Following various leaks over the past few days and the announcement of a collaboration nearly five years ago, NetEase and Marvel Games have finally announced Marvel Rivals, an Overwatch-like third-person shooter game featuring 6v6 PvP matches filled with superheroes and villains. Marvel Rivals is being developed for PC by a global team that includes talent with credits on shooter franchises like Battlefield and Call of Duty.
A Closed Alpha test (signups are available on the website) will be conducted in May with over a dozen playable characters. The full roster includes the following eighteen characters:
Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Groot, Hulk, Iron Man, Loki, Luna Snow, Magik, Magneto, Mantis, Namor, Peni Parker, Rocket Raccoon, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Storm, Star-Lord and The Punisher.
Players will be able to mix their character's abilities with those of others thanks to the so-called Team-Up Skills. For instance, Rocket Raccoon may ride on Groot's back to take on foes as the iconic duo, while Hulk's Gamma energy can supercharge Iron Man's armor to deal massive damage.
The maps will feature iconic places like Asgard as well as futuristic settings such as Tokyo 2099. Moreover, they will be destructible, allowing super-powered characters to reshape the environments to their advantage. The original storyline sees a clash between Doctor Doom and his counterpart from 2099, which forced universes to collide in the so-called Timestream Entanglement. Heroes and villains are now fighting together and against one another as the groups seeks to defeat both Dooms.
Of course, NetEase intends to use the Marvel universe to its fullest with new playable characters and maps introduced with each seasonal drop.
Marvel Rivals Producer Stephen Wu said:
We are overjoyed to bring Marvel Rivals to players around the world. We have always loved Marvel’s universe and its characters, and we are so excited to develop this game. This is the game we want to make, and we feel very lucky to be the team who made all of this come true.
Ethan Wang, Senior Vice President at NetEase, stated:
NetEase Games is excited to collaborate with Marvel Games to deliver a thrilling, fast-paced cooperative gameplay experience featuring all of your favorite Super Heroes. This partnership with Marvel Games continues our commitment to build world-class development teams and reach global audiences with cutting edge experiences.
Jay Ong, Head of Marvel Games, added:
Marvel Rivals is one of our most ambitious game development projects. Since the conceptualization of the game and throughout our collaboration, our Marvel team has poured our hearts and souls into this project, and we are thrilled to work with the incredible team at NetEase Games to help deliver the ultimate Super Hero team-based PVP shooter.
