Revelations of new layoffs in the gaming industry in 2025 is nothing new, but it will always raise eyebrows when it happens to those working on a massive success like Marvel Rivals.
A game director at Marvel Rivals‘ publisher NetEase Games, Thaddeus Sasser, revealed yesterday how his entire Seattle-based team for NetEase were let go in a post on LinkedIn. The team “specialized in game and level design in the Seattle area to work on Marvel Rivals,” according to Sasser, while “offering guidance, strategy, and design direction over the last couple of years.”
The news indeed came as a surprise to many in the community, considering the Marvel Rivals’ huge success in its first couple of months since launching. And even top gamers and streamers like Shroud, who’s been greatly enjoying the game and looking to start an organization for esports competition in it, sounded off with his thoughts on the situation.
“It’s kind of shitty, but it’s kind of pointless now,” Shroud said during a recent live stream. “They should have repurposed them, though. The right thing to do is, your game is successful, and find a way to repurpose these guys instead of canning them, so that sucks. My guess is NetEase wants to keep their business and all of their branches in China, not in America.”
Unfortunately for those affected, repurposing these developers was not in the cards, and it appears Shroud was thinking in the right direction when it comes to NetEase wanting to centralize its workers in China. According to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, “less than a dozen” workers were laid off at the Seattle office, and the move was “part of a broader reconsideration of NetEase’s overseas investments and studios.”
“This is such a weird industry,” Sasser said on LinkedIn of his co-workers being relieved of their duties. “My stellar, talented team just helped deliver an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games…and were just laid off.”
Shroud recently led the charge supporting free-to-play FPS Spectre Divide in an advisory role alongside its early access launch in September 2024. Shortly after, the game’s developer at Mountaintop Studios suffered from layoffs after the game’s excitement and player count dropped off.
