Despite launching back in December last year to massive acclaim, the developers of online hero shooter Marvel Rivals, specifically its Seattle-based team, have been hit with layoffs.
According to a LinkedIn post by game director Thaddeus Sasser, several members of the Seattle team – which works with NetEase Games’ core development team in China, have been laid off. He added that the affected team served as an “R & D” branch of Marvel Rivals, which came up with “new level design mechanics [and] gameplay mechanics” for the game.
This was further confirmed by level designer Jack Burrows in a separate post, who stated that he couldn’t “dodge that big boot, no matter how big the success of the gig.” alongside fellow level designer Gary McGee, who wrote that “All good things must come to an end.”
In a statement to Geek Culture, a spokesman for NetEase Games acknowledged the layoffs.
We recently made the difficult decision to adjust Marvel Rivals’ development team structure for organizational reasons and to optimize development efficiency for the game. This resulted in a reduction of a design team based in Seattle that is part of a larger global design function in support of Marvel Rivals. We appreciate the hard work and dedication of those affected and will be treating them confidentially and respectfully with recognition for their individual contributions.
We want to reassure our fanbase that the core development team for Marvel Rivals, which continues to be led by Lead Producer Weicong Wu and Game Creative Director Guangyun Chen in Guangzhou, China, remains fully committed to delivering an exceptional experience. We are investing more, not less, into the evolution and growth of this game. We’re excited to deliver new super hero characters, maps, features, and content to ensure an engaging live service experience for our worldwide player base.
This news certainly comes as a huge surprise considering how well the game has performed since its launch, with an all-time Steam peak of 642,333 players at the time of writing. It is to note that this figure only includes the numbers for its PC player base, with its total count across all platforms being far greater, with the title previously hitting an impressive milestone of 10 million total players just three days after its initial launch.
Riding on its success, the game has also seen a slew of substantial post-launch updates, most notably the launch of Season 1, titled Eternal Night Falls, which introduced characters from The Fantastic Four, namely Mr Fantastic and Susan Storm. Part two of Season 1 is also on the horizon and will launch on 21 February, rounding off its Fantastic Four cast with the Thing and Human Torch, alongside a new map, Cental Park, additional hero skins, balance tweaks and a rework of its Chrono Tokens in-game currency.
The fact that such a successful title is also being faced with layoffs certainly paints a grim picture of the game industry’s future, but for now, the future of Marvel Rival’s development team, and the game as a whole, remains uncertain.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
