Marvel Rivals Development Team, Including Game Director, Laid Off Despite Game's Successful Launch

Marvel Rivals' development team, including the game director, have been laid off despite the game's successful launch. The layoffs have affected an unspecified number of employees at NetEase's design team based in Seattle, the company said in a statement to the press Wednesday. The job cuts come just over two months after the release of NetEase's free-to-play hero shooter Marvel Rivals. The game skyrocketed to popularity at launch, attracting over 10 million players in its first 72 hours.

Marvel Rivals Design Team Laid Off

The layoffs were first confirmed by Marvel Rivals game director Thadeus Sasser, who said in a LinkedIn post his team had been let go.

“This is such a weird industry...,” Sasser began his post. “My stellar, talented team just helped deliver an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games... ...and were just laid off!”

While the number of staffers affected by the cuts is unclear, level designers Gary MacGee and Jack Burrows confirmed they had been laid off in separate LinkedIn posts.

“My team recently helped develop and launch Marvel Rivals, which turned out to be a bigger hit than any of us expected! Unfortunately my team was also laid off. Strange times all across the industry indeed,” McGee said in his post.

“Hey folks! 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,” Burrows said.

In a statement sent to VGC and other media outlets, NetEase confirmed the job cuts and said the decision was taken for “organisational reasons”.

“We recently made the difficult decision to adjust Marvel Rivals' development team structure for organisational reasons and to optimise development efficiency for the game,” the statement said. “This resulted in a reduction of a design team based in Seattle that is part of a larger global design function in support of Marvel Rivals. We appreciate the hard work and dedication of those affected and will be treating them confidentially and respectfully with recognition for their individual contributions.”

Marvel Rivals, an Overwatch-style hero shooter, launched on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X on December 6, 2024, and quickly became a phenomenon. The gamereached 20 million players within 11 days of release. The hero shooter features a star-studded roster of Marvel superheroes, including Iron Man, Black Panther, Captain America, Black Widow, Hulk, Star-Lord, Venom, Wolverine and more, that take part in team-based 6v6 area shootouts.