Marvel Rivals is one of the most successful games of the past few months. It is therefore surprising that the Netease responsible are now carrying out comprehensive layoffs.
What is known about the layoffs? Triggered by a post by the developer Thaddeus Sasser on Linkedin.com, the report circulated that the team of Marvel Rivals has probably occurred. Sasser writes with obviously a lot of frustration in the stomach:
“This is such a crazy industry … My excellent, talented team has just helped develop an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for Netease Games … and has just been released!”
The people in charge of the Chinese mega company Netease officially confirm the reports on the layoffs a little later. The explanation says:
We recently made the difficult decision to adapt the structure of Marvel Rival’s development team for organizational reasons and to optimize development efficiency for the game. This led to a reduction in the design team in Seattle […]. We appreciate the hard work and the commitment of those affected and will treat them confidentially and respectfully and recognize their individual contributions.
The first season of Marvel Rivals in the trailer:
Marvel Rivals heralds the first season with a new trailer
More videos
Autoplay
Discharge despite success
What about Marvel Rivals? Marvel Rivals is a team-based superhero PvP shooter from Netease Games, which was broken on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series in December 2024. Through Steam alone, 644,269 players romped on the servers at the same time (via Steamdb.info). There are also the other platforms. That was in January 2025.
Even now, the multiplayer shooter is still played daily by hundreds of thousands (Daily-Peak is on Steam at 318,993-via Steamdb.info). The reviews are on Steam at “very positive” (80 percent of the 216,841 ratings are positive).
Since everyone interested in Marvel Rivals can download and play for free, however, no conclusions can be drawn from all the information about the income. However, there are reports that Marvel Rivals is said to have generated more than $ 130 million sales in the first month alone (via 80.LV). In addition, those affected and Sasser also speak of financial success.
So why the layoffs? The simple answer will be very likely: In order to provide a published service game with new content over the coming months and years, the entire team is no longer needed.
If the decision-makers then have no follow-up project for the developers that are no longer required in the hindquarters, layoffs within the games industry are unfortunately an often used means to save costs and thus maximize the profits. Well -known studios like Bioware are not protected from this – isn’t it, EA?!