Summary
- The director of the Marvel Rivals team laid off this week has shed more light on their role in the game’s development.
- They’ve claimed that they were responsible for the inclusion of team-up abilities.
- That includes Storm and Human Torch’s fire tornado which has been added via today’s update.
The Marvel Rivals development team was hit with layoffs out of nowhere this week, confirming that no game is safe regardless of the massive amounts of success it might enjoy. The layoffs appear to have been restricted to the US-based dev team working on the game, the director of which, who was a part of those layoffs, has claimed they’re the reason Rivals has team-up abilities.
In a follow-up to the LinkedIn post (shared by X0XLEAK) revealing they and their team had been laid off, the director of the Seattle arm of the Rivals development team, Thaddeus Sasser, has since shared more information on the same platform. The follow-up details the role they and their team played in the creation of the incredibly popular hero shooter.
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Sasser claimed one of the first things they designed when joining the Rivals team was its team-up abilities. The former Rivals director spoke of his love for the comics, noting that a lot of the time, their favorite heroes would be part of bigger teams, like the Avengers or X-Men. That’s one of the reasons why it made sense to pitch team-ups to be a big part of Rivals’ combat.
Laid Off Marvel Rivals Dev Claims They’re Responsible For Team-Up Abilities
Think Of Them When You’re Getting Swept Up By Fire Tornadoes This Weekend
The other reason was to make Rivals unique from similar multiplayer games while negating the need to force players into specific roles. The continued lack of forcing players into certain roles is something Rivals continues to pride itself on despite the complaints from those who are sick of being part of teams without a healer but won’t take up the mantle themselves.
Sasser gives the Fastball Special as an example. Perhaps the most famous team-up ability in Rivals, the Fastball Special has Hulk pick up Wolverine and launch him across the map, claws first, hopefully into someone on the opposing team. However, it’s Sasser’s note about the new team-up between Storm and Human Torch that’s particularly notable due to the timing.
A Rivals update has gone live today that adds Human Torch, along with The Thing, to the Rivals roster. When Torch and Storm combine their Ults, they create a devastating fire tornado. Sasser claims that concept was in their original pitch for team-up abilities, and even though that pitch has now been fully realized and is a part of the game for millions to see and experience this weekend, they’re no longer a part of the Rivals team.
It’s still not entirely clear why NetEase needed to let go of its US-based developers so soon after Rivals’ launch and with the live service game doing so well. The studio released a statement a few hours after the news broke claiming the cuts were made to “optimize efficiency”, and that neither the quality of Rivals updates nor the frequency with which they’re rolled out will be affected.
Third-Person Shooter
Action
Multiplayer
- Released
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December 6, 2024
- ESRB
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T For Teen // Violence
- Developer(s)
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NetEase Games
- Publisher(s)
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NetEase Games