Marvel Rivals

''Marvel Rivals'' is a hero shooter video game developed and published by NetEase Games in collaboration with Marvel Games. The game was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on December 6, 2024. The game is free-to-play with a current lineup of 39 characters from Marvel Comics, and features cross-play across all supported platforms. As of February 2025, the game has reached over 40 million players.

Premise

The story follows a hostile meeting between Doctor Doom and his heroic 2099 counterpart, which causes a "timestream entanglement" that leads to new worlds being created and heroes and villains from across the multiverse fighting one another to defeat both Doom variants before one claims victory over the new worlds.

Gameplay

''Marvel Rivals'' is a 6v6 third-person hero shooter title. The game also features destructible environments, allowing players to alter the battlefield (overseen by Galacta). , there are 13 unique maps in the game.

Modes

The game has five modes:

* Convoy – Teams are randomly assigned offense or defense. As offense, the objective is to escort a cart or moving object through the map by capturing it, while defender must stop the objective by eliminating the offensive and recapturing it. If the offensive team escorts the convoy to the end of the map within a time limit, they win. When the attackers capture the object, it starts to move forward without the need of the respective team to stand near it, in case of which it travels at a faster speed. After the defender recaptures the vehicle, it starts to move backwards unless any of the attackers stand near its designated area. In competitive mode, once the attacking team has progressed as far as they can, the roles are swapped and the other team tries to better their effort. If both teams clear all checkpoints, the game restarts with the leftover time for both teams being used for another attempt until a victor has been decided.
* Domination – Both teams attack a single point on one of a handful of small maps. Once a point is captured, the defending team will slowly gain points until reaching 100% on which the round ends. The mode will then jump to another small map and repeat the objective. The first team to reach two captured points wins.
* Convergence – Teams will randomly be assigned offense or defense. As offense, the objective is to attack the first checkpoint on the map and secure it by standing inside. As defense, the objective is to defend the checkpoint until the match timer reaches zero. If the offense successfully captures the checkpoint in time, the mode shifts into Convoy style, where the attacking team escorts a cart or moving object through the map in an attempt to reach two further checkpoints. Reaching the final checkpoint is considered victory. Like Convoy, in competitive, both teams attempt to set the best progress and if both reach the final objective, further attempts are made with the remaining time.
* Conquest – Players are divided into two teams. Eliminating any hero will drop points on the ground that the opponent team can pick up. The allies can also pick these up to deny the points from the opposing team. The game ends when one team gets 50 points before the other or when the timer runs out. The team with the most points before it reaches zero is the winner. When the game ends in a tie, the teams are given another chance to score one more point.
* Doom Match – A free-for-all deathmatch. Up to 12 players will spawn across the map with only one goal in mind, to have the most Final Hits before the match ends. The game ends when the first player reaches 16 Final Hits, and the top half of players are declared the match's winners.

Quick match games are non-ranked games where players can play three modes, Domination, Convoy and Convergence. Domination is the only non-competitive mode that features multiple rounds.

Playable characters

, 39 playable characters have been officially announced, with 39 currently playable. Guangyun Chen, the game's creative director, said that they wanted to have a character roster ranging from lesser known characters to fan favourites, saying about the design process that "When it comes to designing characters in our game, we usually dive really deep into the background and personality of each Marvel character, so every character's gameplay mechanic and skill is really crafted to reflect who these heroes really are in the comics."

Playable characters are divided into three main roles: Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist. Vanguard heroes function like tanks, possessing large health pools and mitigating abilities to increase their survivability. Duelist heroes play an offensive role, designed to deal maximum damage and secure kills. Strategist heroes can assist and support their teammates by healing, increasing damage, and other utility abilities. Each character has a set of active and passive skills based on their comic book characters, along with a primary attack. Active skills once used typically have a short cooldown timer before they can be used again. Further, each character has a unique ultimate ability, which requires the player to wait for an ultimate charge meter to build up over time or by engaging in combat. Unique to ''Rivals'' is the idea of Team-ups, where specific characters if paired with others can provide an additional active or passive ability; for example, if Wolverine and the Hulk are selected on the same team, the Hulk is able to throw Wolverine towards foes as a "Fastball Special". The game does not require players into a "role queue", which otherwise would require a specific blend of heroes on a team; creative director Guangyun Chen said this was "to offer a wider variety of team composition through team-up skills and their own designs", as well as to allow players to use team-up abilities without restrictions.

