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.
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.
