“Marvel Rivals” Publisher May Divest NA Studios

Earlier this week, it was announced that Chinese game publisher NetEase had laid off several American developers on the highly successful “Marvel Rivals” live service game.

That report spoke to a source who claimed they’d heard the layoffs were part of a broad decision by NetEase to pull out of North America.

A new report from Bloomberg yesterday indicated the cuts to the North American team weren’t an anomaly with more to come as NetEase undergoes reorganization to strengthen its position against larger rival Tencent Holdings.

Responding to the US layoffs, a NetEase representative said in an email to the outlet that “organizational reasons” led to the decision to “adjust Marvel Rivals’ development team structure” and the core development team for the game, led from China, continues.

The company also denied a claim in the report that they had considered cancelling the development of “Marvel Rivals” before it was released.

The outlet however claims NetEase wants to focus on “evergreen, mass-market game with recurring elements to entice spending” and deems “any game unlikely to generate hundreds of millions of dollars per year unworthy of pursuing”.

Shortly after that Bloomberg report was published, Game File posted a report claiming NetEase plans to divest itself of “the majority of its overseas teams” and is “actively shopping around more of its non-Chinese studios”.

In the past few years the company has created or acquired nearly 20 western (particular North American) and Japanese game studios geared toward new big-budget video games. Their source claims that if over a dozen or so of these studios can’t secure a buyer, they could face closure.

NetEase’s studio roster includes “Heavy Rain” and “Detroit: Become Human” creators Quantic Dream along with the likes of Anchor Point Studios, Grasshopper Manufacture, GPTRACK50, Jackalyptic Games, Nagoshi, Pincool, Rebel Wolves, Skybox Labs, Studio Flare, Spliced, Liquid Swords, Bad Brain Games, T-Minus Zero Entertainment, and more.

NetEase responded to that outlet saying: “All studios and projects are in constant review and evaluation, and NetEase will determine changes needed to be made throughout that process”.

Source: VGC

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