#Marvel Rivals’ sport director and workforce laid off regardless of sturdy launch – Destructoid
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Marvel Rivals sport director Thaddeus Sasser and his workforce had been laid off by NetEase Video games on Feb. 18, he introduced on LinkedIn. This transfer comes regardless of the sport’s profitable launch in December 2024 and an estimated $130 million in first-month income, in response to Chinese language outlet Sport Look.
“My stellar, proficient workforce simply helped ship an extremely profitable new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Video games,” Sasser wrote. “And had been simply laid off!” It stays unclear what number of staff had been affected, the scale of Sasser’s workforce, or what number of builders are nonetheless engaged on Marvel Rivals. Destructoid has reached out to Sasser and NetEase Video games for remark.
The Marvel Rivals layoffs come simply two months after NetEase Video games relocated employees from its cell title Operation Apocalypse to different departments. Liquid Swords Studio, which is backed by NetEase, just lately introduced it’s also decreasing its workforce.
There are not any indications that Marvel Rivals employees members exterior the U.S. had been affected by the layoffs. Nevertheless, no less than two degree designers and the sport director had been let go, confirming that these impacted had been immediately concerned within the sport’s improvement.
Marvel Rivals’ success was already placing stress on Overwatch
The timing of the layoffs contradicts the sport’s sturdy momentum. Marvel Rivals has maintained 200,000+ concurrent gamers on PC, in response to Steam Charts, and was already being acknowledged by Blizzard as a critical competitor to Overwatch, which had beforehand dominated the hero shooter style.
“We’re clearly in a brand new aggressive panorama that I feel, for Overwatch, we’ve by no means actually been in earlier than,” Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller informed GamesRadar. “There’s stress on the Overwatch workforce, and plenty of it’s inner,” he admitted, referring to how Marvel Rivals is making his workforce ask in the event that they’re making the “absolute best sport” they will make.
