Marvel Rivals reveals December release date, Captain America and the Winter Soldier join the team

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The team-based hero shooter Marvel Rivals dropped a new trailer at Gamescom's Opening Night Live showcase tonight, revealing two new playable heroes and, more importantly, a release date of December 6.

The new heroes, who will be playable at launch, are Captain America—who honestly I'm a little surprised wasn't included right from the start—and his perennial frenemy, the Winter Soldier. Details on the characters haven't been revealed yet, but we'll no doubt be hearing more about that soon.

The bigger deal, of course, is the release date. Marvel Rivals ran a closed beta test earlier this year that didn't exactly knock our socks off—online editor Fraser Brown called it "aggressively bad," while news writer Elie Gould took a more charitable view, describing it as "pretty agreeable" and also noting that it was still early days for the game.

The obvious hope is that developer NetEase has made the changes and adjustments necessary to improve the experience, and the good news is that it won't cost you anything to find out: One big advantage that Marvel Rivals holds over its obvious competitor Overwatch 2 is that Rivals is completely free to play, with all heroes unlocked at launch.

NetEase also confirmed that future Marvel Rivals beta tests are on the way ahead of the full release—you can sign up to take part at marvelrivals.com.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.