Marvel's Avengers Roadmap Shows How Bad Spider-Man's PlayStation Exclusivity Really Is

| September 8, 2021 |

| Comments count:0

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales — *Photo: Curiosity*

The Marvel's Avengers team has revealed the game'southward upcoming content roadmap, and the relatively sparse release schedule really goes to show just how dependent the game's immediate future is on its controversial PlayStation exclusive Spider-Human being DLC.

The big stars of Marvel'southward Avengers ' upcoming content release schedule (which y'all can find below) are the game's offset raid and the long-awaited addition of Spider-Man to the online action game's roster of playable Marvel heroes. Otherwise, it seems that the biggest things that Marvel's Avengers fans take to look forward to until 2022 are some recycled events, a power level cap increase, "earnable cosmetics," and something called the "Hawkeye Nameplate Challenge" that is already inspiring memes by virtue of how sorry it sounds.

While that new raid is certainly a welcome addition to the game (and has the potential to be a lot of fun), the biggest problem with it and pretty much every other slice of DLC on this roadmap is that nobody really knows when it will be released, how much content it will really offer, and how it will collaborate with the vague promises of changes and improvements this roadmap (and respective blog) hints at but fails to expand upon in meaningful means.

What about Spider-Man, though? Well, information technology's certainly overnice that one of Marvel's biggest stars is joining the game, but as we learned last year, Spider-Man will only be bachelor to PlayStation owners. Crystal Dynamics head Scot Amos previously said that the character's platform exclusivity is the result of "the human relationship Sony and PlayStation have with Marvel," which most people immediately took to mean "Sony prevented Spider-Man from appearing on other platforms."

Spider-Man'southward PlayStation exclusivity has e'er been a point of contention among those who aren't even beingness offered the opportunity to pay to play as him while PlayStation owners volition get the character for free. Not simply does that mean that Xbox and PC gamers can't play as one of the nearly love superheroes in the world, but it raises serious questions about whether or not players on ii out of the three platforms that support this game volition e'er get anything close to the full experience. It certainly doesn't help that Foursquare Enix and Crystal Dynamics haven't even hinted at any plans to make Spider-Man available to Xbox and PC gamers anytime in the near futurity.

This DLC roadmap really highlights simply how rough that exclusivity is for everyone who can't take reward of it. Even with the Spider-Man DLC, this upcoming roadmap looks a footling thin and is currently dependent on release dates and details that haven't been revealed withal. Without it…well, it's fair to say Curiosity'south Avengers fans are struggling to find enough to look forrad to.

fifty% of this is recycled events we've already played?
— All-Father Designs (@AllFatherWorks) September 8, 2021

I get the whole sony Spider-Man shit, merely if you are gonna brand people expect months for a hero merely some can play, you should atleast have something not PlayStation players to look forrard too, pc and Xbox actually ain't even go a new hero till atleast next year by the looks of it
— AzzaStorm (@StormAzza) September 8, 2021

That concluding tweet is certainly the biggest talking bespeak at the moment. Despite recent successes (such every bit the generally well-received Black Panther DLC), Curiosity's Avengers is still trying to climb out of the smoking crater caused past its disappointing launch. While anybody knew information technology was going to take time to get there (and that the Covid-xix pandemic almost certainly impacted the team's platonic 2021 release schedule), those who have stuck with this game until this point are now facing the full bear upon of the decision to gate 1 of the game'due south just significant upcoming pieces of content behind a platform.

That determination was e'er going to be disappointing to those who couldn't download Spider-Man (at least right away), only when that exclusive release is now being treated equally one of the game'southward only major content selling points until sometime next year…well there's a reason nosotros've compared Avengers to Anthem in the by.

Of course, information technology'southward very much worth reiterating that there'southward no guarantee that fifty-fifty PlayStation owners are safely able to wait forward to playing the Spider-Human DLC in 2021 as none of this upcoming content has a release engagement across vague seasonal windows. At the very to the lowest degree, we already know that Marvel'due south Avengers volition not be featured during the upcoming PlayStation showcase.

Marvel's Avengers will not be a part of PlayStation'south Showcase on ix/9, but nosotros tin can't await to show you lot more in the coming months.
— Marvel's Avengers (@PlayAvengers) September 8, 2021

There was a fourth dimension when the idea of Spider-Man as PlayStation sectional DLC was an badgerer in what many people hoped would be an otherwise promising time to come for a Marvel game with a lot of potential. Now, though, the Spider-Homo situation is a painful reminder that Curiosity's Avengers road to recovery is a long one that only gets longer with every consumer-unfriendly decision made along the way.