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Marvel's Avengers: Gear, Currency and Monetization Explained


From our very first presentation of Marvel’s Avengers at E3 2019, we’ve made clear that reassembling the Avengers is just the start of our story; we also committed that future playable updates – such as new characters, story content, missions, and regions – will be available at no additional cost to players.

To put this content into context, Hawkeye will have his own unique in-depth story mission chain which can be played either co-op or solo. He’ll also bring a new villain with him, and like the core six heroes, he (and all future characters) will have custom move sets and combos, Skills, Gear, Heroics, and an assortment of free unlockable Outfits, Emotes, and Nameplates. By releasing all this new content for free, we prevent content gating and guarantee that you and your friends can experience these exciting additions together – taking on emerging threats as a team of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

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. The fight against AIM is only just beginning, there is much more story and many more heroes on the horizon.

Our in-game economy is built on a player-first approach where you can earn outfits, emotes, nameplates, and amazing gear through play, as well as tailor your style with store cosmetics purchased using Credits obtained by exchanging real-world currency. In the spirit of transparency with our community, here is a breakdown of how it all works!

Hero Challenge Cards allow players to earn Resources, Units, Credits, and Cosmetics for completing in-game challenges – essentially, do cool things to earn cool rewards.

Each Hero Challenge Card has 40 tiers of free and premium rewards. Rewards are earned via Challenge Points by completing daily and weekly challenges. Hero Challenge Card rewards include:
  • Rare Resource Bundle: Nanotubes, Nanites, Plasma, Catalyst
  • Resource Bundle: Fragments & Upgrade Modules
  • Upgrade Module Bundles: Upgrade Modules
  • Exotic Resource Bundle: Polychoron & Uru
  • Units
  • Credits
  • Hero Nameplates
  • Team Nameplates
  • Emotes
  • Takedowns
  • Outfits
We’ve activated the premium Hero Challenge Card rewards for all 6 starting heroes at launch, so you can earn and enjoy all content across the 40 tiers for free. When we introduce new Hero Challenge Cards for post-launch heroes, the cost to activate the premium rewards will be 1,000 Credits.

We want to reward players for their time, so once you activate the premium rewards of a Hero Challenge Card for 1,000 Credits, you can earn everything on that card, including more Credits! If you complete all challenges on your Hero Challenge Card, not only will you earn back your 1,000 Credit activation cost, all the content you’ll earn has a value of over 12,500 Credits. Remember, these rewards deliver fun in-game cosmetic enhancements and effects, but they do not provide a gameplay advantage.

Hero Challenge Cards do not rotate and won’t be retired, so once you’ve activated premium rewards, there is no time limit or risk in spreading your focus between heroes. That being said, If you‘re in a hurry, you can buy “skips” to get through tiers faster.

Heavily encourages playing a full roster to earn back credits spent and since the initial 6 have have the premium challenges unlocked that puts you 6000 credits ahead if you do the grind for them. That's assuming you can earn exactly 1000 for each card, the wording is vague on whether the 12,500 includes extra credits. It was fairly easy to grind the challenges in the Beta but they did say they're still adjusting the level of grind.
 
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MiguelItUp

Member
Yup, gross like a lot of us suspected. I hope no one tries to defend this, it's ridiculous. Between this and everyone saying "It's in beta" as if the game wasn't releasing in a couple of weeks at the time, there's not a whole lot of change that's gonna happen. If you enjoy the game, that's fine, I'm happy for you. But the game is by no means some messiah that people are missing because they're not "playing it right" or "playing it so much until they get the game loop down."

If they rework the MTX pricing or whatever, good for them. But that doesn't mean they're not gonna try to get away with as much as they can before hand.
 
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Trogdor1123

Member
“Free to Play does not change game design, games are designed to be fun just as before” :rolleyes:. You get a game for free that you used to pay $59 for... and people expect it to be designed just as it would have been before? Sigh... (not directed to you :)).
It's free to play?
 

DavJay

Member
If they was smart, Spider-Man should have been a $5 dlc on PlayStation.

