Disney’s head of gaming Sean Shoptaw says Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal were “great partners”.
Marvel has some major success stories in gaming in recent years with Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, but at the same time, the company has also endured some failures. Take, for instance, Eidos Montreal’s Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which enjoyed solid critical reception but failed to sell to expectations, or Crystal Dynamics’ Marvel’s Avengers, which suffered an even worse fate, taking a beating on both fronts before being delisted earlier this year.
In spite of those pretty significant stumbles, however, Marvel’s parent company Disney wouldn’t have any issues with working with the two aforementioned studios again. Speaking in a recent interview with Axios, Disney’s head of gaming, Sean Shoptaw, said that Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal are both “great studios”, and that Disney would be happy to work with them again.
“We would go back and work with those studios again,” Shoptaw said when the aforementioned question was posed to him. “They’re great studios, great partners.”
“Games are really hard to make,” he added. “If you’ve got great IP. If you’ve got a great story. You know, it’s still a challenge.”
Last year, it was reported that Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel’s Avengers had collectively resulted in a $200 million loss for Square Enix, which had been the parent company of the two studios when those games were published.
Specifically where Marvel’s Avengers was concerned, Square Enix said following its launch that its live service structure had been a mismatch for Crystal Dynamics, a studio that has generally been known for its narrative-driven single player experiences. Meanwhile, in November last year, it was announced that Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy had crossed 8 million players.
Crystal Dynamics is currently developing the next Tomb Raider game, and co-developing Xbox and The Initiative’s Perfect Dark reboot. Eidos Montreal’s next projects haven’t been officially announced, but leaks have claimed the studio is working on a new Deus Ex game, and providing development support on Xbox and Playground Games’ Fable.
