Marvel’s Avengers Sees Massive Drop in Number of Players on PC

One of the biggest gambles publishers and devs can make these days is on a game that needs to sustain a massive player base in order to make everything work right.

And it looks like Marvel’s Avengers might have a hard time maintaining momentum if recent reports on the drop in active players on the PC are anything to believe.

How bad is it? Apparently, some 98% of the PC players have ditched the game which only came out back in August.

Is this just the natural progression of things or is something else going on with this game?

Well, reviews weren’t that glowing to start. Many cited the repetitive nature of the gameplay as one of the factors that had turned them off by the end game. Although it is hard to imagine that being a bunch of superheroes could be boring, somehow the devs accomplished this feat. 

Where are people getting these numbers? None other than Steam it seems. While that might not be the most scientific analysis, some people are speculating that the numbers could be similar on consoles even though we don’t have numbers for that.

The reasons why we should take these figures with a grain of salt are numerous, least among them of which could be the vastly different audience on Steam versus consoles. Yet, doubts aside, that’s a pretty massive drop for any singular platform so it is hard to imagine that the game is somehow more compelling to users on others.

Aside from the questionable endgame gameplay, the game also seems to have turned fans off with an art style that doesn’t resemble the movies, a bizarrely dark story, and in-game bugs that continue this long after launch. In other words, it’s just your typical triple-A game mess that should have gotten cleaned up a long time ago back when people had patience.

Now they don’t. As to what effect this could have on any planned content coming for the game in the near future we don’t know because, again, this is all just a bunch of anecdotal conjecture at this point though veteran gamers know how this oft-told story ends.

Or it could just be that Marvel’s Avengers has a lot more competition out there in terms of games. The next-gen consoles have just arrived and it isn’t like we are starved for triple-A stuff. With Cyberpunk 2077 just around the corner, how much time did anyone think Marvel’s Avengers had anyway since it didn’t quite come roaring out of the gates at launch.

Have you picked up the Avengers game? What do you think of it? What are some of your issues with the game or what are some the things you enjoyed? How can they stem the tide of losses in their player base moving forward? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Microsoft Expects Xbox Series X/S Shortages to Extend to Next Year

The next generation of consoles is here but in only a few lucky hands.

And that could be the case for quite some time as Microsoft is now reporting that their latest consoles, the Series X and S, could be in short supply until at least April 2021.

Blame the weird nature of the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic or really high demand for the system, either way, it looks like things are going to be tough for Xbox diehards that weren’t lucky enough to get a console in the first wave.

Xbox’s experiences and platforms boss Liz Hamren acknowledged the gap between demand and supply, noting, “We know that not everyone was able to get an Xbox Series X|S immediately and are working tirelessly with our partners around the world to bring as many new consoles to as many of you as possible over time and encourage you to check in with your local retailers directly for more details on availability in your market.”

That doesn’t mean it will be totally impossible to get Microsoft’s newest machine. Retailers are being told to expect “sporadic” shipments of the system, Video Games Chronicle reports. Naturally, you’ve always got eBay as an option with scalpers already filling the search results with overpriced next-gen hardware. Of course, this isn’t an Xbox-exclusive phenomenon as much the same thing is happening with Sony’s newest platform.

Microsoft’s brass expects the “demand profile” for their newest systems to level out in the spring of next year.

Or, as Xbox chief financial officer Tim Stuart said at the Jefferies Interactive Entertainment conference, “I think we’ll continue to see supply shortages as we head into the post-holiday quarter, so Microsoft’s Q3, calendar Q1…And then when we get to Q4, all of our supply chain continuing to go full speed heading into kind of the pre-summer months. And that’s where I start to — I expect to see a little bit of the demand — the supply profile, meeting the demand profile. You’ll be outside of a holiday window. We’ll have supply cranking over the next, what, 4, 5, 6 months. And that’s when I expect to see really that demand profile start to be met, which will be really, really great.”

In other news, it seems like random issues are plaguing both the latest Xbox and Sony’s PS5. Outside of that, Microsoft clarified their stance with Bethesda releasing games on other platforms with a “first and best” experience being reserved for their systems – whatever that means. Reading between the lines, it doesn’t look like Microsoft is going to prevent Bethesda from releasing its games on other consoles which is a good thing for the industry overall. 

Did you pick up a new Xbox Series X or S? What do you think of the system so far? Does the prospect of a long wait make you impatient or are you cool with getting Microsoft’s latest at a later date? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Ghost of Tsushima’s Free Co-Op Update Part of Awesome New Trend in Gaming

Ghost of Tsushima might have fooled many of us into thinking it was From Software’s latest masterpiece when it launched back in July of this year.

