NetEase Games Dismisses North America Team of Marvel Rivals

Marvel Rivals is making waves as one of the hottest games this year, captivating the attention of countless players on Steam. Despite this success, its developer, NetEase, surprised many by laying off a team that worked on the game from their Seattle office.

Thaddeus Sasser, the game’s director, took to LinkedIn to shed light on the situation. He mentioned that level designer Garry McGee was among those affected, with level designer Jack Burrows also confirming the news on his own LinkedIn post.

“This industry can be so unpredictable,” Sasser shared. “My incredibly talented team just contributed to the massive success of Marvel Rivals, and now they’ve been let go!”

Sasser explained that the team had been instrumental in devising new level design and gameplay mechanics for this superhero shooter.

Addressing the layoffs, NetEase provided a statement to Polygon: they recently decided to restructure the Marvel Rivals development team for organizational reasons and to improve development efficiency. This led to reducing the Seattle-based design team, which was part of a broader, global design effort for Marvel Rivals. They expressed their gratitude for the hard work of those affected, pledging to handle their departures with privacy and respect.

NetEase also reassured fans that the core team behind Marvel Rivals, led by Lead Producer Weicong Wu and Game Creative Director Guangyun Chen based in Guangzhou, China, remains dedicated to enhancing the game. They’re committed to investing in its growth and bringing new superhero characters, maps, features, and content to keep players engaged.

According to Circana data from industry analyst Mat Piscatella, Marvel Rivals is among the top five most active games across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Steam. It’s consistently maintained its status as one of Steam’s top five games, with around 200,000 concurrent players. Excitingly, the game is about to enter the latter half of its first season, adding two new heroes—The Thing and Human Torch—to its roster this week.

Update (Feb. 19): This article has been updated to include a statement from NetEase.