Over the last decade at Crystal Dynamics, we’ve worked hard to implement and build upon a foundation of accessibility in our games. What started as a small and scrappy band of advocates evolved into a formalized accessibility team and has only gained momentum since centralizing our efforts.

When developing Marvel’s Avengers, we also leaned heavily on industry experts for our accessibility pursuits. We brought in Accessibility Consultant Cherry Thompson for early feedback on our game, who also helped us with improving representation within our world (more on that here: Accessibility On Marvel’s Avengers – The Journey So Far).

We also worked with the AbleGamers Charity to receive our APXP certification late last year. A defining moment for the studio, our certification means that we now have employees certified in accessible player experiences - something we’re proud and excited about.

Accessibility is an ongoing pursuit, not a finite goal. Marvel’s Avengers is an incredibly ambitious game for Crystal Dynamics, and so we plan to continue addressing accessibility and rolling out improvements well beyond launch.

With that in mind, check out our current and future accessibility features below!



AVAILABLE AT LAUNCH
SUBTITLES & CC
Subtitles: Marvel’s Avengers features subtitles in 15 languages, including: Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (Traditional & Simplified), Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish (Iberian), and Spanish (LATAM).

Subtitles are turned off by default, but can be easily enabled via the Display menu.
Subtitle options include a presentation with white text, or one that color codes to each character (ex: Hulk = Green).

Closed Captions: We’ve not only added closed captions for sound effects, but narrative tracks for descriptive play as well! When subtitles are turned on, you will also see closed captions added to cinematics by default.



GAMEPLAY
Our gameplay customization options include:

• Vibration: On/Off
  
• Multi-Tap Interact Style: Default/Hold/Tap – This feature allows the adjustment of input requirements for interactions that require rapid button presses to complete, such as QTEs. Setting this option to HOLD changes the requirement to holding down the button. Setting this option to TAP will auto-complete the interaction with only a single button press.
  
• Difficulty Options
  
• Easy: This mode is mainly focused on the story by reducing combat barriers and it includes:
  
• Decreased enemy attack and defensive strength
  
• More enemy attacks are easily countered
  
• No enemy attacks are unable to be countered
  
• Normal: For those who like a balanced combat experience.
  
• Hard (+5 Power): For those unafraid to take on a greater challenge:
  
• Increased enemy attack and defensive strength
  
• More enemy attacks are difficult to counter
  
• More enemy attacks are unable to be countered
  
• Brutal (+10 Power): For those looking to prove their worth by facing a considerable challenge
  
• Significantly increased enemy attack and defensive strength
  
• More enemy attacks are difficult to counter
  
• More enemy attacks are unable to be countered

CAMERA
Our Camera customization options include:

Camera Sensitivity: Scaler (0-10) – Allows for the adjustment of camera movement outside of aiming.

Shake Sensitivity: Scaler (0-10) – We heard a ton of feedback on screen shake during Beta. and tested a slider option in open beta. If you want to keep the camera moving like a blockbuster movie – you can! Or, if you’re prone to eye strain or motion sickness, you can tone it down as desired.

Combat Camera Distance: Default/Wide/Close – If chaos of the battlefield makes it difficult for you to concentrate on the tasks at hand, adjusting the combat camera distance may help you focus!
Y Axis Flight Direction: For inversion of flight controls

X/Y Access Aim Sensitivity: Scaler (0-10) – Separate scalers that allow for adjusting aim sensitivity on both the X and Y access.

Target Lock: Manual/Off – This option adjusts the behavior of the camera during combat. When enabled it will keep the camera focused on the last target until the enemy is defeated, or until the camera is manually aimed at another combatant. We received some great feedback about this feature during the Beta, and have implemented some improvements for launch!

Targeting Assistance: Off/Light/Moderate/Heavy – This feature adjusts the amount of assistance applied when aiming at targets. We received feedback during the Beta that this could use some additional tuning, and we are looking into it!

Combat Camera Recovery: Off/Light/Moderate/Heavy – This option adjust the aggressiveness with which the camera returns to the default position/orientation after manual adjustment during combat. If you’re sensitive to sudden movements, this may help!

HUD / UI
Menu Cursor Sensitivity: Low/Default/High – This feature allows you to adjust the sensitivity of the cursor within menus.

IN-GAME
Tactical Awareness: Triggering Tactical Awareness highlights points of interest, guides you to your next objective, and highlights AI or co-op companions. Hit this option if you ever need a reminder of where to go next!