The list of playable characters in the game currently includes:

Vanguards
* Captain America
* Doctor Strange
* Emma Frost
* Groot
* Hulk
* Magneto
* Peni Parker
* The Thing
* Thor
* Venom

Duelists

* Black Panther
* Black Widow
* Hawkeye
* Hela
* Human Torch
* Iron Fist
* Iron Man
* Magik
* Mister Fantastic
* Moon Knight

* Namor
* Psylocke
* Scarlet Witch
* Spider-Man
* Squirrel Girl
* Star-Lord
* Storm
* The Punisher
* Winter Soldier
* Wolverine

Strategists
* Adam Warlock
* Cloak & Dagger
* Invisible Woman
* Jeff the Land Shark
* Loki
* Luna Snow
* Mantis
* Rocket Raccoon
* Ultron

Many of the characters, in addition to other cosmetic skins, have unlockable or purchasable cosmetics based on alternative takes of these characters from their respective comic book series or Marvel Cinematic Universe appearances. Spider-Man also has a costume based on his appearance in the video game '' Marvel's Spider-Man 2''.

Seasonal content

New content will be added to ''Marvel Rivals'' through seasonal content updates. Initially, each season was to be about three months long and split into two halves, releasing new content with each half season, including at least one new hero. From season 3 onward, seasons are planned to last two months, but still split into two halves, effectively introducing a new hero on a monthly basis.

Each season will have a purchasable battle pass which includes cosmetic items (such as character skins, emotes, sprays and player banners) that the player can then buy by using Chrono Tokens, the in-game currency earned from playing matches and completing daily, weekly, and seasonal challenges. Once the player purchases a battle pass for the season, it will not expire, allowing the player to claim the rewards during other seasons. Other cosmetic content are available within the in-game story using Lattice, a premium currency, which can be obtained through Achievement rewards, events, the Battle Pass, or with real-world currency. Further, ''Marvel Rivals'' has offered short term events around holiday or seasonal themes, which may include limited-time modes and themed cosmetics for completing challenges. For example, the first Winter Celebration event (December 2024–January 2025) featured a 4v4 game mode similar to ''Splatoon'' where all the players play as Jeff the Land Shark to use that character's spit attack to cover the most area on a map.

Development

Marvel Games partnered with NetEase Games to develop a team-based PvP hero shooter game. NetEase Games is mainly responsible for the design and development of gameplay content, while Marvel Games has a supervisory role ensuring the content conforms to the tone of the Marvel brand and intellectual property. NetEase Games' development team for ''Marvel Rivals'', based in Guangzhou, is led by lead producer Weicong Wu and creative director Guangyun Chen.

The game is built on Unreal Engine 5. Marvel Games senior producer Danny Koo characterized ''Marvel Rivals'' visually as a blend of Eastern and Western art styles.

Each season is preceded by a planning process for that seasons' content. The developers first plan the theme of the season and then consider the kind of new experiences they want to bring to players for that season, which serves as the basis to evaluate what kind of heroes are more suitable. At the same time, they consider what new gameplay may appear and the corresponding new level maps.

While the development team has experimented with additional gameplay modes, there were no current plans to introduce a player versus environment game mode, .

Release and marketing

Marvel Games first announced the game through a trailer released on March 27, 2024. On November 30, 2024, less than a week before the game's release, the launch trailer for the game was released, showcasing 5 new playable heroes that would be added upon launch.

Playtests

''Marvel Rivals'' had a closed alpha test accessible to the public lasting ten days, from May 10–20, 2024. Players could earn permanent rewards transferrable to the game's final release through gameplay. Included rewards were an exclusive alpha tester title and a playable skin for the character Scarlet Witch, both earned through the test's dedicated battle pass. Additional permanent rewards were the "Dawn of Legends" title, gained from placing Top 32 in the game's eponymous alpha tournament, and an in-game spray decoration, gained by playing with/against a game developer during the playtest.

NetEase received backlash during the alpha playtest when streamer Brandon Larned called out the company on social media for including a non-disparagement clause in the contract given to content creators who had access to the alpha test, barring reviews from saying anything negative about the game. Following the controversy, NetEase apologized and stated it would be revising its contract to be more creator-friendly.

A closed beta test for ''Marvel Rivals'' took place from July 23 to August 5, 2024, for both consoles and PC.

