One of the Chinese tech giants tried to pull a stunt with a game based on the heroes of the Disney-owned comic book company, but the public didn’t take it well and backed out of the idea.

One streamer, Brandon Larned, shared some details of NetEase’s draft contract on social media. He was very disappointed with Marvel Rivals. Several content creators have requested a code for the game so they can access it during the playtesting phase, and NetEase has shoved a contract in their faces. So far, there is nothing wrong with what the Chinese company is doing, as they need some sort of non-disclosure agreement (NDA). However, NetEase also pointed out that by signing the contract, the influencers also lose their right to review the game negatively, which means that anyone who wants to participate in playtesting Marvel Rivals cannot criticize it! Larned said that the problem is that many people have not even read the contract, so the devil is in the fine print.

NetEase told PCGamesN that it will then review its contract with the content creators. In a statement, the Chinese company said, “The contract is a draft version aimed at long-term cooperation with the creators interested in Marvel Rivals. The development team hopes to receive more meaningful and consistent feedback, suggestions and criticism through deeper cooperation.” NetEase also posted on the Discord server set up for Marvel Rivals content creators to review the terms.

NetEase announced Marvel Rivals about a month ago, and it is currently in closed alpha testing. At this time, there is no plan for when we can expect the game to be released. The Unreal Engine 5-powered hero shooter (like Overwatch 2 or Cliff Bleszinski aka CliffyB’s LawBreakers, which is currently trying to revive itself) is being developed for PC and Mac and will use a free-to-play business model.

NetEase may have done this because they are used to it in China, where you can’t criticize everything freely.

Source: Gamesindustry, PCGamesN