The datamining community surrounding Marvel Rivals has been buzzing with excitement and speculation after discovering lists of potential future characters hidden within the game's code. While some of these characters, like the Fantastic Four, were quickly confirmed upon their official announcement, the growing list has led to rumors that some names might be deliberate misdirections planted by the developers at NetEase and Marvel.
The debate within the community continues about the validity of these datamined characters. Recently, we had the chance to speak with Marvel Rivals producer Weicong Wu and Marvel Games executive producer Danny Koo to get to the bottom of this. Both executives emphasized that their focus is on developing the game rather than engaging in pranks. 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 directly asked if they were trolling the community, Koo firmly stated, "No. We would rather spend our time developing the actual game."
During our discussion, we also explored how new characters are selected for inclusion in Marvel Rivals. Wu and Koo revealed that the team plans updates about a year in advance and aims to add new characters every month and a half. The process begins with NetEase identifying the type of character and skillset needed to balance and diversify the roster. They generate a list of potential additions, focusing more on introducing new characters and experiences rather than extensively tweaking existing ones. This approach helps keep the game fresh, supports weaker characters, and counters overly strong ones.
After compiling their list, NetEase collaborates with Marvel Games on initial designs. They also consider current community interests and upcoming Marvel projects, such as films or comic arcs, to finalize their selections. This explains the presence of various heroes in the game's code, as NetEase continuously explores multiple ideas.
Marvel Rivals has been a hit since its launch, with each new character addition enhancing the game's appeal. The Human Torch and The Thing are set to join the roster on February 21. Additionally, Wu and Koo discussed the potential for a Nintendo Switch 2 release, which you can read more about here.
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