The Avengers (found build of cancelled THQ movie tie-in game; 2012)

A screenshot from the game.

Status: Found

Date found: 01 Jun 2020

Found by: ObscureGamers

The Avengers was a planned video game for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and Wii U. The game would have coincided with 2012's massively successful Marvel film The Avengers, with the now-defunct THQ developing the title. The development of the game started in 2010 at THQ Studio Australia. The studio was granted the license by Marvel to create a video game tie-in The Avengers movies and comics.

Gameplay

Pre-Alpha builds of the game would have had players be given the choice to play as Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, or Thor and play in a single-player campaign with a co-op mode. Players could also switch between the first-person point of view and a third-person point of view. The game was going to follow much of the plot of The Avengers movie and would go through levels that would have included famous scenes from The Battle of New York, Triskelion, The Helicarrier, and the inside of an alien mothership. Not all levels were going to be based on the movie as one screenshot features Captain America fighting against the Skrull, a prominent alien species in the Marvel comics that wouldn't feature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe until 2019's Captain Marvel.

Cancellation

During the development of The Avengers, THQ was losing money. In February of 2010, THQ started a massive re-organization as financial troubles were looming. With failures like the U-draw tablet and after spending a great deal of money spent on titles like Homefront (that ended up failing), THQ was looking to cut expenses. In January 2011, THQ Mobile was sold off to a Swedish company. Financial issues also caused the team's wages at THQ's Australian studio to be cut in half. Despite these cutbacks, this was not enough and by August 2011, THQ closed down THQ Studio Australia and Blue Tongue Entertainment, both studios that were working on the game, due to financial issues. As THQ began to liquidate assets in 2013, no buyers came forward to purchase pre-built assets for The Avengers.

Availability

On June 1st, 2020, a build from roughly one month before the game's cancellation was posted on a gaming preservation website "ObscureGamers." Shortly after, a YouTuber known as "PtoPOnline" uploaded gameplay footage of the Xbox 360 build of the game. The build originates from an Xbox Development Kit hard drive acquired by ObscureGamers and released publicly shortly after.