.... And $19.99 everywhere else 😂
 

Blond

Banned
No, it is the next worst thing... you pay to access a Live Service designed as if it were F2P: some of these games end up moving to F2P as a last resort or after a fixed amount of time with ease because... they were designed around it.

Yeeeeep. I liked what I played but the more I keep reading the more I understand that vertical slice was just to wrap people in.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
This isn't a free to play game.

I know, it is the next level of bullshit... welcome to the modern Live Services where you are exploited like in a F2P game but have to pay a fee for that privilege. The idea is the F2P model, but why not charge people money on top of that?

While people are subjected to the predatory MTX bullshit and they enjoy the extra fee on top, the publishers are also ready one day to both cement MTX and look like the good guys by removing the fee and making the game F2P in the name of lowering barriers.
 
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Hostile_18

Banned
Aw man semi related but just read Chadwick Boseman has died 😭. Wakanda forever! RIP.

7mvKsZv.jpg
 

nowhat

Member
What? My condolences to his friends and family. He was just a little older than me. RIP Chadwick.
Apparently, he had been fighting colon cancer for the past four years. While keeping it under the wraps publicly, including doing the Marvel movies. RIP from me as well.
 

GreyHand23

Member
If you save the potentially 6000 credits you get from the first 6 hero cards, you'll never have to pay for any hero cards that come out afterward because you get 1000 credits back for completing hero cards as well. Would it have been great if we lived in a fantasy land where new content would be released for free endlessly without monetization? Sure. Videogames are a business though and honestly for anyone who actually reads how the whole system works, this is a much more fair system than most other battle pass systems. You literally will never have to pay any additional money if you don't blow your initial credits in the marketplace. I personally would rather have something like this that doesn't separate the community in terms of content than the Destiny 2 route where you have to buy season passes on top of expansions.
 
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Esca

Member
If you save the potentially 6000 credits you get from the first 6 hero cards, you'll never have to pay for any hero cards that come out afterward because you get 1000 credits back for completing hero cards as well. Would it have been great if we lived in a fantasy land where new content would be released for free endlessly without monetization? Sure. Videogames are a business though and honestly for anyone who actually reads how the whole system works, this is a much more fair system than most other battle pass systems. You literally will never have to pay any additional money if you don't blow your initial credits in the marketplace. I personally would rather have something like this that doesn't separate the community in terms of content than the Destiny 2 route where you have to buy season passes on top of expansions.

Exactly. This system is better than others in that the characters and other content are free which IMO is the big plus
 
Wow, I had no idea that the new characters would be free. I was almost certain that characters would be THE microtransaction for this game, but I guess a paid currency makes more sense.
 

BlackTron

Member
Glad I kept my expectations low on this one.

Sucks because I REALLY want an Avengers game! Too bad Endgame didn't come out during the gen of SNES.
 

Shrap

Member
Jesus christ. Don't support this game and its university essay of bullshit.

The game itself is mediocre as hell and the whole thing is built from the ground up with the mobile game philosophy; average gameplay that provides enough stimulation to hook people into its endless gameplay loop in order to keep pumping money into it.

How about those chewing gum and mobile network deals? Fuck this trash.
 

Ulysses 31

Member
Jim is no innnocent. He thrives on this type of content to line his own pockets. At the end of the day gaming is a business and there’s no reason to continue development on this game past release if it doesn’t continue to make money.
Even if his reasons for complaining might not be as pure, he's still makes good points against certain monetization practices.
 
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Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
I'm day one digitally on Series X. Knowing I can play all the characters story lines and can completely ignore all the cosmetic shit that I have zero interest in is great for me. Wish it was November already. :(
 

GreyHand23

Member
Even if his reasons for complaining might not be as pure, he's still makes good points against certain monetization practices.

