To say the video game industry has been in a very complicated position over the last few years would be an understatement. Layoffs have unfortunately affected thousands of developers around the world, and not even the biggest studios with impeccable track records are safe. Over 14,000 layoffs occurred during 2024 — a jaw-dropping number that affected one in ten developers. Insomniac Games, Ubisoft, Riot Games, and many other studios had to let go of talented personnel, while others such as Tango Gameworks were completely shut down even after the release of successful titles. Unfortunately, it seems things won't slow down any time soon.
Marvel Rivals took the world by storm after its smashing release back in December 2024. Since then, the game has reached the Top Sellers chart on Steam, with over 444000 concurrent players on launch day and no major technical issues in sight. As if that wasn't enough, Season 1 was released to over 644000 concurrent players who were eager to welcome the first two members of the Fantastic Four. But did these figures translate to high sales? Well, NetEase's latest title earned a bit over $80 million in one month. Yet, despite all the success, an entire team that worked on the game is getting laid off.
The Marvel Rivals Seattle was team laid off
Thaddeus Sasser, one of Marvel Rivals U.S.-based game directors, recently announced he and his entire Seattle division were unfortunately laid off. This means the development support team located in the U.S. was shut down, while the main development team in China is intact. Shortly after the news, NetEase released an official statement that clarified the decision was made in order to "optimize development efficiency" while revealing that the rest of the core development team is fully "committed to delivering an exceptional experience" going forward.
The news came just when new content arrived at Marvel Rivals as part of the second wave of updates released during the first post-launch season. It would be easy to jump to the conclusion that maybe the number of players of Marvel's latest PvP shooter dwindled after its release — leading to major layoffs. However, that's far from being the case. In fact, the game is currently sitting on the top 5 most played games on all three platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. With that in mind, the reasoning behind such a major layoff is all the more confusing.
Developer NetEase has reassured fans that it will "invest more" into the growth of the game, and not less — which is a bit contradictory given the recent news. However, it does fall in line with discoveries made by dataminers earlier in the year. There's evidence within the game's files that many characters like Blade, Ultron, Deadpool, Captain Marvel, Emma Frost, M.O.D.O.K., Valkyrie, and Phoenix are all supposed to be released as playable characters at some point. However, we can't help but wonder if the layoffs will affect those initial plans.
Similarly, dataminers once discovered that Killer Croc was supposed be introduced at some point during Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, but that day never came to be. Instead, developer Rocksteady also suffered from two rounds of layoffs and an early cancelation of support on their latest title. Hopefully, the situation won't be as extreme this time around, but it's hard to deny that everything's looking grim in the video game world as game budgets rise, executive officers are paid even more, and developers are unfortunately let go. Hopefully, things will be able to get back on track, and many more memorable adventures, such as Marvel Rivals, can eventually be developed in a sustainable industry where both players and developers can celebrate the release of a successful game.