Marvel Rivals lead confirms future content will be created “in a systemic manner” with the MCU and comics, but nothing will “disrupt” the game’s rapid updates

NetEase’s Marvel Rivals is one of the biggest free-to-play games around, and that’s only helped by the developer’s rapid release of new characters, maps and events. While the game has benefitted from a number of MCU tie-in skins, NetEase’s collaborations may increase in the coming years.

Speaking to VideoGamer ahead of the release of Season 3, which adds Blade and Phoenix as playable characters and makes huge changes to the game’s progression systems, game director Guangyun Chen confirmed that more tie-ins are in the works.

Marvel Rivals content will be created systemically

After explaining that the Marvel Rivals team are allowed to use any character Marvel owns over its entire 85-year history, we asked Chen if they feel Rivals could be more or less successful if it based content around upcoming releases.

While the game director did deflect that specific question, Chen explained that, while “the development of Marvel Rivals are [sic] driven by its own universe and seasonal storylines”, the studio is working to bring content to the game in line with other big releases from the comic book brand.

“We have carefully planned the content for several upcoming seasons in advance,” Chen explained, “and are currently developing it in a systemic manner”.

Chen explained that the team is “closely monitoring the release schedules of comics and movies” coming out of Marvel for potential skins, game modes and more when it feels appropriate. While this may be seen as a negative by some, the game director promises that nothing will “disrupt” the features that the team wants to add.

“We are closely monitoring the release schedules of comics and movies, and we will incorporate relevant content when appropriate,” he explained. “However, this will not disrupt our own content development timeline.”

Marvel Rivals has already had numerous MCU tie-in drops with promotional skins, including a Red Hulk bonus for fans who watched the truly heinous Captain America: Brave New World. However, this could mean that more exciting tie-ins like limited-time game modes or even character launches could be tied into major marketing milestones.

Could Doctor Doom be added to tie-in with Avengers: Doomsday? Maybe a Blade-themed game mode for the Blade movie? Oh wait, that’s never coming out. Daredevil for Born Again Season 2? Although, if they wanna get weird with characters, maybe add Foggy Nelson as a playable hero instead.