Auto-Equip Best Gear: Our game has a huge array of gear and a deep customization options. If you are a fan of min-maxing your heroes, great! If you are new to this style of game or find the gear system a bit overwhelming and just want to get back to smashing, then hit the “equip best gear” button. While you will forgo customizing buildouts based on your favorite Gear perks or upgrades, we guarantee you’ll still have a ton of fun playing.


WORK IN PROGRESS UPDATES
High Contrast Mode UI: While we hoped to have this ready for launch, we lost a bit of production time in our transition to working from home. Our High Contrast UI is nearly finished – a feature that makes it easier to navigate our menus for low vision users or those who prefer simpler interfaces. We’ve got a few fixes left to ensure the feature is ready to roll out!

Subtitle Sizing Options: We received lots of feedback during Beta about options for adjusting the sizing of subtitles, and we’re already working on implementation! More information as we have it.
Motion Blur: Motion blur reduction was a common request during Beta. We toned down Motion Blur during combat as a result of Beta feedback, but are still looking into additional options for this feature – be it a slider or an on/off option. More news to follow!

We’re also in the early stages of evaluating some customization options that could help reduce cognitive load based on feedback from Beta. While work has not begun on adjustments, we wanted to make clear that your feedback has been heard!

GET IN CONTACT!
Accessibility is incredibly important to our studio, and it is an ongoing pursuit to make our games, marketing, and communications continually more accessible. To do that, we need you! Please share your feedback with us on social media, or directly at CrystalAccessibility@crystald.com.

We can’t wait to hear from you! Thanks for helping make our games better.

If you missed yesterday's blog, check it out below:

Marvel’s Avengers: Everything You Need to Know about Day One
Tomorrow we’ll run through an overview of online play, detail gear & cosmentics Friday, share a look at our learnings from BETA on Saturday, and give some insight into the weekly gameplay ritual on Sunday!

By now you know what to expect from Marvel’s Avengers on day one:

• A Full-length campaign featuring an original Avengers narrative
  
• 6 Heroes, each with 50+ skills to upgrade + gear/outfits to unlock
  
• 80+ War Zones/Drop Zones to play with friends or your AI Avengers
  
• Regularly updated Priority HARM Challenges & Priority Missions
  
• Later game mission types like Hives and Villain Sectors
  
• 50+ enemy types to master
  
• And in the future, new playable Avengers like Hawkeye, as well as new story content and regions – all at no additional cost

In addition to all of the above, we wanted to arm you with other important info that ensures you’re ready to go on September 4. This week we’re dropping daily blog posts that outline Everything You Need to Know about Marvel’s Avengers. Today, we are starting with details on Square Enix Membership requirements, the Day One Patch, and more! Let’s go!

BEFORE LAUNCH
SIGNING UP FOR A SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS ACCOUNT
For those of you who played the Marvel’s Avengers Beta, you’ll already have a free Square Enix Members account tied to your game profile.

Your Square Enix Members account is the gateway to redeem promotional pre-launch codes, and for Marvel’s Avengers post-launch content, including new heroes, new missions, and new regions at no additional cost. While not required for Reassemble campaign single-player missions, the free account is required for entering the Avengers Initiative to play co-op with your friends in the full game.

We recommend that anyone planning on buying the game should register their account early, so you’re not caught in potential launch-day email delays. In fact, everyone who signs up for an account will receive an exclusive Thor nameplate!



Visit https://membership.square-enix.com/register to sign up for your Square Enix Members account.

While Marvel’s Avengers’ launch is officially September 4, 72-hour Early Access is granted for those who pre-order the Deluxe Edition.

For early-access eligible digital editions of Marvel’s Avengers, the game will unlock at on September 1 - 9:00 AM PDT


PRE-ORDER PERKS

You can pre-order Marvel’s Avengers any time prior to the September 4 launch and still get access to the pre-order perks.

PC: September 4 - 9:00 AM PDT

We know fans are most excited about unlocking the Marvel Legacy Outfits, inspired by moments from the comics that defined each Avenger on their journey to becoming the icons they are today.



AT LAUNCH
DAY-ONE PATCH

While we were able to adjust development to a work-from-home environment quickly, we did lose a bit of production time in the transition. As hard as we tried, there were several updates and refinements that we could not get into the game, but plan to address with the Day One Patch to ensure everyone has the same great experience at launch.

The Day One Patch includes several updates and refinements that are required for play. Additionally, the patch includes localization files for the game’s dialogue, which are quite extensive, as we are localizing Marvel’s Avengers in 15 different languages.