He clearly just hates corporations in general. You aren’t going to get any AAA games without them so he’s just catering to his fan base. The game is designed in a way that you don’t have to spend any money. You expect a corporation to not put things in there that would play to a person’s want for things in order to entice them to spend additional money? This is simply ridiculous and if I were a shareholder I would want to know why they aren’t trying to maximize profit. I don’t love monetization, but I have yet to see someone present a way to make an ongoing GAAS type game without them. The alternative is season passes and expansions which separate the community and cost much more for disciplined consumers. Another alternative is a monthly subscription. Consumers don’t really like this option either.

On the positive side this game will be $60 at release with free upgrade to next gen versions and a more fair MTX system than COD. COD will be $70 on next gen and has much more aggressive MTX and yet I’m not seeing the same level of concern. Just wondering why that is?
 
Like other games that have things like microtransactions & DLC, I'm not bothered or interested in it. There is nothing that can make me put more money than what I already paid. Companies can add all the extras they want, I'll just ignore them.

You can earn rewards in Avengers by playing. I'll just focus on earning rewards myself.
 

GhostOfTsu

Banned
He clearly just hates corporations in general. You aren’t going to get any AAA games without them so he’s just catering to his fan base. The game is designed in a way that you don’t have to spend any money. You expect a corporation to not put things in there that would play to a person’s want for things in order to entice them to spend additional money? This is simply ridiculous and if I were a shareholder I would want to know why they aren’t trying to maximize profit. I don’t love monetization, but I have yet to see someone present a way to make an ongoing GAAS type game without them. The alternative is season passes and expansions which separate the community and cost much more for disciplined consumers. Another alternative is a monthly subscription. Consumers don’t really like this option either.

On the positive side this game will be $60 at release with free upgrade to next gen versions and a more fair MTX system than COD. COD will be $70 on next gen and has much more aggressive MTX and yet I’m not seeing the same level of concern. Just wondering why that is?

This game is cursed since the beginning. I really don't understand this hate. For years people were complaining against lootbox and expansions now we have a new system that is totally fair and you get a massive game on top of it full of free DLC and people complain EVEN MORE than before?

The game is already huge on Day 1 and you can get all the extra DLC for free just by playing the game. People were clamoring for a system like this and now suddenly it's the devil.

Everything needs to be free always and forever or it's a big outrage.
 

Ulysses 31

Member
He clearly just hates corporations in general. You aren’t going to get any AAA games without them so he’s just catering to his fan base. The game is designed in a way that you don’t have to spend any money. You expect a corporation to not put things in there that would play to a person’s want for things in order to entice them to spend additional money? This is simply ridiculous and if I were a shareholder I would want to know why they aren’t trying to maximize profit. I don’t love monetization, but I have yet to see someone present a way to make an ongoing GAAS type game without them. The alternative is season passes and expansions which separate the community and cost much more for disciplined consumers. Another alternative is a monthly subscription. Consumers don’t really like this option either.

On the positive side this game will be $60 at release with free upgrade to next gen versions and a more fair MTX system than COD. COD will be $70 on next gen and has much more aggressive MTX and yet I’m not seeing the same level of concern. Just wondering why that is?
He does seem to associate greed and scummy practices with AAA development. It would be a very bad outlook if you had to spend money to continue the game so I don't really see this as praise worthy that you can play a 60$ game without spending further money. I guess with avengers, all this cosmetics pushing also goes against the spirit of a lot of the characters, making it a bit of a mockery of the source material. I also think Jim's issue is the sheer amount of things to spend money on that makes this game look like a greedier cash grab than he normally sees with AAA GaaS games.
 
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GreyHand23

Member
He does seem to associate greed and scummy practices with AAA development. It would be a very bad outlook if you had to spend money to continue the game so I don't really see this as praise worthy that you can play without spending money. I guess with avengers, all this cosmetics pushing also goes against the spirit of a lot of the characters, making it a bit of a mockery of the source material. I also think Jim's issue is the sheer amount of things to spend money on already that makes this game look like a greedier cash grab than he normally sees with AAA GaaS games.

