When Square Enix finally revealed Marvel’s Avengers at E3 2019, some may have felt a bit underwhelmed. One of the main criticisms leveled at the demo was in regards to its character designs. Now, developer Crystal Dynamics has responded to this by stating that Marvel’s Avengers character designs will not be changed.
The main issue with the character designs seems to be that they don’t quite match the film versions of the characters. This is despite them clearly being based on their portrayals in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Others have nitpicked Captain America’s bulky costume, Iron Man’s helmet not quite matching the original designs, and Thor’s chest having giant, speaker-sized discs on it.
Given how other franchises have responded to criticism of character designs, some may expect Square Enix to consider a change. However, it seems that Marvel’s Avengers will not be following in the footsteps of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie.
Talking with IGN, Crystal Dynamics’ Lead Creative Director Shaun Escayg stated that the designs would not be changed: “We are always listening to, and welcome feedback from our community,” stated Escayg. However, he was adamant that “there are currently no plans to change our character designs.”
With that said, Escayg did point out that the game was still in an early stage of development, and that the team will be polishing the game and its characters before launch.”The trailer is showing pre-alpha gameplay footage, which means the level of detail and overall polish of the character models will absolutely continue to improve as we get closer to launch,” he states.
Marvel’s Avengers launching on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia on May 15, 2020. With this in mind, it’s likely that the developers didn’t want to add to their workload by having to redesign the characters. At worse, a redesign could possibly delay the game, the same way the Sonic movie was delayed thanks to its own character redesign.
