Despite mega success: Netease kicks out US developer behind "Marvel Rivals"
“Marvel Rivals” is the most successful online game of the year. And yet, many developers now have to go — but the Chinese parent company remains silent.
(Image: Netease)
A game launch could not have gone better: The online shooter “Marvel Rivals” was played by an incredible 10 million people within three days of its market launch in December. Even two months later, the title remains extremely successful, regularly reaching peaks of 300,000 players on Steam. And yet, the Chinese publisher Netease is apparently parting ways with some “Marvel Rivals” developers in the USA.
This is evident from various posts by the now dismissed employees. “My amazing, talented team just helped develop an incredibly successful new franchise for NetEase Games with 'Marvel Rivals' … and just got laid off!” writes Game Director Thaddeus Sasser in a LinkedIn post. “This is such a strange industry.” Level designer Jack Burrows also wrote on LinkedIn that he had been made redundant.
Development continues in China
Netease has not yet published a statement on the redundancies on its official channels. However, games journalist Stephen Totilo has since received a statement: We recently made the difficult decision to adjust the development team of 'Marvel Rivals' for organizational reasons and to optimize development efficiency,” writes the Chinese games company.
This primarily affects the design team in Seattle, Netease explains. The developers there were part of a larger team that worked internationally. The company wants to reassure players that the core team of “Marvel Rivals” in China will continue to work on the game.
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The statement clarifies that Netease wants to develop “Marvel Rivals” primarily in China in the future. “Marvel Rivals” is a team-based online shooter in the style of “Overwatch” – also known as “Hero Shooter”. Players choose from an array of different Marvel comic book heroes and duel in various game modes, each of which is fought out six against six. As a live service game, “Marvel Rivals” will be regularly updated with new content such as costumes and heroes, which means long-term development effort.
(dahe)
