#GamingBytes: Is 'Avengers' E3 trailer suggesting a Marvel Gaming Universe?
Square Enix unveiled the trailer of their upcoming Avengers game, A-Day at E3 2019. The game looks promising and has the Avengers facing catastrophic events in a world that frowns upon heroes. Fans, however, noticed certain details in the trailer that suggest a shared universe with the last Spider-Man game. Is this a nod to a new Marvel Gaming Universe? Read on to know.
The (critically acclaimed) Spider-Man has quite a few references to various Marvel superheroes. Its Easter Eggs include Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, Matt Murdock's and Foggy Nelson's law firm, the Wakandan embassy, and the Avengers Tower. The most significant Easter Egg, however, comes when Spider-Man visits the Avengers Tower in Manhattan and says, "Too bad they're never around. They're on the West Coast or something."
The villain Taskmaster features in Spider-Man and gives the superhero a series of missions/challenges to test his abilities. In the A-Day trailer, one can catch a glimpse of Taskmaster. It's uncertain how prominent of a role he will play in the game, but it's still something! Also, in the A-Day trailer, the Avengers can be seen in San Francisco (west coast).
A-Day releases on May 15, 2020, and a sequel to Spider-Man has also been suggested. If the games are a part of the same universe and since superheroes have been outlawed in A-Day, we may see Spider-Man facing some terrible odds in his own sequel. Marvel already has a brilliant cinematic universe in place and having a gaming universe certainly wouldn't hurt.
The only reason is that the two games are from different studios. While A-Day is from Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal, Spider-Man is a product of Insomniac. If the references and Easter Eggs in the two games are deliberate, then Disney (Marvel's parent company) can use its influence and bring the games together, with a possibility of more such games.
The game will be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Google Stadia. According to creative director and writer Shaun Escayg, "[A-Day] is an epic action-adventure. It is narrative driven. There is a single player campaign that sets up the world, set up the state of the Avengers. So, it's very story driven." It will have co-op, multiplayer, and single-player story modes.
