NetEase game director Thaddeus Sasser revealed that the Marvel Rivals development team in the US has been laid off, according to an Inkl report. It is a surprising move given that Marvel Rivals has become a major success, emerging as the first real competitor to the long-standing hero shooter giant Overwatch. The game has been popular with over 200,000 players on Steam alone.
“This is such a weird industry. My stellar, talented team just helped deliver an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games…and were just laid off!” Sasser wrote on LinkedIn.
Sasser’s LinkedIn profile identifies him as a game director at NetEase, where he’s working on Marvel Rivals. The game’s creative director is Guangyun Chen, who players know better as Guangguang.
Level designer Jack Burrows confirmed the layoffs in a separate post, stating, Welp, just got laid off from my job working on Marvel Rivals with NetEase. “Was an enormous pleasure to work with my American coworkers who join me in this sad culling. Just couldn’t dodge that big boot I guess, no matter how big the success of the gig,” he added.
Marvel Rivals is a huge success and according to a Chinese site GameLook (via 80lv), it’s already raking in an estimated $136 million in its first month alone, as per the report.
However, the game is still finding its footing. As there was with Multiversus, a strong launch can quickly lose momentum if the team doesn’t keep up the pace. While the core development team for Marvel Rivals is likely based in China, it’s still puzzling to see an entire studio cut loose so early in the game’s success, as per the report.
According to the report, some have speculated that this might have been the plan all along: launch Marvel Rivals, then drastically reduce the team running it. NetEase has been scaling back its US operations in recent months. In November 2024, it stopped funding Worlds Untold, a studio founded in 2023 by BioWare veteran Mac Walters. In January, it shut down Jar of Sparks, a studio established in 2022 by Halo and Destiny 2 veteran Jerry Hook. Additionally, in August 2024, NetEase reportedly laid off most employees at Ouka Studios, the developer of Visions of Mana, before the game even launched.
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