Marvel Rivals Executive Producer Comments On Why Competitive Play Balance Isn't A "Number One" Priority

Three months have passed since the launch of the superhero team-based PvP shooter Marvel Rivals from developer NetEase, and the game continues to grow from strength to strength. The developers have consistently provided multiple patches and content updates to optimize players' in-game experiences while balancing various heroes that are becoming overpowered and hampering players' time spent in matches, especially competitive play.

The team is in attendance at this year's Game Developers Conference (GDC) conference in the United States, where the game's executive producer, Danny Koo, provided comments on how the team approaches balance within competitive play. His comments are crucial as NetEase periodically adds a bevy of new content, including new heroes, game modes, maps, and more every season.

In an interview with PC Gamer at GDC 2025, Koo comments on the approaches they undertake when it comes to balancing competitive play for Marvel Rivals. Their approach is to make the superhero team-based PvP shooter as fun and appealing as possible to all types of players, from beginners to veteran players in the third-person shooter scene, comic book fans, and those jumping from competing games like Apex Legends, Overwatch, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege.

"So every character we balance for fun, first and foremost, as in if the character is fun or not [to play], that's always number one," Koo stated to PC Gamer in an interview. "And then the team has data on win rates, making sure that no one character is too painful and oppressive so that everybody's still having fun. But that's secondary."

The game's competitive play can get quite chaotic at times, especially when there is a mix of casual and competitive plays in a single match; however, Koo added that Marvel Rivals "is built to be more acceptable for casual play. People just want to have fun at the end of the day — that balance for fun is always the key number one priority of anything."

Naturally, NetEase Games have proactively rolled out Hero Balance Adjustment updates to ensure overpowered (OP) heroes aren't making other players' in-game experiences "painful and oppressive." As such, the hero balances see supporting heroes receive buffs and the OP hero a nerf, which hopefully should see unique team compositions, strategies, and "optimizing the experience" for various heroes "to maintain this rich diversity."