I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a game developer retreat so quickly after announcing a very unpopular change to its very successful live-service multiplayer game. Last night, NetEase announced Marvel Rivals players would have their competitive rank nerfed mid-season. Barely a few hours later, the company said that it would actually not be doing that at all.
Ranked modes have become common in online multiplayer games, and it would be boring if players finally attained a rank commensurate with their skill level and then barely ever budged. So like many games, Marvel Rivals takes players several pegs down the ranked ladder at the start of every season to give them a new goal to grind toward. Unlike many games, Marvel Rivals also wanted to do this during the middle of each season too.
“Ranks will be reset when the second half of Season 1 starts on February 21, 2025,” the game’s developers announced on February 10. “Based on your standing at the end of the first half of Season 1, prepare for a drop of four divisions. For example, if you ended the first half of Season 1 at Diamond I, you’ll start the second half at Platinum II.”
The 500,000 member Marvel Rivals subreddit immediately rebelled against the decision. “De-ranks twice a season for Players below gold will kill this game,” read one upvoted thread. “Honestly mid season de-ranks make me want to play less,” read another. “Dropping ranks mid season is a TERRIBLE idea,” read a third. As one player in the subreddit put it, “Why bother with Ranked if my Rank is reset every month?”
It only took NetEase a few hours to recalibrate. “After the release of Dev Talk 10 regarding the seasonal rank adjustment, we received a wealth of feedback from the community,” it wrote in an updated dev diary. “When the second half of the season begins, there will be no rank reset. Players will retain their ranks and scores from the end of the first half.”
Marvel Rivals will still give players who hit gold rank their rewards on February 21, but instead of needing to rank back up following that date to unlock the rest, they’ll merely need to complete 10 additional matches in competitive mode before the end of the season. Doing so will unlock the second set of rewards, including a new Gold rank costume and a variety of Crests of Honor, featuring distinct designs for Grandmaster, Celestial, Eternity, and One Above All.
Live-service games are a delicate dance between developers trying to maintain the overall health and longevity of the game while players want to Have Fun, and not feel Screwed Over. Even beloved hits like Helldivers 2 have occasionally missed the mark when it comes to this balancing act. Kudos to Marvel Rivals for course correcting so quickly.
.