Seattle Marvel Rivals Team Laid Off In A Cruel Cutting Of Costs
February 19, 2025
Despite Marvel Rivals being one of the most prominent and actively played games at the moment, even its success hasn't been enough to prevent layoffs. A rather innocent LinkedIn post by Thaddeus Sasser, announcing the forced leave of his Seattle-based team, has grown into quite the scandal for NetEase. It got to the point that an official statement was forced out of the Chinese company.
While it's easy to point fingers at NetEase for internal mismanagement, the bigger picture isn't exactly available to all of us. Unfortunately, it's impossible for us to know what really motivated these layoffs, but here we'll explore all the facts available to us.
The Actual Impact On NetEase's American Division
Layoffs in the video game industry are always going to invoke a strong, negative reaction. Nobody wants to see others getting fired, and companies have gotten into the bad habit of laying off employees in big waves. The situation with the Seattle-based Marvel Rivals development team definitely is a bad look for NetEase, but they've not exactly done something super sinister.
From what has been reported, 6 people were laid off from the Seattle Marvel Rivals design team. That's tough, but a small, remote division like that is unfortunately always going to be at risk of downsizing. And to clarify another major talking point, Thaddeus Sasser was indeed a former Marvel Rivals director, but he was never the creative director of the game. Sasser was in charge of more logistical matters during the development of Marvel Rivals, which NetEase presumably saw no more use for.
NetEase's Official Statement On The Layoffs
Because of fan backlash, NetEase had no choice but to address the layoffs. The company called it a "difficult decision" that was made for "organizational reasons" and to help improve their "development efficiency." Reading between the lines, it appears that NetEase may have prioritized shifting more development responsibilities to local Chinese developers over maintaining the Seattle-based team.
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NetEase honestly wasn't all that bothered about the reaction to the layoffs themselves. Instead, they were a lot more concerned about being perceived as unnecessarily frugal. As a result, the company felt the need to clarify that they're working harder than ever on the game. Ultimately, that is what fans should expect, as the core development team remains untouched.
You can refer to NetEase's official statement below:
Even great success doesn't guarantee job security. It's a tough pill to swallow, but the video game industry is a cruel one. The Marvel Rivals layoff situation has definitely been blown out of proportion, but it's still sad to see. Real people are being affected, and it is important to acknowledge that.
