Several NetEase employees working on the upcoming Marvel: Rivals have reportedly been arrested for allegedly running a money laundering scheme valued in the hundreds of millions USD. The bust took place in Hangzhou in China, with NetEase’s general manager Xiang Lang being among those taken into custody, according to a Nov. 7 Vice report.
Those arrested were reportedly “high-ranking” members of the company taken in by NetEase’s own “anti-corruption department” after being accused of money laundering. Vice reports that “the contract value involved in this case is approximately 2 billion yuan (roughly $280,025,762 USD), and the actual amount involved is estimated to be between 800 million and 1 billion yuan, and 28 suppliers have been affected.” It would also seem most of these employees who were taken in, including general manager Xiang Lang, have been let go from the company following the arrests.
NetEase is currently working on numerous projects, including Marvel: Rivals and Destiny: Rising, both of which are attached to massive western IPs and have seen tremendous audiences, especially the former. Whether this alleged money laundering situation will affect these titles and their development remains uncertain for now, though, given how quickly NetEase itself acted to remove the accused perpetrators, we could speculate that the development of these titles will likely continue to be developed at the same pace.
Marvel: Rivals is currently aiming for a Dec. 6 release and, seeing how popular its beta spells were this summer, it’s safe to say we’re looking at one of the biggest game releases this year, which would close off the stellar year of 2024 (at least in terms of releases—layoffs are a whole other story) in style.
