NetEase denies report that its CEO tried to cut Marvel from Marvel Rivals because he didn't want to pay Disney for the license

Marvel Rivals has proven to be one of the breakout successes of 2024, drawing more than 40 million players. Nonetheless, a new report suggests that NetEase, the game's China-based publisher, is taking aggressive cost-cutting measures leaving many global developers out of work, and at one point it allegedly even considered cutting the Marvel license to avoid Disney's fees.

NetEase founder and CEO William Ding was unhappy about paying Disney for the Marvel license, according to a Bloomberg report citing anonymous sources familiar with the company's operations. There were reportedly talks of canceling the game, and Ding allegedly asked the game's artists to swap in original hero designs in an effort Bloomberg says "cost the company millions of dollars and was emblematic of the abrupt changes ushered in by the CEO." A NetEase spokesperson denied that account.

Despite the success of Marvel Rivals, a US-based team working on the game was laid off this week, following NetEase's withdrawal of funding from other global studios, including Worlds Untold in Canada and Jar of Sparks in the US. NetEase tells Bloomberg that less than 60 employees lost their jobs at those two studios and that these moves do not constitute a "wide scale layoff."

NetEase has also been cutting its investment in Japanese games, including 2024's shutdown of Visions of Mana studio Ouka. Bloomberg says that other Japanese studios under NetEase, including one founded by Yakuza series veteran Toshihiro Nagoshi, will be given time to finish their current projects, but will not receive additional funding or marketing support.

"I don't want to lay off a team I directly led and not include myself": Marvel Rivals game director says it'd be "poor leadership" if he wasn't laid off alongside his design team.