Marvel Rivals has proven to be one of the breakout successes of 2024, drawing more than 40 million players. Nonetheless, a new report suggests that NetEase, the game's China-based publisher, is taking aggressive cost-cutting measures leaving many global developers out of work, and at one point it allegedly even considered cutting the Marvel license to avoid Disney's fees.
NetEase founder and CEO William Ding was unhappy about paying Disney for the Marvel license, according to a Bloomberg report citing anonymous sources familiar with the company's operations. There were reportedly talks of canceling the game, and Ding allegedly asked the game's artists to swap in original hero designs in an effort Bloomberg says "cost the company millions of dollars and was emblematic of the abrupt changes ushered in by the CEO." A NetEase spokesperson denied that account.
