The Marvel Rivals game director who led the recently laid off US-based design team was also affected by the staff cuts, he's now clarified, saying that it "would be some poor leadership" not to include himself.
Game director Thaddeus Sasser revealed on LinkedIn earlier this week that despite his "stellar, talented team" helping deliver "an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals," they "were just laid off!" At the time, the scale of the layoffs wasn't clear, but NetEase Games soon confirmed "a reduction of a design team based in Seattle that is part of a larger global design function in support of Marvel Rivals."
In a new comment on his LinkedIn post, Sasser has clarified that he is included among the group affected, stating: "I don't want to lay off a team I directly led and not include myself. That would be some poor leadership in my mind. I like to lead the way when things are difficult."
Despite Sasser's role being game director, NetEase Games previously stated that the "core development team" of Marvel Rivals is still "fully committed to delivering an exceptional experience," noting that it "continues to be led by lead producer Weicong Wu and game creative director Guangyun Chen in Guangzhou, China."
These layoffs have come as an enormous, unpleasant surprise, with Marvel Rivals continuing to be a hit, and NetEase itself celebrating it as such. The company's latest financial results were published today, in which it confirms that the third-person hero shooter has accumulated over 40 million players to date. NetEase CEO and director William Ding also shares a statement in the results recognizing the company's "new hit titles," which he says "not only redefined gameplay but also set new industry benchmarks."
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