Eight million players within a year of launch. Review scores in the high eighties from critics. And yet — a cancelled franchise, no sequel, no sign the game was ever returning. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy seemed to have quietly faded away. Until now.
During September’s Nintendo Direct, Eidos Montreal’s 2021 Marvel adventure turned up where nobody expected it: on Nintendo Switch 2. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Encore Edition is a Switch 2 exclusive arriving on November 5, 2026, and it has reignited both nostalgia and something more urgent — genuine hope that the Guardians’ story isn’t finished after all.
What the Encore Edition Actually Adds
The Encore Edition is not a bare-bones port. Eidos Montreal has properly tuned the game for Nintendo’s new hardware, offering two modes for TV play. A Quality setting targets 30 frames per second at 1440p, while a Performance setting aims for 40fps at 1080p. Handheld mode runs at a steady 30fps for smooth portable play — one of the clear advantages of Switch 2’s improved specs over its predecessor.
Beyond performance, the Encore Edition brings a brand new set of 1980s glam rock outfits for all five Guardians: Star-Lord, Drax, Gamora, Rocket, and Groot. The aesthetic fits the game’s love of licensed classic rock perfectly, and it gives returning players something fresh to look forward to alongside the campaign. Pre-orders are already live on Nintendo’s store, with the November 5 launch fast approaching.
What is Guardians of the Galaxy: Encore Edition? An expanded Switch 2-exclusive version of Eidos Montreal’s 2021 single-player Marvel adventure, including the full original game plus new 1980s glam rock outfits and optimised performance for Nintendo’s latest hardware.
From Underdog to Cult Classic
The Guardians game had a complicated commercial life from the start. Square Enix confirmed at launch that it underperformed against internal sales targets — something of a running theme for the publisher’s Marvel partnership at the time. Critics, however, consistently praised the game’s writing, its spirited banter between the cosmic quintet, and a campaign that held its own against the MCU films. Eidos Montreal said publicly they had no regrets.
The game found its real audience through Xbox Game Pass and repeated deep discounts in the years that followed. By 2022 the studio confirmed it had reached eight million players — a number that has only climbed since. What looked like a commercial misfire had, quietly and without fanfare, become one of gaming’s genuine cult classics. The Switch 2 announcement suggests someone at Marvel or Square Enix believes that audience is still there and still growing.
Fans Are Already Calling for a Sequel
The Nintendo Direct reveal set off a wave of fan sentiment that speaks for itself. Comments under the announcement posts from Marvel Games and the game’s official account flooded with variations on the same message.
“Can we just get a sequel? The people have been asking for years.” — fan response on X following the Nintendo Direct reveal
“Don’t sleep on this game, Switch players — it’s fu**ing dope,” said one fan. “Do yourself a favour and pick this up. It’s a GREAT game. I hate the fact this gem got overlooked,” added another, noting the comparison to Marvel’s Midnight Suns: a game that found a devoted audience long after its commercial disappointment at launch.
Whether Eidos Montreal has sequel plans is unknown. The studio has been navigating an uncertain few years as part of Embracer Group. A successful Encore Edition — one that introduces the game to Nintendo’s enormous Switch audience — could provide exactly the commercial argument needed to greenlight Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Five years on, the Guardians are getting a second shot at first impressions.
