Marvel Rivals' Game Director Thaddeus Sasser has been laid off. Not only Sasser but the entire team under his guidance working from Seattle to help NetEase ship the immensely popular hero shooter was also laid off.
Sasser explained via his personal LinkedIn that all the staff working as a small studio based in the United States supporting the main team in Asia is no longer working on the game. The Seattle studio acted as a research and development type of branch most of the time, he explained.
In essence, Sasser and his team got to take on more experimental duties, developing level design and gameplay mechanics to make Marvel Rivals a fresh, unique experience within the hero shooter genre.
The decision to lay off a team that, in Sasser's words, did a particularly important job for a hero shooter that needs to constantly pump out content in the form of new maps and characters to play is bizarre.
Other members of the Seattle studio confirmed Sasser's initial post. Level designer Jack Burrows mentioned that "no matter the success of the gig," sometimes you can't avoid the "big boot."
No matter how big, no one is safe from layoffs
In early January, it was reported that Marvel Rivals had generated over $130 million in revenue. A strong debut for a free-to-play shooter in an oversaturated market that's seen the likes of Concord flop historically or Overwatch 2 fall from the grace of players in recent years.
It's a sad state of affairs for the gaming industry. The higher-ups continuously need to stash their pockets with absurd amounts of money, usually at the expense of the hard-working people who bring these types of smash hits to their front doors.
In any case, the content machine that is Marvel Rivals won't stop anytime soon. The Human Torch and The Thing are set to come out on February 21, marking the third and fourth post-launch characters to be released after Invisible Woman and Mr. Fantastic.