Square Enix is determined to get its money out of the failed Marvel’s Avengers game. So much so that the publisher forcefully added paid XP boosts into the game even after it promised these in-game purchases would stay out of the experience. It took 25 days for Square Enix to patch in these XP boosts and remove them after fans (those handful of people playing the game) complained.

The Marvel’s Avengers XP Boosts were called Hero Catalysts and Fragment Extractors. Players who had extra money to spend on worthless items could purchase them and they would speed up the rate at which they earned XP and in-game currencies. Square Enix also added these horrible XP boosts into the game at a convenient time since Marvel’s Avengers is now available to millions of players on Xbox Game Pass…. Smell a quick buck here?

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Square Enix also recently nerfed the rate at which players earn XP in the game. So the addition of these paid XP boosts and the slow grind did not sit well with players.

Players would have openly accepted these Marvel’s Avengers XP boosts if the game wasn’t a snore-fest and the grind to earn XP wasn’t tedious and slow. In addition, Crystal Dynamics pledged that the studio would never implement these in-game purchases. The in-game purchases were to remain cosmetic only as an attempt to keep the experience authentic and alive.

“We’ve also committed that content purchasable with real money in Marvel’s Avengers will be aesthetic-only additions which will ensure we can keep the game fresh for years to come.”

In a statement, Square Enix claims that the Marvel’s Avengers XP boosts were not seen as pay-to-win items. Apparantly, the XP boosts don’t “offer power directly” to the player so they thought it was okay to add them into the game.

The statement ends with a line that reads ” we hope that this can be the first step in rebuilding your confidence in us as a team”…. Yeah, maybe no.

We have decided that by the end of today we will remove Hero’s Catalysts and Fragment Extractors for purchase. pic.twitter.com/8am9nSstP2

— Marvel’s Avengers (@PlayAvengers) November 2, 2021

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