, especially when working with established characters and IP. While Matsuda claims Crystal Dynamics' team's specific talents went underutilized during the making of Marvel's Avengers, he still believes that there is inherent value in the GaaS model saying, "While the new challenge that we tackled with this title produced a disappointing outcome, we are certain that the GaaS approach will grow in importance as gaming becomes more service oriented."
Despite Crystal Dynamics' apparent fumble with Marvel's Avengers, the game still has a passionate fanbase that enjoys tit for what it is. The developer has also been adding free expansions to the game regularly, in the vein of Hawkeye and Black Panther's expansion stories, with Spider-Man's adventure just announced to be released on November 30th. Unfortunately, Spider-Man will be exclusive to the PlayStation 4 and 5 versions of Marvel's Avengers as per a Sony exclusive deal with Square Enix.
This has rubbed many Xbox players the wrong way, so hopefully, Microsoft will be granted an exclusive character of its own at some point in the future. For now, Xbox gamers with access to Xbox Games Pass can try out Marvel's Avengers through the service for an indefinite amount of time. Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix will need that goodwill going forward, as they have been caught up in another controversy recently regarding the addition of paid consumables. However, these have since been removed. Time will tell if Marvel's Avengers can truly save itself and its player-base.
Marvel's Avengers is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.