When is the Marvel Rivals release date? This 6-vs-6 shooter, developed by Netease and Marvel Games, looks set to be a contender to rival Overwatch 2 with Valorant art style, and varied gameplay. The game has now been officially announced and, despite leaks, there were still some surprises.
Marvel Rivals is being worked on by ex-Battlefield and Call of Duty developer, Netease, and aims to blend all the cool things from your favorite superhero games with the frantic fun of 6-vs-6 FPS games. Here’s all we know so far on Marvel Rivals and when you can expect to get your hands on it.
Marvel Rivals release date
The Marvel Rivals release date is December 6, 2024. This was confirmed at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live broadcast.
Marvel Rivals is free to play, and will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. It’s also been confirmed that all heroes will be playable for free at launch, and for the foreseeable future. The game at launch is set to include 33 heroes, eight maps in quick play and competitive modes, one conquest map, and a new practice range.
The first alpha playtests for Marvel Rivals began in May 2024. The closed beta for Marvel Rivals began on July 23, 2024 and ran until August 5, 2024. While the playtests have ended in Europe and America, there does appear to be a closed playtest taking place in China during October, though it’s unclear when this begun and when it will end.
Marvel Rivals gameplay
The first trailer revealed Marvel Rivals is a team-based with six per side, and promises “ever-changing battlefields”. Take your pick of superheroes or super villains to play as, with varied abilities, and powers that can be combined to trigger new effects. Characters can also combine to use Team-Up Skills which “invent new tactics”. Rocket Raccoon can leap on Groot’s back to plow through foes, and Hulk can release Gamma energy to charge up Iron Man’s armor.
Environments are destructible, with the trailer showing a giant pillar being destroyed in seconds and characters plummeting from its height, taking huge damage. Environments such as Asgard and a futuristic Tokyo are shown off, and using superpowers to reshape terrain could bring your team a huge advantage.
Marvel Rivals seasons
As Marvel Rivals is free to play, it has introduced its seasonal model. With each season, new superheroes and maps will be added to the roster. Unlockable content via a season pass can aid your gameplay strategies.
Season 0 titled ‘Doom’s Rise’, begins when the game launches on December 6, but it’s only going to last one month. The first season is set to launch in early January 2025, with all future seasons lasting around three months. In addition to new heroes and maps, Marvel Rivals creative director Guangguang said in a recent dev blog that team-up abilities and potentially new game modes will be added in new seasons.
Marvel Rivals also has a seasonal storyline that sees Doctor Doom and his future counterpart from 2099 forcing universes to collide in the Timestream Entanglement, which will create new worlds, crises, and other unknown side effects. The Marvel Rivals characters will need to fight together and against each other to defeat both present-day and future Doom before one takes control of all the created realities.
Marvel Rivals crossplay
Marvel Rivals will feature crossplay between PC and consoles. However, PC players will not be able to join up with their console friends in competitive matches. This won’t affect console players, Xbox and PlayStation users will be able to play competitive matches together as normal, but PC players won’t have that same luxury unless they stick to casual matches.
As for cross-progression, this hasn’t been confirmed by Netease just yet, but this is being looked into. We know there have been some issues in the past with cross-progression in free-to-play titles, with games like Apex Legends taking years to implement this feature.
That’s all we know about Netease’s newest offering for now, but we’ll be updating this guide with the latest Marvel Rivals news as soon as we hear about it. Make sure your rig is up to spec with the Marvel Rivals system requirements, we’ve also got lists of the best multiplayer games and the best co-op games you can play on PC right now to tide you over. You can check out the Marvel Rivals Steam Deck compatibility to see whether Valve’s handheld will be capable of playing the game too.