MPQ Developer Q&A April 2023 (ANSWERS)

The evidence for "the game runs off roster slot sales" is past statements from devs, and the fact that the pace of character releases has not ever slowed down.

I have no current evidence of this, but I don't believe the special offers are a big revenue driver for them. It's possible that they are, but they've given us breakdowns of this kind of thing in the past, and roster slots and token packs were always #1 by a mile. Very little money was made on health packs, shields... anything like that. The most purchased item was the $5 HP pack. Maybe things have changed, though.

Remember what the game is like as a relatively new player. The whole "don't open tokens" thing is a bit of advice given from the community -- most players won't see that. Most players will open a ton of tokens, and find that they now have to spend a few bucks to roster their new characters. They might spend or they might quit, but this game is successful precisely because of the constant pressure to spend that's placed on lower-level players.

Anyway I remembered there's a whole article about it! (This was part of a highly illuminating series, the other parts of which seem to have disappeared over the years).

https://venturebeat.com/games/marvel-puzzle-quests-road-to-the-mythical-1-arpdau-part-3-event-design-improvements/

Edit: found the rest!

https://venturebeat.com/business/marvel-puzzle-quests-road-to-the-mythical-1-arpdau-part-1/

https://venturebeat.com/games/marvel-puzzle-quests-road-to-the-mythical-1-arpdau-part-2-cover-store-overhaul/

https://venturebeat.com/games/marvel-puzzle-quests-road-to-the-mythical-1-arpdau-part-4-card-pack-design-and-currency-sales/

https://venturebeat.com/games/marvel-puzzle-quests-road-to-the-mythical-1-arpdau-part-5-adventures-in-consumables/

https://venturebeat.com/business/marvel-puzzle-quests-road-to-the-mythical-1-arpdau-part-6-alliances/

https://venturebeat.com/games/marvel-puzzle-quests-road-to-the-mythical-1-arpdau-part-7-event-analytics/

https://venturebeat.com/business/marvel-puzzle-quests-road-to-the-mythical-1-arpdau-part-8-card-store-overhaul-redux/

I repeat my logic argument here.
If they didn't want 4* players to not step into CL10, they wouldn't released kang 3*.
If they nerfed polaris because she is really played, if they nerfed SC for the same reason, players would lose A LOT of time and resources and would be really pissed off, because these characters aren't screwing pvp at all, even more they help to move points in pvp.