Marvel Rivals, the smash-hit hero shooter from NetEase Games that launched last December, may have been close to being canceled before it ever saw its release, according to a new report. Marvel Rivals has made a lot of money for NetEase in less than three months, and while its future seems solid now, its early ties to Disney reportedly could have stopped it from being launched altogether.
The game became an instant hit for NetEase when it launched on December 6, 2024, generating peak concurrent player numbers in excess of 444,000 within its first 24 hours of availability and being played by more than 10 million players within its first three days, dominating Steam's user charts. More recently, Marvel Rivals reached another player milestone, with an earnings call confirming that its maximum player count had climbed to 40 million.
A former Marvel Rivals director claims that he is responsible for creating one of the popular hero shooter's most unique features.
In a new report released by Bloomberg, an unnamed source with apparent ties to NetEase stated that the game's development was nearly cut short by founder William Ding, claiming he was reluctant to pay Disney for the rights to...