But Sucker Punch Entertainment not only showed us all that imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery but that, sometimes, the student can become a master in his own right.

That’s probably what makes this news of a free co-op mode for Ghost of Tsushima that much more exciting: It isn’t like the devs needed to give us anything else in what some already considered a pretty perfect game.

Yet this is the modern era of gaming and “pretty perfect” isn’t enough, at least by the developer’s own standards.

Now gamers that weren’t taken in with Ghost of Tsushima’s amazing action and breathtaking visuals have another reason to give the game a look and that is its awesome new co-op mode.

Basically you get the best of Ghost of Tsushima but this time with a friend along for the ride. So how does it work?

Well, if you already own the game, it’s a free download. For those who purchase it moving forward, it will be part of that deal, too.

In terms of what the new Legends adds to the game aside from co-op, there are four gameplay archetypes that players can select and that each corresponds to a type of in-game class system. They level separately though they can share loot and accumulated “ki.” In total, there will be 9 co-op stories for you and a friend to play through in this initial offering though there are Internet rumblings that more is to come given the wild reception this initial installment has received. These aren’t just dead-eyed grind fests, either. The 9 stories have voiceovers and each has a unique concept that underpins it from a gameplay perspective. There is no cutting corners here and that’s pretty much what anyone would expect for an add-on to one of the best games of 2020.

The whole concept reminds this writer of the Final Fantasy XV post-release add-on Comrades, a multiplayer-focused derivation of the main game’s engine. Though that was shut down in June of this year, the DLC lives on with NPC characters taking the place of human counterparts. What made it noteworthy was how much it changed to the game and, indeed, in how many fundamental ways it added to its post-launch life. While the DLC hamster wheel can become a bit tedious in the long run, most of us won’t complain that much if it happens to be attached to a massive blockbuster like Ghost of Tsushima. In other words, we hope to see more of this in the near future.

Have you picked up Ghost of Tsushima yet? Will this new co-op mode incentivize you to give it another look? If you own it, what do you think of this new content? Should more developers update and augment their games after launch with free – or paid – content? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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Riot Could be Making an Among Us Game

It looks like Riot is gauging interest in an Among Us style game, but using their League of Legends characters and themes.

Among Us has taken over twitch and social media, being one of the most played and viewed games in recent weeks. The game had been out since 2018, but didn’t gain as much traction as it suddenly did these passed several weeks. All the biggest streamers have been jumping on this game of social deduction.

There are other entries into the genre such as Project Winter and Deceit, but none of them blew up quite as much. The friendly graphics and accessibility of the game probably aided in its popularity. Among Us is free to download and play on your mobile device, while the Steam version costs just $4.99. It is quite easy to learn, but difficult to master, which invites new players to try it out.

Riot is always chasing the latest trends now that they are trying to rapidly expand from their base that is League of Legends. It looks like they want to jump on the social deduction train now as you can see by the survey they have sent out.

What do you guys think of a new deception game with League of Legends themes?

Valorant: Riot Adds Changes to Ranked Mode in Act 3

  • Riot tightened up the rank spread for team matchmaking again. So you have to be within 3 tiers so a Gold 1 and Queue with up to a Plat 1.
  • You can select your preferred server, so even though its not guaranteed , you should still experience more consistent ping overall.
  • Personal performance no longer matters in immortal or higher ranks. Your elo gain or loss will only be determined by the end result of winning or losing.

You can read the full notes here

Genshin Impact Releases But You May Have Trouble Downloading it

You might remember the original announcement of Genshin Impact and how it received a lot of criticism and even hate since it took a lot of influence from Zelda Breath of the Wild. Many gamers were calling it a copy cat of BoTW. But ever since the official launch, the script has flipped and we’re hearing a lot of praise for the game. Many are saying while it does draw some elements from BoTW it is a completely different game with its own strengths. Think of an MMO with an open world like BoTW and heavy on the anime style art and animations.

Currently the download servers may be seeing high load as we see many people complain of painfully slow downloads or even issues downloading it at all. I am currently sitting at 1 MB/s which equates to about a 4+ hour download time. Some people are reporting speed boosts by pausing and starting the download again, but everyone’s mileage may vary.

I also had trouble accessing the website itself, if I went to the home page directly it would get stuck loading some assets and then lag out eventually. I was able to circumvent this by going to a miscellaneous page and then going to the home page from there. So if you are trying to download the client try accessing from this page first (its the news page), then heading to the homepage to create an account and download.

We’ll be back with more thoughts after this finishes!

3 more hours…