Crystal Dynamics has issued a further statement on its upcoming Marvel’s Avengers XP changes that will soon increase the game’s later leveling. The developer also acknowledged that his initial explanation was “not comprehensive enough” and “caused confusion”.
The XP changes were originally outlined in a blog post on Marvel’s Avengers website last week, along with a warning that any player who wanted to avoid longer until March 18 (the day these changes took place) had the characters first to increase.
“While it’s tempting to read the increased grind as a cynical attempt to keep players longer in the Avengers’ live service game,” our reporter Matt Wales concluded last week, “Crystal Dynamics insists the goal is to pace problems with the existing leveling system, arguing that the speed at which the game currently awards skill points ‘can be confusing and overwhelming for newer players.’
Now, acknowledging that his own statement was confusing to fans, a new statement from Crystal Dynamics has been posted on the game’s official reddit.
“We wanted to provide more explanation and details about the recently announced XP change: we did not change XP to increase the grind,” wrote a report attributed to Crystal Dynamics. ‘Our initial blog was not comprehensive enough to convey what we did and why … so we caused confusion … we get it.
‘The problem we saw and heard was that you would immediately gain more skill points than you had time to review, apply and get used to before embarking on your next mission and achieving your next levels. Hopefully you can see the issue here.
‘We want people to make a higher level, we actually want to see more people raise more Heroes, because playing the full Avenger roster should be the most fun you can do, but we do not want the leveling experience be too overwhelming or diminish it to examine every skill purchase. ‘
After the XP changes are applied, players are designed to increase each “2-4 missions” to higher levels, as opposed to “once or twice per mission” currently. At the same time, lower levels will be obtained a little faster.
Overall, the changes are likely to contribute “about 3-5 hours to the maximum level” per character, Crystal Dynamics concluded.
The initial reaction of fans to the changes does not seem to change by this latest explanation, and the most common complaint is that the game’s main issue is not a leveling problem, but that there is no lack of content.
Overall, the game’s reddit is a mix of threads of fans who still hope Marvel’s Avengers can turn around by adding future characters, and comparisons to other struggling live service games like BioWare’s Anthem. There are concerns about the game’s lack of roadmap, complaints about performance issues and bugs, and questions like – when exactly is the controversial PlayStation-exclusive Spider-Man really coming?
Crystal Dynamics’ XP and cosmetics processing comes to Marvel’s Avengers on March 18, along with new playable hero Hawkeye and the long-awaited PS5 and Xbox Series X / S update.