NetEase’s Marvel Rivals has just released its Season 5 update, bringing Gambit and his powerful abilities to the game. While the studio is working on the game’s mid-season update to add Rogue to the multiplayer game’s roster of heroes—as well as Deadpool and Elsa Bloodstone for next season—a major new feature is also in the works: the Black Market.
Right now, Marvel Rivals doesn’t have too much FOMO compared to other live-service games. If you’ve bought a battle pass, you can always finish it, and older battle passes are returning to the game. Additionally, older cosmetics frequently return to the game’s store to give players a second chance at nabbing missed skins.
However, Rivals is now offering a brand-new way of getting your hands on the game’s best cosmetics at a major discount in the form of the aforementioned Black Market. Discovered in a recent datamine of the title, this new feature will give players old cosmetics at a significant price cut… with a catch.
According to the leak, the new feature will offer some skins at almost half-price. If a player missed out on grabbing the game’s titillating Malice skin for Invisible Woman, or the Iron Spider skin for Spider-Man, they will be shown offers to get the skins for a cheaper price.
However, the leak claims that the skins available in the Marvel Rivals Black Market may be “randomised”, meaning that every player will be shown different deals compared to everyone else. It’s not known if these deals will be based on some form of algorithm for each player, pushing specific players towards skins they are more likely to buy.
Nevertheless, it is nice to see some kind of discount for skins in Marvel Rivals as they can be very pricey. To this day, I’ve never purchased a single skin for the game outside of its battle passes, despite being tempted by some Spider-Man and Venom ones, but I likely would shell out for a half-priced Man-Spider or Snow Symbiote.
At the end of the day, it’s all about money, and Marvel Rivals game director has been keen to add extra monetisation that doesn’t annoy players. Speaking to us last month, game director Guangyun Chen said: “When players find the game enjoyable and immersive, they naturally want to invest in it. That’s when they’ll start picking up costumes and other cosmetics.” And offering a more affordable way to get cosmetics? That’s a good move.
