NetEase has taken an interesting approach to seasons in its live service game.
The Marvel Rivals development team revealed the gameplay for the upcoming character, Ultron, and showed more of the two-and-a-half seasons ahead of its release on Friday, May 30. The studio also released patch notes for the latest game update, detailing all the balancing changes and fixes. The Hellfire Gala Moments event has been extended for another week, until the end of the season. In addition to Ultron entering the game, NetEase has added a new map and made significant changes to Team-Up abilities, such as the Jeff-Nado collaboration.
Season two and a half will also include a new limited-time mode. It will arrive on June 6 and be called Ultron’s Battle Matrix Protocol. This mode allows six players to select their hero lineup and hone their skills before competing against other players. According to the press release, this mode demonstrates how the development team is trying to bring players’ Marvel superhero and supervillain fantasies to life.
This is the last season to use the old structure, so it will last three months. NetEase confirmed this in April, before the second season began. Starting with the third season, each season of Marvel Rivals will last two months, with a new character and features added monthly. Weekly missions have also been introduced for the second season, giving players more to do on top of daily challenges.
The question remains whether the expansion of Marvel Rivals will come at the expense of quality. What is certain is that NetEase’s live service product thoroughly drained the Overwatch 2 player base, but Blizzard is also trying to fight back (at least somewhat). Will quality suffer defeat at the hands of quantity? We shall see.
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