In a nutshell

• Layoffs have hit NetEase’s Marvel Rivals developers, including game director Thaddeus Sasser and level designer Jack Burrows.
• According to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, less than a dozen people were affected, as part of a broader reconsideration of NetEase’s overseas investments and studios.
• Despite Marvel Rivals’ success, with over 640,000 peak players on Steam, the layoffs raise concerns about the game’s future.

Layoffs have hit the Marvel Rivals developers NetEase, according to some members of the development team.

Marvel Rivals Layoffs Details

Several members of the Seattle Team, including one of the game directors, Thaddeus Sasser, and level designer Jack Burrows, have been laid off. A LinkedIn post by Sasser and a separate post by Burrows mention that the Seattle team has been serving as an R&D branch for the main development team in China.

“My stellar, talented team just helped deliver an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games… and were just laid off! Oh well! Times are tough all over – Let’s find these incredible people new jobs, because we all need to eat, right?” Sasser writes.

“Was an enormous pleasure to work with my American coworkers who join me in this sad culling. Just couldn’t dodge that big boot I guess, no matter how big the success of the gig.” exclaims Burrows.

According to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, less than a dozen people were affected by this. Some industry personalities peg the number at 6 people.

Ahmad says that this is “part of a broader reconsideration of NetEase’s overseas investments and studios. The firm has pulled funding from a number of overseas teams over the past year.”

“This doesn’t impact the games operation and the current roadmap is still the plan NetEase started its reevaluation last year, leading to closures of studios in Japan and the US. The reevaluation, which is still ongoing, is being undertaken for multiple reasons,” Ahmad further writes.

Marvel Rivals has been experiencing tremendous success since its launch late last year. The game reached an all-time peak of over 640,000 players on Steam. Despite this achievement, concerns about industry layoffs still being likely temper the optimism surrounding the game’s future.