Marvel's Avengers Hasn't Recouped Its Development Costs Yet

Marvel's Avengers sales have been lower than expected, and the game hasn't yet recouped its development costs, leading to an estimated ¥7 billion (approximately $67 million USD) operating loss in Square Enix's HD Games segment during the last financial quarter. Company president Yosuke Matsude explained in a newly translated results briefing, "Sales of Marvel’s Avengers were lower than we had expected and unable to completely offset the amortization of the game’s development costs." Game analyst David Gibson previously explained that the company sold 60% of its planned units, and that the numbers implied the game cost around $100 million to make. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/10/marvels-avengers-review"] Responding to an investor's question on the subject, Matsuda clarified that - had Avengers not been released in that quarter - the company would have made a profit. That comes down to both development and marketing costs: "In addition to the amortization of that game’s development costs," explained Matsuda, "another significant factor associated with the title was the fact that we undertook a major advertising campaign at the time of its launch to make up for delays in our marketing efforts resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a certain amount of development costs still to be amortized in 3Q, but we want to recoup it by growing our sales going forward." Matsuda doesn't offer concrete plans, but said the hope is that updates will help drive new sales: "We hope to make up for slow initial sales by offering ample additional content to grow our sales." Last week, developer Crystal Dynamics announced the December release date for its first post-launch hero and campaign, announced another, and potentially teased other heroes to come beyond that. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/11/19/marvels-avengers-kate-bishop-trailer"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.