Marvel Rivals Took Hits In NetEase's CEO's Fickleness and Hard Pivot to Prioritizing Profits, Per Report

If NetEase seems fickle and unusual in its decision-making as of late, chances seem to be that that’s a worrying par for its CEO’s course. A new report took a deep dive into NetEase’s CEO and co-founder, William Ding, including unusual decisions made about its international hit Marvel Rivals. 

This investigation by Bloomberg emerged a week after the news that the North American team for Marvel Rivals, was laid off only weeks after the “competitive hero shooter’s” successful full launch. 

This lines up with reports that Ding is opting to tighten up the corporation’s international portfolio. However, even during the primary development process, Marvel Rivals reportedly faced trouble from Ding himself. 

The article discusses how Ding refused to pay the Walt Disney Company, which presently owns the majority of Marvel character rights, for those specific rights for certain characters’ iconic designs. In an effort to get around this, he asked NetEase’s own artists to create alternative designs for these characters. This initiative was eventually abandoned, costing the company millions in labor (and probably millions more to actually get the design rights). 

The report explains that “[s]ales potential is a top priority,” and that workers left after layoffs are worried about the CEO’s recent “volatility.” Ding has winded down support for many games, and has even recruited graduates in financial studies to ramp them up as game project leads.  

It’s all a peculiar turn of decisions, as NetEase was an early investor in the popular Devolver Digital studio as well as other studios overseas. However, it’s also likely not terribly surprising for those who kept an eye on the Blizzard and World of Warcraft saga in China; Despite the companies’ relationship through Diablo Immortal, NetEase dropped the developer’s Chinese support, only to cut another deal to bring it back this past August. 

NetEase also scrapped the studio behind last summer’s Visions of Mana mere days after the game’s release, much like the North American Marvel Rivals team, and remaining Japanese developers are supposedly being told to wrap up their projects quickly with no extensions. 

(Ta, Bloomberg.)