Marvel Rivals almost got axed before launch due to concerns about paying Disney for Marvel character rights.

Despite financial success, the game faced layoffs as NetEase cut the US-based team working on it.

NetEase assures players that the China-based team is working on new content for the hero shooter.

In a new report released by Bloomberg, an unnamed source with apparent ties to NetEase stated that the game's development was nearly cut short by founder William Ding, claiming he was reluctant to pay Disney for the rights to use the names and likenesses of the heroes and villains of the Marvel Comics universe to fill out the Marvel Rivals roster.

Another claim coming from this same source is that Ding also toyed with the idea of continuing the game's development without any connection to Marvel and Disney, asking NetEase's in-house artists to create their own original brand of superheroes to replace the Marvel characters that were already being developed for the game.

A spokesperson for the publisher/developer has reportedly denied both of these claims and emphasized a longstanding positive working relationship between NetEase and Disney.

Source - Gamerant 

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