Despite a massively successful launch and plans to introduce a mid-season update later this week,Marvel Rivalsdeveloper NetEase has laid off several team members based in Seattle.
All the affected developers are based in the United States; NetEase is a Chinese developer, where a large portion of the team is located.
NetEase “Open” To Marvel Rivals Potentially Releasing On Nintendo Switch 2
Marvel Rivals devs already have dev kits of the Nintendo Switch 2, which bodes well for the game appearing on the console.
At the time of writing, NetEase has not commented on the matter.
Thaddeus Sasser, who has been a Game Director for NetEase since January 2023, posted the unfortunate news on hisLinkedIn.
This is such a weird industry," he said in a post. “My stellar, talented team just helped deliver an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games…
…and were just laid off!
Other developers from the team have chimed in, expressing the same frustration that despite all of the successMarvel Rivalshas seen, they couldn’t escape the brutal nature of the industry.
Layoffs Continue To Be An Unfortunate Part of Game Development
It’s been an unfortunate trend in gaming for the past few years: studios are laying off tens of thousands of developers on a yearly basis.
A survey by the Game Developers Conferenceshows 41% of developers believe that layoffs have directly impacted their lives. 29% said they have seen a friend or colleague be let go.
The list of companies letting employees go is too big to list.Ubisoft,Microsoft,Sony, andRiotare just a handful of the ones we’ve covered over the past year.
These Constant Layoffs Are Going To Make Games Worse In The Coming Years
The consequences of mass layoffs will be felt in the years to come.
To make matters worse, several companies were also involved in major acquisitions totaling billions of dollars. These layoffs didn’t need to happen, yet they still do.
Meanwhile, you haveFinal Fantasy VII: Rebirthdirector Naoki Hamaguchi saying that the game was so successful because they retained 80-90% of the team fromFinal Fantasy VII: Remake.
It’s clear that something has to change in the industry, especially with proof that you don’t have to lay off your developers to have a successful game. Sadly, I’m not sure if something will ever change, especially as NetEase will undoubtedly continue to boast about the success it has seen withMarvel Rivals.
