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Marvel’s Avengers Criticism Was No Surprise, Says Crystal Dynamics

Living up to the expectations of a passionate, if not at times demanding, fanbase can be a little nightmarish. The folks at Crystal Dynamics are certainly well aware of that, with regards to the upcoming Marvel’s Avengers.

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Speaking to PlayStation Magazine, Marvel’s Avengers writer Shaun Escayg likened the initial dismay at the character models for the game were similar to how the getups of the actors were in Joss Whedon’s Avengers movie back in 2012.

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“This is 80 years of Marvel history to play with, and you know, a lot of people forget, but when the movies first came out, there was an uproar from fans,” said Escayg. “Like ‘this is not how Iron Man speaks!’ And now we face the same thing with the game. We kind of anticipated that.” (via RespawnFirst)

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What the former Uncharted and The Last of Us writer said makes perfect sense. In a franchise whose IP has been in existence for such a long time, the community surrounding it will no doubt have formed its own idea of what said IP should be.

And if a studio comes along and presents their rendition of the IP, there will no doubt be inertia in accepting these versions of beloved characters, as Escayg described. But the question then is how the studio rises up to the challenge of making its interpretations of these characters and IPs to make something memorable.

We’d already witnessed Crystal Dynamics bend over for fans’ demands to remodel the initial designs for Marvel’s Avengers to resemble the ones from the movies, albeit only slightly as they wanted to still establish themselves as separate from the MCU. But now the onus is on them to make something great and unique out of the IP Marvel has entrusted to them.

With Marvel’s Avengers now delayed until September 4, 2020, Crystal Dynamics still has time to live up to that challenge and exceed fans’ expectations.