As Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday crawls ever-closer to release, the team behind Marvel Rivals is feeling the heat. As the NetEase team works on their own Road to Doomsday crossover, the team is working harder than ever to ensure that leaks are minimal.
Road to Doomsday is, obviously, heavily tied to the Avengers: Doomsday movie, which releases later this month. As leak culture continues to ramp up, especially around superhero properties, NetEase is trying harder than ever to plug-up any way for dataminers to uncover its big plans for the crossover event.
“We are doing everything we can to prevent any leaks for this important event,” game director Guangyun Chen explained in a recent interview with FRVR. While leaks will inevitably occur, the team is working to keep some surprises before the event’s release, especially anything intrinsically tied to the movie’s plot.
Of course, that doesn’t stop leaks from occurring. Just a few days ago, Doctor Doom and Nightcrawler leaks released online for the popular hero shooter, two characters that will be central to the upcoming movie. Additionally, Avengers: Doomsday itself has seen an almost exorbitant number of leaks over the past year, although we won’t know how many are actually true until it releases later this month.
In our interview, Chen also teased that some of the game’s recent hero additions do have a role to play in the Road to Doomsday. “S10 introduced Gorr the God Butcher, who is relevant to our lore, ahead of Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Doomsday, which we have big plans for also,” they teased.
Talking in a previous FRVR interview, Chen explained that the near-constant leaks and rumours surrounding Marvel Rivals can be upsetting for those working on the game. “While leaks are often a natural byproduct of a passionate community and modern live-service development, they can be frustrating for a team that has spent a year or more planning a ‘big reveal’”, the director said.
For example, one of Rivals’ biggest promotional plans revolved around the surprise introduction of Deadpool to the hero shooter. While NetEase prepared a massive promotion for the character, even teasing his addition in-game, the mercenary’s addition was leaked almost a year before his release, which took the wind out of the reveal’s sails.
Nevertheless, Chen explained that the team is working hard to “optimise our technical capabilities to prevent more leaks from occurring”. As the team becomes more entwined with the releases of Marvel Studios’ film output with plans for years of additional support, there’s a much larger need for secrecy, especially when fans love to snoop.
With the Marvel Rivals Season 10.5 release date almost upon us, fans will soon get to play as Thanos, the Mad Titan, in a brand-new season. As Doomsday approaches, just what will happen to the state of the online multiplayer game?
