Game Informer gave Marvel's Avengers an 8/10. Square Enix sold the studio.

Let's establish who owns Game Informer. GameStop. The retail chain whose entire quarter that fall hinged on preorder volume — including, prominently, preorders for Marvel's Avengers Earth's Mightiest Edition at $159.99 with PowerUp Rewards exclusives stacked on top. So when Game Informer's embargo dropped on September 1, 2020 with an 8/10, the question writes itself: was this a review or a receipt from the company that needed those preorders to ship out of stores on launch day?

The review opens by praising the cinematic campaign. It nods to the loot grind in passing. It mentions the live service treadmill the way a real estate agent mentions the leaky roof — once, quietly, in the part nobody scrolls to. What the review never asks is the question every actual player asked within four weeks: where are the heroes, where are the missions, why is the $60 game already lined with battle passes, and why does the AIM facility raid feel like it was built in a different game by people who left the building before lunch?

The scorecard the review couldn't see: Crystal Dynamics announced layoffs. Square Enix offloaded the entire studio to Embracer in 2022 for a fraction of the acquisition price, and explicitly cited the Avengers underperformance in its investor materials. The game was delisted from every storefront on September 30, 2023. Online services were guillotined. Every dollar a player ever spent on a Spider-Man skin now lives on a server that does not exist. The 8/10 still sits on the Metacritic page like a name tag at a funeral.

Here's the receipt. The publication is owned by the retailer. The retailer needed the preorders. The preorders needed a score above 75 to clear the Metacritic threshold corporate buyers use to greenlight shelf space. The review came in at exactly 80. The game came in at exactly dead. Sponsored by inventory turnover.