| Marvel Rivals | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Marvel Rivals News
2025
March 5
⚫︎ NetEase has discussed the possibility of future crossover events with other properties, but fans prefer more comic book and movie skins.
February 26
⚫︎ Following an hour-long server fix that brought down the game's servers, Marvel Rivals players were gifted 200 units as compensation, even for those who were not playing while the maintenance was underway.
⚫︎ As Marvel Rivals' smurfing issues reach an all-time high, players have come together to formulate solutions to one of the biggest hurdles preventing newcomers from fully experiencing the game's ranked mode. Current fan ideas point toward Overwatch 2 and Fortnite-style placement matches, preventing players who played too well up until their 10th account level from entering the game's lowest ranks.
February 24
⚫︎ Rumors regarding Marvel Rivals' supposed pre-release cancellation began to fly amidst news of its recent layoffs; rumors put to rest by NetEase CEO William Ding, who confirmed that the company and Disney have had a close relationship since 2017.
February 21
⚫︎ Marvel Rivals amasses 40 million players since its launch as NetEase continues to deny allegations of it abandoning western studios after it laid off a number of developers from the game's US development team.
February 20
⚫︎ Also in following NetEase's recent layoff contreversy with its design team for Marvel Rivals, Baldur's Gate 3's publishing director Michael Douse shared his insight on how studios could stop botching their own launches, calling for devs to set clear expectations for players before the game is out.
⚫︎ After a recent controversy surrounding the laying off of several Seattle-based team members from their design team, NetEase has finally responded, calling the decision a difficult decision
made to optimise development efficiency
.
February 19
⚫︎ A new map based on Central Park is revealed alongside hero spotlights for The Thing and Human Torch for the game's upcoming Season 1.5 update.
February 18
⚫︎ Even with the massive success of the Marvel Rivals launch and consistent high playerbase and profit, the Seattle division of the development was unexpectedly laid off by Netease, bringing out confusion amongst the fanbase and the developers themselves.
February 11
⚫︎ Not even 24 hours after announcing an upcoming mid-season rank reset, NetEase revert back the intent due to overwhelming fan complaints.
February 10
⚫︎ A blog post update by NetEase announce the incoming mid-season rank reset, which will be proceed by major balance changes for majority of heroes, alongside the eventual addition of two new heroes: The Human Torch, and The Thing.
February 6
⚫︎ Technical lead designer Ruan Weikang spoke how the development team faced their first major technical challenge in implementing the destructible environments found in-game, where they had to account for which heroes were destroying them, and how to apply consistency for the rubble to fall in order to stay competetively neutral.
⚫︎ Marvel Rivals technical lead designer Ruan Weikang revealed in an interview how Dr. Strange's portals had the development team struggling to implement them. He cites previous famous portals in video games, such as Valve's Portal series, alongside as the multiplayer shooter Splitgate, as very different because they utilized flat surfaces. Dr. Strange, on the other hand, had to have a free-hovering portal that can be placed anywhere in various orientations.
January 24, 2025
⚫︎ Due to the climate of dataminers and leakers in the current games industry, Marvel Rivals director Thaddeus Sasser had previously explained that those looking for unofficial leaks in the game's files will find no value. As it turns out, the team has been planting fake fake character files to confuse any potential dataminers, preventing any data breaches or surprises to be ruined.
January 22
⚫︎ Marvel Rivals has released a new gamemode for its Spring Festival events, of which a game where players play with a giant ball to score against the other team bears a heavy resemblance to Overwatch's Lucioball.
January 15
⚫︎ Marvel Rivals director Guangyun Chen states in an interview their goals for the game, where they hope to balance the competetive side and scene of the title but not diminish the fun it brings to quick player for casual players. They seek to take reference from past titles who have been able to healthily merge balance changes needed for the competetie esports scene, all the while remaining fun for those regular players.
January 14
⚫︎ Marvel Rivals has announced with the successful launch of Season 1 that the game will be receiving a new hero every 6 weeks. A full season was said to span 2 months, meaning that each season will have two new heroes for the community to play with. Season 1 is a special case where two heroes were released per half, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman in the first, and are proceeded by Human Torch and the Thing in the latter half.
January 13
⚫︎ Marvel Rivals developers had forbade the use of mods for the game, where players were uploading their own custom skins into the game that were eligible for online play, preventing modified character files from being allowed in matches. However, the modding community persisted and found workarounds to the ‘mod ban,’ where the process only takes "extra steps to pull off."
January 13
⚫︎ With the arrival of the game’s first major launch, Season 1, which brought forth the Fantastic Four, Marvel Rivals broke its own massive peak count by achieving over 600k peak players.
January 6
⚫︎ Marvel Rivals developers underwent a massive banning spree to eradicate cheaters from their game. However, they unknowingly punished innocents as well due to playing on non-Windows operating systems such as Linux or the Steam Deck. They were quick to reverse the bans and immediately issued apologies for the affected players.
January 6
⚫︎ After Season 0 wrapped up for the holiday season, Marvel Rivals released a new trailer for Season 1, featuring the new lineup of heroes arriving to the game. In lieu of Dr. Doom being the game’s main antagonist, the Fantastic Four now seek to put a stop to both versions of him as the four superheroes join the fray.
2024
December 17
⚫︎ As the holiday season drew closer, Marvel Rivals released special winter-themed costumes and game modes. Heroes such as Jeff, Venom, Groot, and Rocket were all showcased with their Christmas-themed outfits.
December 11
⚫︎ While Marvel Rivals launched to huge success, its predecessor in the hero-shooter genre, Overwatch 2, sank to its lowest reported player count on Steam. Whereas Marvel Rivals continued to consistently reach over 200,000 players, Overwatch 2 dropped down to less than 17,000 players.
December 9
⚫︎ Marvel Rivals, alongside Path of Exile 2, both released near each other and overtook the gaming world by storm, setting record high player counts for both games of different genres. Marvel Rivals achieved a staggering 480k+ peak concurrent player count, whereas Path of Exile 2 rose further above with over 570k peak players.
December 6
⚫︎ Marvel Rivals announced a Fornite collaboration wherein players from the Epic Games Launcher can complete a mission to avail the Rivaled Sailer Glider in-game.
July 25
⚫︎ Marvel Rivals commenced its beta before release and immediately overtook the player numbers of their of rival game– Concord– by a large margin. Both being live-service hero shooters, Concord opened up to a measly peak player count of around 2,000+ players throughout its beta periods, whereas Marvel Rivals quickly rose to 50,000+ within two days.
