Square Enix have announced they will launch a hotfix for Marvel’s Avengers; after a bug from a recent patch can expose a player’s IP address.
The launch of Patch 1.8.0 was supposed to bring joy to players; introducing the Beating the Odds Villain Sector, the Cosmic Threat Event, and Mega Hives being playable with less Heroic Gauntlets. However, Square Enix soon warned player they were “aware of the issue where a floating string of text appears on the screen and are investigating.”
This string of text was important enough to warrant Square Enix warning users not to stream the game until solved; as that text was the users IP address. All devices that connect to the internet have an IP address, which in turn can be used to perform a DoS attack (Denial of Service), or find a user’s location.
Forbes reports the IP address appears as soon as on the main menu, along with Gamertag, date and time, and other numbers. Writer Paul Tassi called it “one of the worst bugs I’ve ever seen or heard of,” and recommended pulling the patch and servers until resolved.
Square Enix later tweeted from the game’s official Twitter account; explaining the issue in more depth (after reports from Forbes and others), and that a hotfix would be launched tomorrow.
“We are currently testing a solution to the issue of personal information, including the player’s IP address and username, being displayed on screen on PS5 and plan to deploy a hotfix tomorrow at around 8AM PT.”
This is the latest bad news in a disastrous game for Square Enix. They made a reported $61.23 million USD loss in FY 2021 Q2 from HD games; with the only notable game in that period being Marvel’s Avengers (launched September 4th, 2020).
At the time David Gibson, co-founder of Astris Advisory Japan KK, tweeted that Square made a ¥6.5 billion JPY loss on HD games that quarter; “driven” by Marvel’s Avengers. He also proposed the game sold 60% of estimated sales goals, and had development costs of $170 million USD to $190 million USD.
Square Enix president Yosuke Matsude later stated Marvel’s Avengers did not recoup its development costs in the two months since launch, during the Financial Results briefing for FY 2021 Q2. The game also received middling scores from critics, and harsh scorn from players [1, 2, 3].
Our own review stated “at its highest highs, Avengers is generic.” This was furthered hindered my microtransactions, rarely having enough in-game money to buy want you want (tempting you to buy more), and an out of place loot and leveling system.
The game even made our list for our worst video games of 2020; and recent changes to the game’s XP progression and cosmetic acquisition made us consider if the game was going free-to-play.
Marvel’s Avengers is available for Windows PC (via Steam), PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia; and 2021 for PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X.
