Image: NetEase Games
NetEase and Blizzard are patching things up.
Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase Games announced that Overwatch 2 would return to China this year, following a brief spat between both companies that saw popular Blizzard games go offline in the region. In a recent earnings call, NetEase acknowledged that it now has an investment in both Overwatch 2 and Marvel Rivals in China – two rival hero shooters that should be in competition.
The way NetEase sees it, however, is that both games can and will coexist.
NetEase wants both Marvel Rivals and Overwatch 2 to succeed
Thanks to NetEase Games’ renewed partnership with Blizzard Entertainment, the latter game publisher was finally able to bring back its multiplayer games like World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2 to China this year. However, an interesting consequence of this collaboration is that NetEase now has a reason to play both sides in the hero shooter genre.
Last year, the company released Marvel Rivals, a smash hit hero shooter that recently passed a whopping 40 million player milestone. Despite NetEase following up that strong launch by shutting down an entire U.S.-based game studio that worked on the game, Marvel Rivals is well-positioned to dominate the hero shooter genre for years to come.
In a recent earnings call, NetEase admitted that it also has reason to see Overwatch 2 succeed alongside Marvel Rivals. According to PCGamer, the company said that “The expectations for Overwatch are similar to those for World of Warcraft and Hearthstone [...] The aim is to revitalize the product and reach new highs. Both Marvel Rivals and Overwatch are excellent superhero shooters, and the market is large enough to accommodate both games. NetEase will strive to meet the diverse demands of their respective player communities."
Overwatch 2 vs. Marvel Rivals
Overwatch 2 and Marvel Rivals have become instant competitors, partly because it's been some time since the former shooter has seen serious competition. Marvel Rivals’ playable heroes feature multiple similarities to Overwatch heroes in gameplay abilities, but the former shooter takes a much more chaotic approach to the hero shooter genre, with familiar Marvel characters and flashy art design propping it up.
In order to stay relevant in the face of a new competitor, Blizzard recently revealed a bigger-than-usual seasonal update for Overwatch 2. The update sees the addition of a new game mode and perks system to the game, changing the way heroes can be played on the fly, depending on the player's chosen upgrades. As long as both games continue to move in different directions, it's likely that they can continue coexisting without eating up each other's players.
Marvel Rivals, on the other hand, recently brought in new playable characters The Thing and The Human Torch.
