This year has seen its fair share of successes, big and small. But it’s also seen a number of underwhelming releases and terrible flops. Based on the limited sales data available, let’s take a look at the biggest flops of the year thus far.
Marvel’s Avengers
When Marvel’s Avengers was first revealed, “yikes” was the only real way to describe it, from the characters’ looks to the proud announcement of no loot boxes. All of this before any real gameplay, mind you. Following the game’s first delay, Crystal Dynamics began offering up more details and its looter focus became a bit clearer. But cue the first beta, which was monumentally flawed from the get-go, and the anticipation for launch became all the more soured. Sure enough at launch, Marvel’s Avengers suffered from performance issues, connectivity issues, balance issues, the list goes on. Even from a design standpoint, it was criticized for its grindy gameplay, one-note mission design, shallow end-game, lackluster loot, etc etc.
While it did sell an impressive 2.2 million digital units in its debut month, Square Enix would reveal in its second quarter FY2021 financial briefing that sales were lower than expected. In fact, development costs had yet to be recouped and the company suffered an operating loss of about $67 million. New content is on the way with the two Hawkeyes and Spider-Man, not to mention launches for Xbox Series X/S and PS5 next year but for now, Marvel’s Avengers is perhaps this year’s biggest commercial flop.
