Marvel Rivals has been one of the biggest new multiplayer games of the last few years. As past superhero games have proven, just having IP and everyone’s favorite characters to play with doesn’t guarantee a successful game, but Marvel Rivals has nailed it. The hero shooter is one of Steam’s biggest titles right now, but incredibly, a new report claims that NetEase considered axing it before launch.
Over the last couple of months, NetEase has been on a bit of a warpath – since the turn of the decade, it has acquired or invested heavily in lots of international developers, but now it’s scaling things back. Several new studios that were spun up or financially backed by NetEase – such as former Halo veteran Jerry Hook’s Jar of Sparks or Mass Effect director Casey Hudson’s Humanoid Origin – have either shut down, laid off developers, or canceled projects. Just this week, the Chinese company confirmed that it was even laying off developers from its Seattle-based studio that had helped create and ship Marvel Rivals – a tough pill to swallow, given its enormous success.
According to a new Bloomberg report, NetEase’s ruthless cutbacks almost resulted in Marvel Rivals getting completely axed. While NetEase has denied the report, Bloomberg’s sources say that “there were discussions about it being canceled” in the build up to the multiplayer game‘s launch. They claim that the company’s founder and CEO, William Ding, “objected to paying Walt Disney Co. for the use of popular characters like Wolverine and Spider-Man, and at one point asked his artists to swap in their own hero designs.”
The attempt to repurpose Marvel Rivals allegedly “cost the company millions of dollars” only for it to stick with its licensed roster of superheroes in the end. As mentioned, NetEase denies these claims, and says in a statement to Bloomberg that the company has enjoyed a close relationship with Marvel since 2017.
If the news that Marvel Rivals devs were getting laid off was shocking and surprising enough, this alleged revelation is even more remarkable. Like I said at the top, expensive licensing deals and desirable characters can help get eyes on your game, but there’s no guarantee that it will be a long-term success, so I can somewhat understand NetEase’s apprehension. But it’s still incredible to think one of the biggest new PC games of recent times may have almost been axed – or at the very least transformed into something else.
If you’re jumping in for the new mid-season update, make sure you check out our Marvel Rivals tier list to see which heroes you should be using, or check to see if there are any freebies available in our Marvel Rivals codes guide.
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