“Unforeseen Challenges: The Crew Behind Surprise Opponents Faces Layoffs Amidst Striving for Success”
By The free-to-play hero shooter, Marvel Opponents, has achieved remarkable success for publisher NetEase, overcoming the 20 million player milestone just weeks post-launch and consistently drawing over 250K daily concurrent players on Steam. However, this achievement has not prevented NetEase from implementing layoffs within the US development team that contributed to its success.
Marvel Opponents game director Thaddeus Sasser announced the job cuts at NetEase’s Seattle-based studio in a LinkedIn post. “This industry is quite peculiar,” he expressed. “My impressive, skilled team just helped launch an astonishingly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games… and we have all just been laid off!”
Sasser did not specify the number of individuals who have lost their jobs following NetEase’s decision – Eurogamer has contacted the publisher for additional details – but Marvel Opponents level designers Jack Burrows and Garry McGee both confirmed they had been impacted in individual posts.
“Well, I just got laid off from my role on Marvel Rivals with NetEase,” Burrows stated. “It was a tremendous privilege to collaborate with my American colleagues who share this unfortunate experience. I suppose I couldn’t dodge that colossal boot, regardless of the significant success of the project.”
McGee expressed a similar feeling, stating, “My team recently assisted in the development and launch of Marvel Rivals, which turned out to be a greater success than any of us anticipated! Sadly, my team was also laid off. Indeed, these are strange times in the industry.”
Although NetEase’s choice may seem shocking in light of Marvel Opponents’ impressive success, this action follows layoffs at several of its western studios. For instance, in November, BioWare’s former leader Mac Walters announced a “pause” in operations at his NetEase-supported Worlds Untold. Likewise, Jar of Sparks – a first-party NetEase developer established by Halo Infinite head designer Jerry Hook in 2022 – halted progress on its currently-unrevealed debut title in January, laying off staff and began seeking a new publishing partner.
This week also witnessed an undisclosed number of layoffs at the Swedish developer Liquid Swords, which was established in 2020 by Avalanche Studios’ Christofer Sundberg with financing from NetEase.
As we discuss, the ongoing layoffs present a bleak trend for the gaming industry, which has seen over 25,000 employees lose their jobs since the start of 2023. Less than two m