With 10 million players in a short weekend and a peak of almost 440,000 players simultaneously, Marvel Rivals can boast of being one of the great successes of 2024. Enough to place the latest game from Chinese NetEase as the new Overwatch, with a large advantage, is to play with the heroes of Marvel. A success which did not fail to provoke a reaction from Blizzard Entertainment and its ex-boss, a certain Mike Ybarra, who is having difficulty coping with the success of Marvel Rivals. For the latter, Marvel Rivals is just a pale copy of Overwatch, arguing that the Chinese only know how to copy others, taking the example of Light of Motiram. The problem is that Mike Ybarra makes a fool of himself right after by daring to say that the character of Widowmaker in Overwatch resembles that of Black Widow in Marvel Rivals.
“Looks like Marvel Rivals, which is very similar to Overwatch, is coming out tomorrow. It’s like Light of Motiram (an obvious copy of Horizon Zero Dawn), which comes from China. I mean, even in the character names — Widowmaker in Overwatch, Black Widow in Marvel Rivals lol. NetEase/Tencent, all the same.”
It is quite understandable that the similarities between Marvel Rivals and Overwatch are numerous, but the comparison between Widowmaker and Black Widow demonstrates a serious misunderstanding of the subject, especially since it is the character of Widowmaker who was inspired by Black Widow. This blunder was also highlighted by a note from the community, recalling the failings of Mr Ybarra: “Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, is a popular Marvel heroine who made her comic book debut in 1964, more than 50 years before the creation of Overwatch and Widowmaker. This message contains misinformation”. Since then, Mike Ybarra has deleted his post, but as everyone knows, the Internet never forgets, especially since many people did not fail to remind him of his double standards when Mike Ybarra highlighted Path of Exile 2, which also has many similarities with Diablo 4, another game from Blizzard Entertainment. From there to accusing the former boss of Blizzard of anti-Chinese racism, perhaps not, but of cultural preference, it is quite obvious…
In the meantime, it is the public who is the only judge and arbiter and for the moment, the latter has lost interest in Overwatch and this time has fun with Marvel Rivals….
