When Square Enix teased that they had an exciting announcement coming this week, many folks assumed it would be related to their current heavy hitter, Final Fantasy XV. Color us surprised, then, to learn that the developer has now partnered with Marvel for a multi-game deal, and it all begins with an Avengers project.
In what might be the first and only piece of big, un-leaked news of 2017, Square Enix this morning took to Twitter to announce that they are now working hand-in-hand with Marvel. While they've only provided a teaser for their first project based on the Avengers property, it certainly looks sharp and sounds epic.
Obviously, we don't have a heck of a lot to go on here, but it certainly sounds like the world's mightiest of heroes have seen better days. In the tweeted trailer, Square Enix shows off a busted containment unit that used to house Hulk, Thor's fallen hammer, Stark's busted gauntlet and a Captain America shield that has been cast aside. A female voice (too early to guess at who it belongs to) explains that the world's heroes have fallen apart but, like all things that have been broken, they can always "reassemble."
That phrase has become the tagline for the game, making us wonder if the final project will be named something like The Avengers: Reassemble. But that is, of course, just speculation.
We also know because of the trailer that this game is coming from Crystal Dynamics, the folks responsible for the latest pair of Tomb Raider games. That fact alone has us feeling pretty excited for whatever is coming down the line. And speaking of Tomb Raider, we don't actually know what the studio has been up to since Lara's last outing, so we wouldn't be surprised if this Avengers game is already pretty deep into development. Taking a look at our 47-year calendar of planned Marvel movies, it looks like Avengers: Infinity War is set to launch on May 4, 2018, with the second part likely to hit theaters a year later. We wouldn't be surprised if this game is planned to come out as a companion to the film. That means we probably won't see this until mid-2018 or 2019 at the earliest, or maybe even somewhere between. We saw a vision of a possible future in Avengers: Age of Ultron that showed the team defeated and the Avengers clearly became "disassembled" at the end of Captain America: Civil War. It would seem that this game may be directly based on the upcoming film or at least take significant influence from it.
When Square Enix said they had a surprise, we expected it had to be Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts related. Instead, we're getting an Avengers game as part of a multi-project deal. Yes, Square Enix, that is indeed a surprise.
