Games

Marvel Rivals Has Surpassed 40 Million Players as NetEase ‘Scales Down’ its Studios

BBG News

NetEase has verified that the number of players for Marvel Rivals, their free-to-play hero shooter game, has surpassed 40 million since its launch in December. However, even with this ongoing success, there are indications that NetEase might be contemplating more layoffs, as they seem to be considering divesting from their western studios.

According to Eurogamer, Game Director Thaddeus Sasser expressed his surprise recently, saying that despite our team excelling and launching a highly successful Marvel Rivals franchise for NetEase Games, they were unexpectedly let go. This industry can be quite peculiar at times.

Regarding its global business expansion, NetEase continues to push forward with its plans as stated, according to a response issued to VentureBeat. In essence, their strategy, which involves both independent research and investments for exploring foreign markets, remains active and is showing promising outcomes.

In 2024, we released hit games like “Once Human” and “Marvel Rivals”, which were developed by our in-house studios. These projects showcase NetEase’s talent and our teams’ ability to create top-quality games enjoyed globally. For the year 2025, we have a rich pipeline of diverse titles in production, spanning genres such as “FragPunk”, “Ananta” and many others.

NetEase has admitted that it is reducing the size of some studios, which has affected several game development teams so far. These include Worlds Untold, a studio founded by a former Mass Effect team member Mac Walters; Jar of Sparks, led by Halo Infinite’s design head Jerry Hook; and Liquid Swords, established by the creator of Just Cause, Christofer Sundberg.

NetEase stated that they are extremely welcoming and strive to utilize their organization’s abilities and gathered knowledge to assist every developer. To realize this goal, they’ve established a review system that is applied evenly across all NetEase studios worldwide, encompassing both domestic and international locations.

During this week, the second part of “Marvel Rivals Season 1” will launch on Friday, introducing both Thing and Human Torch to the roster, thus completing the Fantastic Four. Additionally, a new update is coming with this release, which includes adjustments for balance and bug fixes.

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2025-02-20 16:42

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