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Even in the toughest time of 2024, NetEase Games delivered one of the most successful hero-shooter games, Marvel Rivals. The unique gameplay style, involving multiple Marvel characters, captivated the hearts of gamers instantly. However, this hard work and success didn’t pay off for the developer team. In a surprising move, NetEase Games laid off the entire team without any prior notice.
The most unexpected part is that this layoff came after delivering a successful game like Marvel Rivals in December 2024, which captured more than 20 million players within its first week and generated approximately $136 million in revenue in one month of a run.
The gaming industry has constantly been going through layoffs over the years. From Xbox to Ubisoft, almost all the renowned developers have faced these things, and at the beginning of 2025, NetEase Games encountered a similar situation. After two months of Marvel Rivals’ grand success, the entire team was removed by the authorities.
The news was first made public by Marvel Rivals game director, Thaddeus Sasser. He took it to LinkedIn and mentioned the industry as “weird” for his “stellar, talented team” to be laid off after delivering an “incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games.” Looking at the success of the game, it was highly surprising that the company has let go of the entire Seattle team that used to work on the level and gameplay mechanisms of Marvel Rivals.
As the situation started getting complicated, NetEase addressed the situation and stated that these layoffs are because of some “organizational reasons" that were taken to optimize the organization’s development efficiency.
Additionally, they mentioned that the core team that is currently based in China is still intact and constantly working to deliver quality content. NetEase Games has promised that Marvel Rivals’ growth won’t be hampered by this decision, and it will keep investing in the game, prioritizing new content and the addition of new superheroes to enhance the experience.
The current roller-coaster situation of the gaming industry has sparked a thought regarding the volatility of employment within the industry, where, in fact, contributors of highly successful projects get removed during the restructuring of the organizations. Even the most successful projects don’t ensure jobs here, which is a thing that is indeed to worry about.
Anyway, NetEase Games has promised the player base that they will be dedicated to giving them exciting content, even after this restructuring. Currently, Marvel Rivals is performing great on all the platforms and has been maintaining its ranking among the top five most-played games on these platforms. The upcoming updates will probably bring new expansions to the game.
This shift is worrisome, but at the same time, this shift is probably a strategic step that NetEase Games has taken to transfer the focus to its China team. Well, no exact reason for this decision has yet been stated, but the layoff has made the Marvel Rivals developers jobless overnight.
