NetEase nearly shut down Marvel Rivals before it even released, according to report

Marvel Rivals, a game which has already become a multiplayer juggernaut, almost didn’t happen at all, a new report claims. Struggles over character rights and a costly move to repurpose the game nearly allegedly caused publisher NetEase to scrap the project altogether.

As per a Feb. 21 Bloomberg report, Marvel Rivals was close to getting canned, as the game’s studio, NetEase, reportedly struggled to obtain rights to certain characters. Bloomberg’s sources claim that NetEase’s chief executive, William Ding, “objected to paying Walt Disney Co. for the use of popular characters like Wolverine and Spider-Man,” and at one point suggested to artists to come up with their own heroes instead. The Chinese developer also allegedly sought to “repurpose” Marvel Rivals amid these challenges, which reportedly racked up “millions of dollars” in expenses, money which was seemingly spent in vain, as Marvel Rivals ended up getting all the licenses at the end.

NetEase, on the other hand, denied these troubles, telling Bloomberg that the company’s relationship with Marvel has been nothing but good for many years. The company is no stranger to cuts and cancellations, however, as it most recently sacked a US-based support studio for Marvel Rivals, including apparently one of its game directors, despite the game’s immense success. As the PC Games N report shows, NetEase also gutted or shut down many other studios.

Speaking of Marvel Rivals‘ success, the game has reportedly pulled in over 40 million players thus far, an incredible achievement given that it’s only been out for around three months at the time of writing. The game sent shockwaves through the industry, forcing even Blizzard to reconsider its approach to Overwatch 2, which, ironically, served as a major inspiration for NetEase’s title.