Release

''Marvel Rivals'' is free-to-play from its initial release. Though the game was set to release for Windows via Steam and Epic Games, NetEase Games had stated that it is exploring potential releases on other platforms. During Sony's State of Play held in May, the game was revealed to also be released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, as well as its upcoming beta playtest. On November 16, 2024, it was confirmed that ''Marvel Rivals'' features an option to select between English, Japanese or Mandarin voice overs at a launch date.

''Marvel Rivals'' was released on December 6, 2024. Thaddeus Sasser, a director of NetEase Games' Seattle-based design team, stated there is a switching cost in which players who are invested in one game are less willing to move to other games; he contrasted the success of the ''Marvel Rivals'' release with the commercial failure of hero shooter '' Concord'' released the same year, attributing the latter's underperformance to it not providing unique value to overcome this consideration.

In February 2025, NetEase laid off their Seattle-based design team including director Sasser. This team reportedly comprised six people. ''Kotaku'' reported that "the size and location of the teams that worked on the hero shooter have been hard to pin down, and it's not immediately clear what the extent of the teams impacted were or why". NetEase said in a response to the closure that they "recently made the difficult decision to adjust ''Marvel Rivals development team structure for organizational reasons and to optimize development efficiency for the game" with work still ongoing by their Guangzhou-based core development team.

Tie-in media

''Marvel Rivals Infinity Comic'' (2024) is a six-issue digital limited series by writer Paul Allor and artist Luca Claretti; it was published by Marvel Comics as part of their ''Infinity Comics'' program on Marvel Unlimited. A new game mode inspired by ''Marvel Rivals'' was also added to the tabletop '' Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game''. Additionally, a Marvel Rivals themed glider for use in ''Fortnite Battle Royale'' was made available via playing challenges in Marvel Rivals and linking an Epic Games account to receive it. Furthermore a skin based on Doctor Doom 2099 was made available for use in Fortnite, with a LEGO style for use in LEGO Fortnite experiences.

Esports

NetEase announced the inaugural edition of the "''Marvel Rivals'' Championship" (MRC), an esports tournament which set to take place from March 8 through April 6, 2025. The MRC will have a prize pool of USD$14,500. During an earnings call held by NetEase in February 2025, the developer confirmed its plans to further develop an esports scene around the game.

Reception

''Marvel Rivals'' received "mixed or average" reviews for the PC version and "generally favorable" reviews for the PlayStation 5 version, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic.

''Marvel Rivals'' has been praised for its monetization model, which does not involve pay-to-win elements (all gameplay elements such as heroes are free) and time limits on purchased battle passes.

''Game Rant'' mentions the introduction of a "vote to surrender" feature in ''Rivals'' sparked debate within the player community. This feature allows teams to end matches early if a majority agrees. Supporters argued it helps avoid frustrating, unwinnable situations, particularly during connectivity issues or unbalanced matches. Critics, however, feared it might foster a defeatist attitude and disrupt team dynamics, potentially leading to increased negativity and premature match endings.

Financial and player metrics

''Marvel Rivals'' reached 10 million players worldwide within 72 hours. Furthermore, it peaked at 480,990 concurrent players on Steam on December 8, 2024. It surpassed 20 million players as announced on December 17. Throughout its first month, the game maintained most of its in-game player count. ''GameLook'', a Chinese games industry research website, estimated a revenue of about $135 million across all platforms in this period. The game was the 6th in the top 20 games by revenue in the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy for December 2024.

Microsoft revealed ''Marvel Rivals'' was one of the games on Xbox with the highest single-day active users in 2024. When ''Marvel Rivals'' season 1 started, the game reached 644,269 concurrent players on Steam. This made it the 14th highest game of all time by this metric. The game was 5th in the top 20 games by revenue in the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy for January 2025. NetEase reported the game had over 40 million players to date by February 2025.

Accolades

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated ''Marvel Rivals'' for " Online Game of the Year" at the 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.

Censorship

After release, discussion proceeded on in-game censorship of controversial terms. Specifically, censorship of "Winnie the Pooh" caused speculation that the China-based developer NetEase blocked the phrase due to censorship of Winnie-the-Pooh in China. Other phrases restricted in China that are banned in-game include: "1989", "Tiananmen Square", and " Free Taiwan". The censorship extends beyond content specific to China, also restricting words such as "ISIS" and "Hitler". Attempting to use these banned messages in the in-game chat will result in a message stating, "Text contains inappropriate content."

Notes

References

External links

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Marvel Rivals
' at Marvel

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