The Day One Patch is also important as it includes lots of fixes, feedback, updates, and tuning from our Beta weekends. Over the last three weekends, millions of you have played the game for tens of millions of hours and killed hundreds of millions of AIM enemies. Your participation has been of immense value to us as we work to squash bugs, tune performance, and finalize game balance. We hope you will see and feel it when you play the final game!

WHEN CAN I GET IT?
We also wanted to give you an update on when global servers will go live and you can start playing the game!

From the beginning, our overall vision for Marvel’s Avengers has always been one where players would assemble online to protect the Earth and battle the forces of AIM as a team. While the entire game can be played solo with companion AI, the game has been designed as a seamless online experience, where players would transition from the single-player campaign to joining with friends in co-op missions as part of the Avengers Initiative.

As a result, everyone will need to wait until the servers officially go live on September 1st to start playing. It is important for us that matchmaking servers are populated because co-op is a fully integrated part of the experience.

Still have questions about Square Enix Members, the Day One Patch, or Pre-order Perks? Let us know on social!

Tomorrow we’ll run through Everything you Need to Know about accessibility in Marvel’s Avengers, followed by an overview of online play on Thursday, a rundown of gear and cosmetics on Friday, a Beta postmortem on Saturday, and a look at the weekly gameplay ritual on Sunday!

It's not too late to participate in the BETA and play Earth's Mightiest Heroes! Download the BETA now for free and give it a go!

We built the Marvel’s Avengers BETA to give you a slice of the full game experience: single-player content from the original campaign, co-op War Zone missions, hero and world progress, and even more! Check out our Beta Deep Dive Video for the scoop.

Hero progression is one of Marvel’s Avengers main systems, and the BETA gives a taste of earning experience to level up your unique Hero. In the BETA, you’ll have access to the starting Skill page for Iron Man, Hulk, Kamala, and Black Widow. You can reach up to a Hero Level of 15 and a Power Level of 45 in the BETA.

You can also unlock two exclusive Nameplates for participating in the Marvel’s Avengers BETA, which will be carried over to launch.

It's time to take flight! The Marvel's Avengers Open BETA is now LIVE until August 23 on Steam! Invite your friends to build your Strike Team. Download for free now!

Tomorrow we will be releasing a patch for Marvel’s Avengers Beta, build 26.1. We have been paying close attention during the Beta last weekend and this patch aims to address a lot of player feedback and issues players ran into during that first closed Beta.

Fixes included:

• We have seen how some people struggled with severe stutters/lag and irregular performance and we have made several fixes that will solve or at least improve those.
  
• A variety of fixes for crashes seen during last weekend have been implemented, which includes certain older systems not being able to launch at all, but also some that occurred rarely during gameplay. We will keep monitoring for other crashes and will release updates as we have them.
  
• Multiple improvements and optimizations made to matchmaking.
  
• Changed default settings to wide combat camera distance, heavy targeting assistance (for gamepad) and matchmaking disabled.
  
• Added an option in Settings to adjust Camera Shake Sensitivity.
  
• Decreased amount of motion blur during sprint and flight.
  
• We have made fixes for issues surrounding microphone handling and muting other players.
  
• We have addressed some graphical issues, for example when using SSSR while having TAA turned off.
  
• We have solved issues with the Dynamic Screen Resolution feature, especially when it was combined with HBAO+. With those fixes we recommend turning on Dynamic Screen Resolution again (at your desired minimum frame-rate) to ensure you are able to stick to your desired frame-rate no matter how hectic the game gets.
  
• Improvements to vaulting.
  
• Decreased delay of loot drops.
  
• We have brought in some initial improvements to our support for ultra-wide and super-ultrawide screens, with us planning more for launch.
  
• Various other smaller fixes and improvements.

During the weekend we will keep monitoring for feedback and will release further patches as it seems required. We always welcome your feedback!

Pre-loading for the Marvel's Avengers Open BETA is now live on Steam! Pre-load the BETA so you're all set when it's live from August 21st to August 23rd.

TWO DAYS until the final Marvel's Avengers Open Beta for Steam opens up! We have updates and patch notes coming that will fix issues from last week's Beta. We'll be posting them before the Open Beta begins.

Sign up early for a Square Enix Member's account, which is required for the BETA: playavengers.games/6j3

A picture is worth a thousand Arc Reactors.

Show us the moments in time you captured in Photographer Mode while playing the BETA! Photographer Mode can be found in the main menu and contains options to amp up each picture you take.

Assemble your team of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, embrace your powers, and live your Super Hero dreams.

August 14 – 16

Planning to stream the Marvel's Avengers BETA? Download our streamer kit, which includes overlays you can use to Embrace Your Powers while streaming!

➡️ Direct Download Link: playavengers.games/2k2