The Avengers Project Video Games: Everything You Need To Know

Is this the birth of a Marvel Gaming Universe?

by Ewan Paterson
the avengers project
Marvel

Square Enix sent the Twittersphere ablaze on the 26th of January, revealing that the publisher had partnered up with comic book big-whigs Marvel to develop a series of licensed video games based on the company's iconic universe.

Dubbed 'The Avengers Project', the move will see Squenix developers Crystal Dynamics (of Tomb Raider fame) and Eidos-Montreal (the team behind Deus Ex) collaborate together in order to create a series of games centred around Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

It looks as though Marvel are finally mounting a concerted effort to bring their properties to the gaming medium. But, before we allow the crushing realisation of a year-long information blackout to dog our speculative spirits (we’ll be getting nothing more until 2018, sadly), there's plenty to discern from the trailer and the subsequent press release that accompanied it.

Indeed, as the two studios gear up to deliver an altogether different kind of Marvel Universe for players to unravel, one that will take on a life of its own after The Avengers debut hopefully next year, it’s clear that this burgeoning universe has a lot at stake.

Could this be the start of a Marvel Gaming Universe? Because that would be neat-o, and befitting of the company’s ambition in their cinematic ventures.

Regardless, there was a lot to digest with this announcement, more-so than you may have thought. Let’s try and unpack it.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.