After Endgame, Marvel's Avengers enter a gaming universe
'Avengers' will be released on all gaming platforms in May 2020
(REUTERS) - The Marvel Cinematic Universe hit a new high this year with Avengers: Endgame scoring big at the box office, and now Marvel is hoping to emulate the franchise s success in the video game world.
Although it was originally announced back in January 2017, many fans thought the Crystal Dynamics produced Avengers was dead in the water after no news emerged for more than two years.
On Monday (June 10), Avengers became a reality with Crystal Dynamics studio head, Scot Amos, revealing gameplay footage and more at Square Enix s E3 briefing.
"It s something that we ve learned from all the great films, all the great filmmakers, all the great game makers, it s how do we keep this secret? Because we re fans," Amos told Reuters on the E3 floor on Tuesday (June 11). He added "We re fans of the industry, we re fans of the games, we ve been wanting to keep this secret for so long but we ve wanted to share it so desperately."
He revealed that Avengers fans had gone so far as to fake job interviews to try and break into their offices to find out details, but they still managed to keep things under wraps.
The game begins with the five Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk, Black Widow and Thor being the toast of San Francisco. However, when Iron Man s innovative new ship is hijacked and explodes causing untold damage, they go underground.
The cinematic universe began with the same five characters before adding fresh ones in along the way. Amos says the game will follow that route, saying "We re not going to say what the numbers are or when but we have a plan. As you say, this is awesome. Start with the core five. Start with the ones you know, you ve loved, you ve experienced and now add to that. There is a pantheon of hundreds of characters who ve been in and out of the Avengers so for us to start reacting to the fans and cherry-picking and working with Marvel to say What are the right ones to grow that roster? . It will grow and we will have more heroes that you can start mixing and matching and building a customized team online. We re very excited about creating that roster."
At the briefing, they teased Ant-Man by showing a clip of a man called Hank (presumably Pym) shrinking down a giant attacking machine. The developers made it clear at the briefing that there would be no extra costs involved for new characters or new regions of the game.
The Avengers in the game look different from their movie counterparts because they are played by different actors, who are renowned for their gaming performances, including Troy Baker ( The Last of Us ), Jeff Schine ( Kingdom Hearts III ), Travis Willingham ( Lego Batman ), Laura Bailey ( Spider-Man ), and Nolan North ( Unchartered ).
"We want these (characters) to be love letters to the fans," said Amos. "When they play these characters, you re like That s what Tony would say, that s exactly what Bruce would say . Like we want them to feel that way but still want it to be fresh and original so it s epic to have this type of casting. Having the best in the biz being part of this game, you can see it, the fans loved it. They were cheering for the actors as well as the heroes. We couldn t ask for anything better," he said.
Avengers will be released on all gaming platforms in May 2020, but developers teased that Playstation users will have early access and more surprises before the other consoles.
