Marvel Rivals Dev Says They're Not Trolling Dataminers - 'We'd Rather Spend Our Time Developing the Game'

Marvel Rivals developers address datamining rumors: No intentional trolling, just a lot of ideas.

Dataminers recently uncovered a treasure trove of potential future characters within Marvel Rivals' code. While some early predictions proved accurate (like the Fantastic Four's addition), the sheer volume of names sparked speculation: were some deliberately planted to mislead?

We posed this question directly to Marvel Rivals producer Weicong Wu and Marvel Games executive producer Danny Koo. While denying any intentional trolling, they acknowledged the presence of leftover code from various design explorations. Wu explained that character design involves a complex process, resulting in numerous concepts, prototypes, and trials, some of which may remain in the codebase even if ultimately discarded. The inclusion of a character depends heavily on player feedback and the desired gameplay experience.

Koo offered a more casual analogy: "It was like there's someone doing scratch paperwork and then just left a notebook there, and someone [a dataminer] decided to open it with no context." He emphasized their preference for focusing on game development rather than elaborate pranks. "No. We would rather spend our time developing the actual game," Koo stated.

The process of adding characters to Marvel Rivals involves a year-long planning horizon, aiming for a new character release every six weeks. NetEase prioritizes balancing gameplay by identifying needed character types and skillsets. They submit potential additions to Marvel Games, considering community interest and aligning with Marvel's broader plans (films, comics). This explains the extensive list of names in the code – a reflection of NetEase's ongoing brainstorming.

The game's launch was successful, and the consistent addition of new characters, such as the upcoming Human Torch and The Thing (February 21st release), continues to enhance the experience. Discussions also touched upon a potential Nintendo Switch 2 release (details available in a separate article). In short, while the code may contain a multitude of possibilities, the developers assure players that any apparent "trolling" is purely coincidental.