In his annual report to investors, Yosuke Matsuda, president of Square Enix, said crystal dynamics was the wrong studio choice for Marvel;s Avengers, and that inexperience in the studio’s service games model led to such a failure.

Matsuda said Square Enix needs to learn from the game’s disappointing performance, and it’s crucial to match developer studios with game designs that suit their capabilities and interests.

Crystal Dynamics is a studio that has previously featured in single-player Tomb Raider games and suddenly found itself developing a service game. Fortunately, he’s now working on Perfect Dark with Xbox Game Studios, and he’ll be able to get back to his core.

Matsuda said in a 2019 interview that she thought Crystal Dynamics was perfectly suited to Marvel’s Avengers. “Crystal is a studio that develops action adventure games. So I thought they were a good choice to make an Avengers game with Marvel, which would ultimately be an action-based game,” Matsuda said.

So not only is the genre of the game, but the revenue model is important in choosing a studio.