Marvel's Avengers has failed in sales. The budget of the game could be $ 190 million

Despite a good start, Marvel’s Avengers turned out to have a short tail of sales. Because of this, Square Enix‘s gaming division went into negative territory at the end of the last quarter.

The Japanese publisher told about this in the report for the second fiscal quarter of 2021 (ended September 30, 2020).

• The losses of the HD Games division responsible for games amounted to ¥6.5 billion ($62 million).
• Square Enix’s net sales also fell compared to the previous quarter, when the Final Fantasy VII Remake was released. By the end of September, this figure reached ¥23.7 billion ($229 million) — 30% less than it was at the end of June (¥34.1 billion or $329 million).
• The publisher did not name the sales volumes of Marvel’s Avengers. But according to analyst David Gibson, the title has sold 3 million copies. This is only 60% of the planned.

“Presumably, the production of the game cost more than $ 100 million, and the total budget of Marvel’s Avengers approached $ 170-190. Here we need to take into account that they [Square Enix] spend at least 70% of the project cost plus marketing expenses per quarter. It remains a mystery why no one advised not to publish a multiplayer beta version,” Gibson wrote on Twitter.

• At the same time, in September Marvel’s Avengers showed an excellent digital start. It was the second largest in the publisher’s history, slightly behind only Final Fantasy VII Remake. Then gamers bought about 2.2 million copies of the game in digital. In the US, Marvel’s Avengers became the best-selling game of the month.
• However, by October, the hype around the title began to fall. The number of simultaneously active players on Steam has become below a thousand. Similar problems have arisen with the console version of Marvel’s Avengers.
• A month after the game’s release, the developers had to postpone a number of DLC and Marvel’s Avengers update for next-generation consoles.
• Nevertheless, the Crystal Dynamics studio, which created an action about superheroes, still believes that the size of the title’s audience will only grow. The company plans to add new missions to the story, characters like Clint Barton and more.
• Also note that despite the quarterly loss of the gaming division, Square Enix’s total revenue has grown over the past six months (April-September). During this time, the publisher earned 172 billion rubles ($1.67 billion) — 43% more than in the same period of 2019.
• The publisher’s semi-annual profit has also increased. Its growth was 46% (¥16 billion or $155 million). Square Enix explains this with the success of Final Fantasy VII Remake and some other projects released for PC browsers and mobile.

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• She specializes in entertainment AISquare Enix will reduce the number of its divisions
• Is there any news?