Spider-Man's Avengers Roadmap Absence Explained

Spider-Man's Avengers Roadmap Absence Explained

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When Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix showed off the summer roadmap for Marvel's Avengers, one superhero who was rather conspicuously absent was Spider-Man. Now Crystal Dynamics has discussed openly why that is.

The answer isn't shocking, but it's still maybe not what some fans want to hear. As studio head of Crystal Dynamics Scot Amos told IGN, Spidey is on the way, but he's still in development.

"I can tell you that, formally, officially, people are working on him right now," Amos said. So it is still on our roadmap for the future." He added that they "still fully expect Spider-Man to come to PlayStation."

The team showed off the Avengers content roadmap for the months ahead during Thursday's "Square Enix Presents," a digital event that revealed new games and content for some of Square Enix's biggest series and new IP alike. The War for Wakanda expansion is coming this summer and represents the first major expansion for Crystal Dynamics' lukewarm superhero live-service and fans are hoping it's the shot in the arm the community needs to get excited about the game again.

But Spider-Man won't be coming before that expansion, which is due at an unknown date this summer. That puts Spider-Man's debut sometime likely starting in the late summer or fall at the earliest.

Marvel's Avengers launched last September to a "Fair" 68 average from over 150 critics, but only 40% wrote favorable reviews, making the game somewhat polarizing. Since then, two free character packs have added two different versions of Hawkeye, but it seems the development of Avengers, like so many other creative projects, has been hamstrung by the pandemic. 

Amos once said fans might be "surprised" to see how quickly new characters would come to the game post-launch, but half a year later and only two different Hawkeyes to show for it so far, it doesn't seem like this is the sort of surprise he was referring to.

About the Authors

Mark Delaney Avatar Image
Mark is an editor at GameSpot and a Boston transplant now biking across Portland, Oregon. He especially enjoys covering battle royale, horror, and sports games. He spends his free time with his family, marathoning HBO, and advocating for animal justice.