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  1. Games
  2. Third Person Shooters
  3. Marvel Rivals

No, Marvel Rivals developer NetEase isn't intentionally planting fake leaks to mess with everyone, but its datamined characters aren't guaranteed to appear in the future, either

News
By Catherine Lewis published 17 February 2025

The devs "would rather spend our time developing the actual game" than catching people out with fake leaks

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Jeff the Land Shark as he appears in Marvel Rivals
(Image credit: Marvel/NetEase Games)
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Is Marvel Rivals developer NetEase Games really going out of its way to plant fake character leaks in its own code to catch out dataminers? Believe it or not, the answer is no, as its executive producer understandably says "we would rather spend our time developing the actual game."

After its launch last year, dataminers were quick to dive into the hero shooter's code to see if there were any clues in there that could point towards the inclusion of upcoming Marvel Rivals characters. While some findings – like the addition of the Fantastic Four – were bang on the money, as IGN reports, with so many names uncovered, rumors began to spread that some of them were actually fake, left in the code with the sole purpose of catching dataminers out. Speaking to IGN about the matter, producer Weicong Wu and executive producer Danny Koo confirm that this wasn't an elaborate scheme created to waste leakers' time, but also clarify that the heroes in question aren't guaranteed to appear later down the line, either.

Noting how complicated each character's development is, Wu acknowledges that "there could be some information left in the code, and it might mean that we have tried those directions and they may appear or may not appear in our future plans." As for what determines who'll make the cut, he says it's "highly [dependent] on what kind of gameplay experience our players would expect in our game." That's… rather vague, but I suppose he wouldn't want to give the game away entirely beyond confirming that some of those leaks might come true eventually.

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What is for sure is that there's no "ten-year plan" in place behind the scenes, even if Koo thinks "it'd be great" if he could have one. He likens the datamined information to a notebook left behind by "someone doing scratch paperwork," and someone then coming along and opening it "with no context." When directly asked if NetEase Games was purposefully trolling dataminers with this stuff, Koo says: "No. We would rather spend our time developing the actual game." You know what? Fair enough.

So, that list of datamined characters could be a gold mine of information, or it might all lead to nothing. At the very least, it seems to confirm that all of those named heroes have been considered in some capacity by NetEase Games before, so who knows, perhaps the likes of Professor X and Paste-Pot Pete could return later down the line.

After walking back on Marvel Rivals' mid-season rank reset, NetEase Games is also adjusting ranked rewards to give you more time to grab the free Invisible Woman skin

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CATEGORIES
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Catherine Lewis
Catherine Lewis
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Deputy News Editor

I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.

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