Marvel Rivals Fans Went From Rage To Joy When One Change Was Canceled Within A Day

NetEase Games started the week by announcing that its popular competitive shooter Marvel Rivals planned to reset player ranks halfway through Season 1. Less than 24 hours later, it issued another update stating that it wouldn’t be doing that after all, citing significant pushback from fans after the plan’s initial announcement. Players immediately applauded NetEase for responding to their concerns, but as plenty of live-service games have seen before, balancing planned changes with player feedback can be a perilous game for developers.

On February 10, NetEase announced some changes coming to Marvel Rivals for its mid-season update on February 21. Along with the welcome addition of the Fantastic Four’s Human Torch and the Thing, it said that players in the game’s ranked competitive mode would see their ranking drop by four divisions. The plan was for each season to have a similar rank drop in the middle, but NetEase noted that it could change exactly how that works, saying “We will tune this as necessary.”

Then, in the early morning hours of February 11, NetEase said that the tuning had in fact begun. The developer announced that it’s entirely doing away with mid-season rank resets. It’s instead sticking with a single rank reset at the start of each season, which will drop players by six divisions.

Player rank in Marvel Rivals is about more than pride. Players at rank Gold or above receive an in-game costume to reward their performance, with even higher ranks earning competitors further rewards. Doing away with the rank reset means more players could potentially be receiving the items, but to make sure that everyone who gets one is still participating in ranked play, they’ll still need to complete at least ten matches to be eligible for rewards.

NetEase detailed the change of direction in a blog post, and a social media post sharing the announcement specifically thanked players for their “passionate discussions and feedback” about the planned reset. Fans of the game immediately celebrated the reversal in the post’s replies, including by calling out developers of other live-service games like Overwatch for not being as responsive to feedback.

Players are clearly happy with NetEase for changing its plans in response to their concerns. As a live-service game, Marvel Rivals is beholden to its fans to introduce changes that keep them happy, but as we’ve seen time and time again, today’s celebration of NetEase could easily turn into tomorrow’s seething resentment.

It’s true that games like Overwatch can often be slow in responding to player demands, but that’s not always a bad thing. Tweaking a game with a massive following too quickly can also have consequences, as it could introduce bugs, throw off an existing balance between characters, or otherwise move in a direction that players aren’t happy with. Just look at how quickly some vocal players turned on Helldivers 2 for making seemingly small adjustments that changed the game in ways they didn’t like.

Rolling back mid-season resets seems to be a win all around. The problem is, it could also set a precedent that leads players to expect their requests to be validated in a similar way — and with similar speed — in the future. Cancelling a planned change is clearly much easier than making fixes to what’s already in the game, but that distinction could be lost on players who have come to expect NetEase to listen to their concerns and adjust course immediately.

For now, Marvel Rivals still enjoys the good graces of its player base, and NetEase’s decision to listen to fans this time seems to have only improved its profile. But the replies to its first rank reset announcement make it clear that some of the “passionate discussions” that led to the reversal were already tipping into outrage and insults. If the people posting those comments get the idea that they can pressure the developer into indulging them, the goodwill that envelopes Marvel Rivals now may not last forever.