The Marvel Rivals team just got hit with layoffs despite its massive success

In case you made a mistake and were being optimistic like me, there's more layoffs in the gaming industry, this time unfolding at the Marvel Rivals developer NetEase Games. Affected staff took to LinkedIn, explaining that the entire Seattle-based North American team that was working on the game are laid off.

"Was an enormous pleasure to work with my American coworkers who join me in this sad culling," wrote former level designer Jack Burrows on Tuesday. "Just couldn't dodge that big boot I guess, no matter how big the success of the gig."

Marvel Rivals has been developed and maintained by development teams across the U.S. and China. The exact scale of the layoffs today are unclear at the moment, but the Chinese side of the development team will presumably be handling the entirety of the game's support moving forward.

Marvel Rivals first launched as a free-to-play title in December 2024, with the game rapidly becoming one of the top five most played titles in the U.S. across Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam, per Circana executive director Mat Piscatella. The game is currently in the middle of its first season, which is introducing the Fantastic Four as playable characters. The success of Marvel Rivals has also brought serious competition for Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch 2, with Blizzard implementing a number of upcoming changes to try and regain momentum.

This also comes as NetEase Games has been pulling out of funding a number of North American game development teams that it was previously backing, including Humanoid Origin and Worlds Untold, teams founded by BioWare veterans Casey Hudson and Mac Walters, respectively.

Reaction: What are we doing?

Just a short while ago, I opined that it was great to see Marvel Rivals be a huge success, given the current state of the gaming industry. The fact that a new live service game could break in and capture a slice of the market was exciting, especially after the unfortunate failure of a number of titles over the last couple of years.

It's hard (if not downright laughable) to imagine the game isn't hitting some imaginary targets for success. I'm confident that the revenue from some of the skins for Invisible Woman and Psylocke outgrossed many entire games from last year.

Looking at this, it's tough to watch unfold, and even more confusing to try and make and kind of sense of it. As always, my thoughts are with those affected.