Look, when a game is doing really poorly or it’s on its last legs, you kind of expect to see layoffs. 2024 and 2025, though, have seen the rules on these things tossed aside with major gaming companies laying off employees to a staggering degree. Apparently, when your hero-shooter pulls in massive numbers like Marvel Rivals has, you still aren’t exactly safe.
According to a post on LinkedIn, Game Director Thaddeus Sasser confirmed, “This is such a weird industry… My stellar, talented team just helped deliver an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games… …and were just laid off!”
Sasser goes on to extol the virtues of Garry McGee and the technical designing experience McGee could bring to any team that’s looking for staff. I would expect Sasser to continue posting on behalf of other employees impacted by the layoffs.
Level Designer Jack Burrows also confirmed they were impacted saying, “Welp, just got laid off from my job working on Marvel Rivals with NetEase. Was an enormous pleasure to work with my American coworkers who join me in this sad culling. Just couldn’t dodge that big boot I guess, no matter how big the success of the gig.”
Layoffs seemed to be centered around the North American team supporting Marvel Rivals, but we’ve reached out to NetEase regarding the situation and will update this post as we hear more on the level of impact, what specific departments were reduced, and what the remaining team looks like.
This certainly wasn’t the game I thought I’d be reporting on next when it came to layoffs, though.
DEVELOPING.
In this article: NetEase, Marvel Rivals.
Victoria Rose 
Christina Gonzalez