Marvel Rivals Dev: Focusing on Game Development, Not Trolling Dataminers

The community of Marvel Rivals has been abuzz with speculation as dataminers uncovered lists of potential future characters hidden within the game's code. The excitement was palpable when some of these names, like the Fantastic Four, were quickly confirmed as real additions to the game. However, as more names surfaced, rumors began to swirl that some could be red herrings planted by the developers to mislead eager dataminers.

The debate continues within the community about which, if any, of these datamined characters are genuinely in the pipeline for Marvel Rivals. To get to the bottom of this, we spoke directly with Marvel Rivals producer Weicong Wu and Marvel Games executive producer Danny Koo. They clarified that while there's no deliberate trolling going on, dataminers should approach the information with caution. Wu explained, "So firstly we want to say that we don't recommend anybody to make adjustments to the files [of the game]. Also, you can see that for each character's design actually we come through a very complicated process and we make a lot of concepts, trials, prototypes, development, et cetera. So there could be some information left in the code, and it might mean that we have tried those directions and they may appear or may not appear in our future plans. And whether or not they will appear in our future pipeline is highly depending on what kind of gameplay experience our players would expect in our game."

Koo added, "If I could have a ten-year plan, it'd be great. But the team experimented with a lot of play styles, heroes. It was like there's someone doing scratch paperwork and then just left a notebook there, and someone [a dataminer] decided to open it with no context." When pressed about whether they were intentionally misleading dataminers, Koo firmly stated, "No. We would rather spend our time developing the actual game."

During our conversation, we also delved into the process of selecting new characters for Marvel Rivals. Wu and Koo revealed that the team plans updates approximately a year in advance, aiming to introduce new characters every month and a half. The process begins with NetEase identifying the type of character and skillset needed to balance the game and diversify the roster. They compile a list of potential additions, focusing on adding new characters and experiences to keep the game fresh, fill gaps, support weaker characters with new team abilities, or counter overly strong ones.

Once NetEase has its list, they collaborate with Marvel Games to develop initial designs. They also consider community excitement and upcoming Marvel projects, such as films or comic arcs, to finalize their choices. This comprehensive approach explains the presence of numerous hero names in the game's code—NetEase is constantly exploring a wide range of ideas.

Marvel Rivals has been a hit since its launch, and the addition of new characters like the Human Torch and The Thing, set to join on February 21, only enhances its appeal. We also discussed the potential for a Nintendo Switch 2 release with Wu and Koo, which you can read about [ttpp].