Marvel Rivals has been a huge hit for NetEase. The Chinese publisher recently reported the free-to-play hero shooter had over 40 million players. But the Overwatch clone was almost canceled over the licensing fees the company would owe to Disney for using its popular comic book characters.

Following an extremely sudden cut to the Marvel Rivals development team, it appears NetEase is going through even larger internal discussions about releasing an

A Seattle-based team that contributed to development on the popular online action game Marvel Rivals has reportedly been dismissed

NetEase's Marvel Rivals can't be described as anything less than a hit, netting ten million players in just three days from launch and raking in millions for developer NetEase in the weeks since. But a new report suggests that NetEase CEO and founder William Ding nearly canceled the game due to a reluctance to use licensed IP.

According to a report from Bloomberg, the cuts to the North American team working on Marvel Rivals aren’t an anomaly. NetEase founder and CEO William Ding is reported to have cut hundreds of jobs, closed studios, and taken a firmer hand with the company’s Japanese teams — including the one led by former Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio head Toshihiro Nagoshi.

Amidst the abrupt layoffs of some employees who worked Marvel Rivals, it's now reported that the game's cancelation was considered prior to its release, which is a surprising revelation, given it has already surpassed 40 million players.

As a result, NetEase said they've seen $2.9 billion in revenue from Marvel Rivals over the past quarter, thanks to over 40 million players, an increase of 1.5% compared to 2023. What makes that even more impressive is that Marvel Rivals was released in December, the quarter's final month.

Marvels Rivals, which has been a huge success for publisher NetEase since its launch last year, reportedly almost didn't make it to release. It's claimed the company considered cancelling the project because its CEO objected to paying Disney for use of its characters.

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 o