Introduction: The gaming niche around the team shooters genre has been a challenging space for many developers. For the better part of two decades, the big names remained the leaders of this field, while all changes took years to materialize. Blizzard’s Overwatch franchise is a good example of a gaming series that took things slow and meticulously, gradually taking a piece of that market. However, the latest big addition to the same gaming space is Marvel Rivals and it broke into the genre with a force and impulse that was rarely seen in the past. Now, the same game shows potential not just to remake the team shooter genre, but also to potentially place Overwatch 2 on a downward spiral that could ultimately spell the end of this series.
Article: The power of the Marvel brand is unmistakable in the modern world. What began as a simple superhero universe slowly grew, surpassing its humble comic book roots. The biggest moment for the franchise, which began way back in 1939, came at the end of the 20th century. Here, the well-known heroes of Marvel took a step out of the comic books and animated films and entered the world of the silver screen. From movie theaters and massive blockbusters, the same heroes, now in their new and modern cinematic state, began to work their way into video games as well. While Marvel characters like Spider-Man, Captain America, and Iron Man appeared regularly in video games even during the 1980s and 1990s, it was in the early 21st century that the gaming space truly blended with what was becoming the Marvel Cinematic Universe or MCU. Here, the true power of the brand began to shine through and the cohesive approach resulted in billions of USD in revenue. At the same time, each release, no matter in what media shape it came from, only further enforces the brand and its lower-tier heroes. That is why names like Deadpool, previously only sideshow superheroes, became pop-culture juggernauts in their own right. Marvel Rivals is a game that took the full benefit of that franchise’s punching power.
Creating Marvel Rivals
Thanks to decades of diligent work and so much content, Marvel and MCU are presently just as powerful as other mega franchises like Star Wars. Here, the developers in NetEase Games got a chance to use the same franchise and develop a very ambitious game – Marvel Rivals. The title came out in late 2024 and presented a very straightforward concept. This team shooter allows players to choose out of a wide array of Marvel heroes and then battle it out inside of a third-person shooter setup. The simple offer of Marvel Rivals, supported by the mega-brand, was enough for the game to become an instantaneous hit. At the same time, it has shown that one of the biggest names in the team shooter genre – Overwatch 2 – has a lot of long-standing issues that have slowly frustrated players more and more. Due to that, many are wondering if Marvel Rivals will slowly take the oxygen out of the Overwatch franchise and place it on a trajectory of decreasing popularity.
Overwatch 2 Launch
The problems with the Blizzard team shooter began before Marvel Rivals even got its launch. For some time, the original Overwatch game felt as if it was not a big priority for its developers and publishers. While it was a streamlined and polished title with millions of regular players, it was also very much due for an overhaul. That is why Blizzard announced Overwatch 2, which came out in August 2023. But, the launch itself was a miniature disaster, with server and matchmaking issues that persisted for days. Worse than that, the game itself felt very limited in scope and the changes it brought seemed more like a big update for the original Overwatch than a true sequel. Since then, the game has generated a large amount of Mostly Negative reviews, which at this point stand at nearly 330,000. Blizzard’s attempts to resolve the issues have also been seen as something that is ultimately too little too late.
Battle of The Lores
There is another big element to the battle between Overwatch and Marvel Rivals. This element is related to the lore and storytelling of both games. While Marvel comes with a predefined universe of dozens and dozens of well-established superheroes, Overwatch comes with a lore that has often felt underdeveloped in every sense. In fact, its heroes are still a blank page even for many active Overwatch gamers. The game failed to double down on its lore during the heydays of the first Overwatch and thus missed an opportunity to move its character into mainstream pop culture. Other games did precisely this and the move undoubtedly helped their brands. A good example of that decision was recently seen in the League of Legends franchise, which invested heavily in its Arcane animated series. Nothing of that sort was done by Blizzard and now Marvel is taking advantage of that fact as well.
Future Marvel Content
Marvel Rivals has been out on the market for only several months, so it is unwise to declare it the ultimate winner in this contest with Overwatch 2. However, what is certain is that Marvel Rivals is learning from the problems that Blizzard created for itself. It has already slated a range of updates and changes for the coming period, assuring that the game remains in the minds of both current and future players. This includes new modes like the 4-vs-4 setup that is most similar to the game Splatoon. So, even in its early days, Marvel Rivals is offering a dose of flexibility and content growth that has been sorely lacking in Overwatch 2 for nearly two years. Even today, big names in the gaming community like Richard “Ninja” Tyler Blevins declared that Overwatch already lost to Marvel Rivals. While the reasoning behind these ideas is not unsound, it still fails to see that Blizzard is also a huge gaming company with decades of experience. Like Marvel, it too wields big franchises and has plenty of knowledge of how these behave both in good times and in more demanding circumstances. No one can deny that Overwatch 2 is presently in more treacherous waters, but the developers behind it have what it takes to ultimately steer it clear of those and counter-attack Marvel Rival’s rising popularity.
Marvel Rivals is available on Steam, Xbox and PlayStation
Author: Ivica Milaric, game designer and assistant professor of game design at the Novi Sada Academy of Arts, Republic of Serbia