It's been a long time coming, but Spider-Man is finally set to make his Marvel's Avengers debut - exclusively on PlayStation consoles, of course - at the end of this month, and developer Crystal Dynamics has offered a first proper look at the beleaguered live service game's take on the character in a new cinematic trailer.

Spider-Man, who arrives somewhat later than his initially announced "early" 2021 release date, will make his Marvel's Avenger's debut alongside a new hero event, titled With Great Power, which sees Spidey joining forces with Black Widow and Ms. Marvel to stop a new AIM plan.

"As a Hero accustomed to working solo," we were told previously, "he struggles with the new dynamics of working with a team. Will he join up full time with the Avengers, or stay independent in his fight against AIM?". There are hints of these particular personal conundrums for Spider-Man in his newly revealed cinematic trailer below.

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Almost exactly 15 months after it was revealed Spider-Man would be heading to Marvel's Avengers as a PlayStation-exclusive playable character, developer Crystal Dynamics has announced a release date for the much-delayed hero; he'll be swinging into action on 30th November as part of a relatively beefy update for the beleaguered live service game.

Spider-Man was originally due to arrive "early" 2021, but players began to wonder if something was seriously amiss when the character, having failed to materialise in that initial launch window, was conspicuously absent from a development roadmap stretching all the way into "summer and beyond". Crystal Dynamics eventually moved to reassure fans that Spidey was still coming but his exact arrival date remained unclear - until now.

Spider-Man will join the game as a playable hero on 30th November - for those on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, at least - and his arrival will be bolstered by character-specific story elements as part of the With Great Power hero event.

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Square Enix is facing a backlash for selling Marvel's Avengers XP boosters.

A recent update to the game's store means XP boosters are now for sale via "consumables". These boosts let players speed up character growth in exchange for real-world money.

Fans have hit out at the move, pointing to pre-launch promises to sell cosmetics only.

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Marvel's Avengers developer Crystal Dynamics has published a new content roadmap for the embattled superhero live service game.

The long-awaited PlayStation-exclusive arrival of Spider-Man as a playable character is now listed for "fall/winter", while players on all platforms will get to confront Wakanda villain Klaw in Avengers' first ever raid.

A new enemy type and an expanded power level cap are also on the way, as well as some returning events plus tweaks to resources and gear upgrade systems.

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To usher in Black Panther's arrival on 16th August, Marvel's Avengers is having a free trial weekend on Steam, PlayStation, and Stadia. It kicked off on 29th July and ends later today, 1st August, sending interest in the action game on PC soaring.

Looking at SteamDB (thanks, TheGamer), the game usually averages around only a few hundred concurrent users at a time, but the freeplay event has set a 24-hour peak of 10,161 players - with 10,121 online right now at the time of writing.

It doesn't quite hit the heights of its launch period - Marvel's Avengers peaked at almost 32,000 Steam players when it released last September - but it's a considerable spike for a game that had hitherto struggled to get even 1000 simultaneous PC players online.

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Square Enix and developer Crystal Dynamics' troubled superhero action romp Marvel's Avengers expands next month with the long-awaited arrival of new playable hero Black Panther, coming to PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Stadia on 16th August.

Black Panther is the third new playable hero to be added to the game since its launch last year, and follows the arrival of two distinct Hawkeye incarnations in the form of Kate Bishop and Clint Barton. Just like his predecessors, Black Panther is a free addition to Marvel's Avengers and will be accompanied by his own story campaign.

War for Wakanda, as the campaign is known, focusses on current Black Panther and ruler of Wakanda, King T'Challa. "Blindsided by a betrayal and the resulting tragedy," teases Square Enix, "T'Challa finds it difficult to entrust his duty to anyone else, even his sister Shuri... When arch-villain Klaw's forces threaten Wakanda's safety, T'Challa must take the fight right to them to defend everything and everyone he holds dear."

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Crystal Dynamics has shared some of the environmental art that helped conceptualise the environments for its next big expansion, Black Panther - War for Wakanda.

The artwork shows off four "explorable locations of Wakanda" that are coming to the free content that drops next month.

"The Play Avengers team showed us some Wakanda Concept Art!" the company declared on its social media channels. "Here are the four that show some explorable locations of Wakanda (we will be able to explore parts of the city and the outskirts)!"

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Marvel's Avengers' next big update will permit players to team up with others that are using the same Hero.

It's not the first time players have been able to double up as their favourite Avengers - it was first introduced via time-limited mode, The Tachyon Anomaly - but the feature proved so popular amongst the community that developer Crystal Dynamics is now introducing it permanently in a big update slated to come next month.

"Due to your feedback, we're permanently turning on the ability to play multiple of the same Hero during matchmaking and when forming Strike Teams," the development team confirmed in a blog post, (thanks, TheGamer).

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A bug which displays your IP address on-screen in Marvel's Avengers will be quickly fixed today, developer Crystal Dynamics has said.

The issue is currently affecting Marvel's Avengers on PlayStation 5, and has left streamers saying they cannot play until it is sorted out.

Avengers owners first noticed the problem after the game's latest update yesterday. Streamers reacted in alarm, saying the information could expose their physical location.

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At launch, Marvel's Avengers was pretty clear about one thing: you couldn't have multiples of the same superhero in your squad. You couldn't have multiple Hulks or Iron Mans (Iron Men?), and you could only have one Ms Marvel. Which was a shame, because Ms Marvel was actually pretty great.

Now, however, you can - though only for a limited time. Tachyon Anomaly is a new limited-time event live in Marvel's Avengers until 3rd May.

Event missions which let you double, triple or quadruple up a particular character in your squad are now available from the War Table. Animated event nameplates for each character are also available to buy in the game's shop.

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