PC Gamer gave Marvel's Avengers a 65. Square Enix wrote off $200 million and sold the studio.
The Original Review
“A campaign that punches well above its weight, even if the live service grind that follows is repetitive.”
Let's run the numbers, because that's the only language anyone in this industry actually speaks. Square Enix sank an estimated $150 million into Marvel's Avengers. They locked in a multi-year Marvel licensing deal that was supposed to be the western tentpole of their entire portfolio strategy. Twenty-three months after launch, Square Enix announced a $200 million write-down on western development assets, then offloaded Crystal Dynamics and Eidos-Montréal to Embracer Group for $300 million — less than what they paid for Eidos alone in 2009. The studio that made Tomb Raider was sold for parts.
PC Gamer's score: 65/100. That's not a review score. That's the exact mathematical coordinate of 'we cannot afford to lose preview access for next year's Square Enix London event, but we also cannot pretend this works.' It's the precise midpoint where you can headline 'mixed reception,' keep your embargo invites, and still claim editorial integrity at the next industry mixer. The 65/100 is not a number. It is a diplomatic cable.
Read the review structure. Three paragraphs of campaign praise. Then, buried in paragraph six, the word 'repetitive' applied to the live service grind. Repetitive. That's the word you use for a treadmill. The actual situation was a content drought, characters promised at launch that arrived a year late, a roadmap that got quietly deleted from the official site, and a cosmetic store that pushed updates more reliably than the patch notes. None of that lives in the bullet-point summary at the top. The reader skimming for a verdict gets 'campaign is cool, grind is meh.' The reader who actually plays the game gets a layoff notice from Crystal Dynamics two years later.
Here's the timeline that matters. Embargo lifts September 1, 2020. Square Enix's PR cycle includes Crystal Dynamics studio tour content, exclusive character reveal interviews, and pre-release code access tied to coverage milestones. PC Gamer participated in all three. The 65/100 lands launch morning with 'cautiously optimistic' framing. Then — and this is the part — six months later the same outlet is publishing 'Marvel's Avengers is dying' explainers as if this were an unforeseeable tragedy. You wrote the review. You held the code. You knew. A 65 is not 'we didn't realize.' A 65 is 'we realized and decided to round up.'
The math ain't mathing. A game that destroyed a legacy studio, vaporized $200 million in shareholder value, and ended Square Enix's entire western publishing strategy gets the same numerical grade as a slightly disappointing indie roguelike. Sponsored by the truth.
