Marvel Rivals is about to get its next major update on Feb. 21 but, just three days before that content goes live, NetEase has laid off an entire team working o

According to a report from Bloomberg, the cuts to the North American team working on Marvel Rivals aren’t an anomaly. NetEase founder and CEO William Ding is reported to have cut hundreds of jobs, closed studios, and taken a firmer hand with the company’s Japanese teams — including the one led by former Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio head Toshihiro Nagoshi.

The founder and CEO of NetEase, William Ding, almost cancelled Marvel Rivals entirely, according to a new report

Chinese game publisher NetEase has laid off Marvel Rivals development team members including the game director, Kotaku reported. Some of those let go expressed surprise and dismay at the move considering that the team-based PVP shooter has consistently been in the top ten on Steam since its December debut.

Marvel Rivals, the Overwatch 2 -lunch-eating multiplayer shooter that boasted 20 million players within days of its December 2024 launch, has laid off an unspecified number of employees in its US operations, according to separate posts by recently laid off employees on LinkedIn.

The Seattle team of NetEase behind Marvel Rivals, including one of the game directors, has been let go, as revealed on social media.

Marvels Rivals, which has been a huge success for publisher NetEase since its launch last year, reportedly almost didn't make it to release. It's claimed the company considered cancelling the project because its CEO objected to paying Disney for use of its characters.

NetEase declined to detail the exact scope of the Seattle layoffs which come just two months after Marvel Rivals launched to rapid critical and financial success with reports estimating that it raised over $130 million in revenue in its first month.