Marvel Rivals wants to go big for 2026, and the team has 'already planned more than a year ahead'

Spider-Men doing the Spider-Man Points meme in Marvel Rivals

(Image credit: NetEase)

2025 was a pretty incredible year for NetEase's Marvel Rivals. Since dropping right at the end of 2024, it's gone through five themed seasons, increased its collection of heroes and villains by 12, and experimented with PvE with its rough-around-the-edges Marvel Zombies mode.

But the team is just getting started. "2025 was more of a warm-up period for us," Marvel Games executive producer Danny Koo told Den of Geek. "Next year, we're going to have bigger plans. We're not going to slow down. We've already planned more than a year ahead and I can't wait for our players to see it."

I went from being more than a sceptic, hating how it felt to play and what NetEase had done to some of my favourite characters, like Magneto, to becoming a convert. The beta put me off, but shortly after launch I was hooked. It completely destroyed any interest I had left in Overwatch 2—though Blizzard had already done a good job of killing my interest before then.

"In the next year, we want to provide more game modes," said NetEase publishing and marketing lead Yachen Bian. "It's why we have prototypes in the game, like PvE and 18v18. We want to give the players more choices of different game modes beyond the basic gameplay because your fundamental experience might be very different. When you're fighting against zombies, it's quite different from fighting against other people."

We'll have to wait until 2026 to find out what's coming, but NetEase has some big ambitions. "It's a lot of hard work and it always feels different and exciting," said Koo. "This game is releasing new content every week. Even my own team comes in every day asking what's new today. Everyone's excited. They want to continue to make this happen. Everyone wants to make this the biggest game possible."

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.

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