Marvel Rivals studio NetEase has now responded to hours of fan backlash aimed at a new costume for Storm, promising that the X-Men icon will receive more cosmetics in the future.
This week, Marvel Rivals announced a new set of Summer Special swimsuit cosmetics for a bunch of heroes, including beach-themed skins for Magik and Scarlet Witch, but it's Storm's summer costume in particular that spurred intense online backlash within the community.
A 'JusticeForStorm' hashtag went semi-viral, and all of Marvel Rivals' online posts were flooded with complaints accusing the game of neglecting the weather-controlling mutant, at best, and of racial bias against the game's limited roster of black heroes, at worst.
For context, Storm's Sacred Skies skin was the only swimsuit cosmetic for a female character to be Epic tier, rather than the Legendary skins that every other woman in the heroic lineup enjoyed. That also meant the cosmetic came without the modified visual effects that Legendary skins normally offer - plus, the bundle's very limited recolor options didn't help matters. Having the only black woman in the game excluded certainly didn't look good to many.
And while the subpar Storm skin may have been the catalyst, criticism of Marvel Rivals' (mis)management of black heroes has been bubbling for months now. One player noted that Black Panther hasn't gotten a store skin in well over a year, while Storm's one and only Legendary skin came almost two years ago.
Of course, Marvel Rivals is a free-to-play superhero shooter that lives or dies based on cosmetic sales, so you'd expect NetEase to put more resources into its best-selling characters. That's understandable, sure. But white heroes with similar pick rates often receive far more support than characters like Blade, Moon Girl, and Black Panther - and the concept of Elsa Bloodstone, of all people, getting more support than Storm, a frequent X-leader and comic book trailblazer, is pretty absurd even without the wider context.
"We've seen the community's feedback regarding today's announcement of Storm's most recent costume as well as the overall sentiment towards her cosmetic options," developer NetEase writes in a new social media post. "We hear your passion and want to share our plan going forward with the community."
For starters, the studio is upgrading the Sacred Skies swimsuit into a Legendary costume at no extra cost to buyers. "This upgrade will include an all-new lobby animation and an updated MVP animation" at its current price of $16.
Looking to the future, NetEase is also promising "there will be more Storm Legendary tier costumes coming, so please keep your eyes on the skies over the rest of the year."
All the discourse may have made NetEase reverse course on its plans, but the studio is still quite rightly urging players to keep things respectful: "While we understand that tensions run high, harassment of our staff, including the development team and moderators, is not acceptable. As the upgrades will take some time, please be patient, as we are already hard at work on the above. Get ready for the Mistress of the Elements to reign over the battlefield soon."
