NetEase has reportedly laid off Marvel Rivals‘ US-based development team, for reasons that remain unclear. By all accounts, the game has been a massive success worldwide, but it appears even that isn’t enough to stop the ongoing industry layoffs.
Posting to LinkedIn, game director Thaddeus Sasser confirmed his departure, while encouraging other teams to pick up his talented co-workers. “This is such a weird industry,” he said. “My stellar, talented team just helped deliver an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games… and were just laid off!”
He confirmed departing staff include a range of US-based level designers, including technical designer Garry McGee. Sasser has pledged to highlight a new staff member every day, in an effort to elevate their profile for future hiring.
Notably, reporter Nick Calandra has heard that “all six people of the American division for Marvel Rivals were let go.” It doesn’t appear the wider Marvel Rivals team has been impacted, and it appears development work continues in other parts of NetEase (which is largely based in China).
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Given the studio recently released a new developer update for the game, we can consider this to be the case.
To date, Marvel Rivals has been incredibly successful, with 20 million players gathered by its first week in operation. In January 2025, the game’s first-month revenue was estimated at around USD $130 million. Since then, that number is likely to have climbed.
With these stats, and ongoing conversations around the game, it’s difficult to see why layoffs were seemingly necessary. It could be that tumult within the United States – threats of trade wars and tariffs, changes to government departments – may have inspired the reported shuttering of Marvel Rivals‘ US division, but that remains speculation.
At this stage, all we know is several members of the game’s US-based development team are now out of work, in one of the most difficult times for the games industry yet. As it turns out, not even bringing a multi-million dollar success to market is enough to save a games job in the modern industry. It really is an unfortunate time all around.
