2018 will be an exciting year for Marvel games, with MARVEL Strike Forces slated for 2018 release, and many others to come. However, recent hints from Square Enix also tease that the long-awaited The Avengers Project might also be released next year.
The unnamed Marvel/Square Enix collaboration title, currently dubbed The Avengers Project, will be the first in line of many future collaborative games to come. The title was announced back in January of 2017, with the trailer teasing different Marvel universe heroes, with strong motifs relating to destruction surrounding The Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America. The trailer ends with the phrase, “reassemble”. Although it is not yet clear what the premise of The Avengers Project will entail, but it is clear that in this Marvel universe, something has gone horribly awry. The game will also feature “a completely original story that will introduce a brand new universe for gamers to play in for years to come.”
In the most current financial report for Square Enix, the company states that they have “many overseas titles slated for launch in FY2019/3 and beyond.” The fiscal year 2019, third quarter, is around October to December of 2018 in Japan, indicating that if The Avengers Project were to be released next year, it would happen around this time. When the president of Square Enix was asked about any western titles being released amongst the next years cast, Yosuke Matsuda replied, “I believe you will be able to tell how long our development lead times are based on the launch dates we will be announcing for our games going forward…the development efforts for the new titles we will be launching starting in FY2019/3 are proceeding in line with our plans.”
The heads of development for The Avengers Project, Crystal Dynamics, have most recently worked on 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider, and have since spent time on to the Marvel game. Square Enix also announced that the release dates of some of their upcoming titles will be revealed sometime between the end of 2017 and E3 2018. This three-year development time frame gives Crystal Dynamics the theoretical, perfect window to release The Avengers Project within the third quarter of the 2019 fiscal year.
Although these are all theories, these hypothetical scenarios point towards a strong, late 2018 release. Fans will have to wait for official announcements from Marvel early next year to see if the 2018 release for The Avengers Project is either confirmed or debunked altogether.