Let's compare it to Destiny then. You can buy season pass. There is expansion packs. They are getting rid of content that I paid full price for just a few years ago in a couple of months. All of these things are already expensive and then they also have cosmetic microtransactions.

Avengers just has cosmetic microtransactions. Additionally its designed in a way that you literally never have to even look at the marketplace if you just want to earn things on your own. Sure you won't get certain costumes, but in a game like Destiny or COD you don't get those without paying either. There are ones you can earn in the game as well.

This reminds me of signing the papers for my car loan.

If you seriously think this is that complicated, you might want to double check that car loan.
 
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Ulysses 31

Member
Let's compare it to Destiny then. You can buy season pass. There is expansion packs. They are getting rid of content that I paid full price for just a few years ago in a couple of months. All of these things are already expensive and then they also have cosmetic microtransactions.

Avengers just has cosmetic microtransactions. Additionally its designed in a way that you literally never have to even look at the marketplace if you just want to earn things on your own. Sure you won't get certain costumes, but in a game like Destiny or COD you don't get those without paying either. There are ones you can earn in the game as well.
I'm finding it hard to believe the game is designed in a way that you can fully ignore the market places when they're relied upon on to finance future content. You can see how much effort they've already put in all these market places so I doubt the game won't use any tricks to get you to spend money there.

I'm not saying no monetization ever, just with this website explaining how to use all these marketplaces seems to hint at that the monetization in this game has gone overboard.
 

GreyHand23

Member
I'm finding it hard to believe the game is designed in a way that you can fully ignore the market places when they're relied upon on to finance future content. You can see how much effort they've already put in all these market places so I doubt the game won't use any tricks to get you to spend money there.

I'm not saying no monetization ever, just with this website explaining how to use all these marketplaces seems to hint at that the monetization in this game has gone overboard.

Yeah the trick is that there will be cool costumes that you might want in there and because it rotates weekly you have a limited time to buy them. I wouldn't really consider that a trick. It does work psychologically though, but it's not going to make someone buy something if they're set on not buying anything. You don't need to buy any of the cosmetics in COD either, but based on Activision's earnings reports plenty of people do.
 
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Fuz

Banned
Jim is no innnocent. He thrives on this type of content to line his own pockets. At the end of the day gaming is a business and there’s no reason to continue development on this game past release if it doesn’t continue to make money.
God, what a load of bullshit. I don't even like him that much, but he's the last one constantly speaking for consumer's rights.

You want him to stop so we have NO ONE ELSE?
 

GreyHand23

Member
God, what a load of bullshit. I don't even like him that much, but he's the last one constantly speaking for consumer's rights.

You want him to stop so we have NO ONE ELSE?

Did I say that he should stop? I think he's doing what he should to make money himself and I don't think that's wrong. He clearly hates AAA game development. I like AAA games so I think he goes a little over board at times.
 

Elcid

Banned
Jim once again telling what most of us here are thinking!(most of the time :p )

Couldn't stand this video for more than a couple minutes. God what an obnoxious personality, why does anyone give this guy views?

Anyways, I really don't understand all the confusion, seems forced. There's character passes that have premium levels, as seen in COD that give you trivial shit as rewards. Then there's a shop where you can buy extra shit as seen in Destiny. I don't understand people's mentality of, oh I paid 60 dollars a year ago so I'm forever more entitled to every piece of the game that's developed thereafter otherwise I'm being ripped off. You pay 60 bucks for the base game, if you want the extra premium shit, you can farm it OR pay for it. Seems fair to me. I mean have you seen all the shit Fortnite, DOTA2, Rainbow 6, COD, Destiny, etc. milk people for? This isn't even a fraction of that shit. COD wants me to pay for gun skins and vehicle skins.
 

GhostOfTsu

Banned
You want him to stop so we have NO ONE ELSE?

Lol what nonsense. Everything he says was already told by us here and on ERA for pages. He copypaste all his arguments from message boards and he gets rich on it. He brings nothing new.

If we listened to him AAA wouldn't exist at all. He only likes small indie games, everything else is shit. Play you indies and STFU then.
 
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