Marvel Rivals, a multiplayer shooter that by any metric is largely successful, is a product of joint-development at NetEase games between a team in China and a team in North America. According to multiple posts from members of the North American side, the team has been laid off and is looking for work. There is no word about the team in China.
The news came today from a LinkedIn post from director Thaddeus Sasser, who begins his post extolling the virtues of his team with a succinct “This is such a weird industry…” Sasser says that both he and his team were let go.
Later on LinkedIn, Jack Burrows — the level designer for Marvel Rivals — made his own post confirming the layoffs and looking for work.
It would be difficult to blame these layoffs on Marvel Rivals’ performance in the market, as the game has become both a revenue-generating and streaming sensation. Launching in December of last year, Marvel Rivals took in an impressive estimated $136 million in its first month, with estimates of $1.36 billion if that stayed relatively consistent over the year.
NetEase has not announced any alterations or cessations to Marvel Rivals’ roadmap or plans, suggesting that the team in China will likely just take over all aspects of the game going forward. Still, this speaks to a possibility that NetEase might be re-evaluating its larger gaming portfolio going forward and viewing their North American investments as vestigial. In that case, a lot of the money they put into the game industry in the last decade may be quickly pulled back out.
