Marvel Rivals - release date estimate, gameplay, story

NetEase has officially announced Marvel Rivals, an Overwatch-style hero shooter that puts you into the shoes of various heroes and villains from the beloved Marvel IP. Currently a PC-exclusive, this free-to-play shooter will put you into 6v6 matches as you attempt to claim victory.

NetEase Games has been working on Marvel titles since 2019, after the two companies struck a deal. However, the previous two Marvel games from the developer are locked away to certain regions, making Rivals the first major NetEase Marvel game that most people will be able to play.

Marvel Rivals release date estimate and rumours

There’s currently no release date for Marvel Rivals. However, a report that leaked prior to the games reveal suggested that the game would be ready to launch “within a year”, so a late 2024 or early 2025 window could be likely.

The report from TheStreamr was fairly accurate, with only a few minor mistakes that could be due to changing content plans. For now, while not official, the release window is the best estimate we have.

Marvel Rivals gameplay

Being compared to Overwatch due to its team-based battles as a hero shooter, Marvel Rivals is a multiplayer third-person shooter that is being worked on by talented developers who have experience in the Battlefield and Call of Duty series.

While the majority of Overwatch’s characters use a variety of guns to defeat enemies, the Marvel Rivals characters use their unique skill sets to take out opponents. Iconic characters like Spider-Man aren’t suddenly using pistols, so it seems like NetEase isn’t changing a character’s design or themes to enable shooter gameplay.

Interestingly, unlike Overwatch, Marvel Rivals offers “destructible environments” that are similar to The Finals or the Battlefield series. Considering how powerful some of the heroes or villains from Marvel can be, this sounds very exciting.

Marvel Rivals story

While the story for Marvel Rivals is an original creation from the talents at NetEase Games, it bears striking similarities with that of the Secret Wars arc. In the game, Doctor Doom and a 2099 counterpart of himself force multiple universes to collide in a Timestream Entanglement, causing both heroes and villains to fight together and against each other in order to stop the tyrannical duo.

There’s not much indication right now about how heavy the story elements will be in Marvel Rivals. But we hope it’s even better than Overwatch, which had heavy lore in the first game, but the PvE story has been reportedly cancelled for the free-to-play Overwatch 2.

That’s all you need to know about the Marvel Rivals release date right now. We're looking forward to this exciting interpretation of Marvel to finally launch, especially with it being free to play.