Marvel Rivals Game Director Confirms In New Interview Two New Heroes Will Be Added Each Season

The first season of the superhero team-based PvP shooter Marvel Rivals has been out for less than a week, and already, the game has soared to the top of the charts, having peaked over 644,000 concurrent players. The game has been a huge critical success since its launch in December 2024, especially with the additions of the new maps, refreshed Battle Pass, and Fantastic Four characters, which Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman available to all players.

As game rumors and leaks continue to go viral across online and social media platforms, teasing characters that may appear in-game has generated plenty of interest from its player base and those who have yet to join and "ignite the battle." Marvel Rivals game director Guangyun Chen recently sat down for an interview, in which he looked back on the game's critical launch, some player concerns that arose online, and discussed details about the game's future.

Chen spoke with the UK publication Metro, in which the game director reflects on the positive response to Marvel Rivals' launch as he stated that the development team "felt the passion" of the Rivals community, which they'll use to "fuel us and continue to develop great stuff for everyone." The interesting aspect of this interview came when discussing the frequency of hero releases in Marvel Rivals; Chen mentions that from Season 1 onwards, every season is split into two halves, and each season lasts around three months, something that was confirmed in the third Developer Vision update video.

However, Chen added that every half-season, a new hero will be introduced to the game, which "eventually want to continue to enhance the experience, and, you know, keep everyone excited in our community." In the case of the current season, Eternal Night Falls, four new heroes, the Fantastic Four, will join the game, which will see two heroes available in the first half and the remaining two in the second half.

The game director has noted that they've seen player responses to the exceeding number of Duelist-classed heroes, and he stated that every hero created revolves "around the season." The current number of Strategists and Vanguards should give players "variety for tactical match-ups or team composition," but they've kept it in mind when planning future seasons to add more hero roles moving forward.

Regarding some players requesting role locking and role queueing in Marvel Rivals, Chen responded to this request by saying that while they have seen some players wanting these features in-game, "it’s really about the game balance." Instead, the developer proposes to offer "more line-up or more team comp possibilities through our hero design and our team-up mechanic," he cited this approach as quite heavily Marvel-inspired.

In the end, the development team at NetEase encourages players "the freedom to experiment and find their unique strategies," which, since its launch, they've been exploring "an indefinite amount of team compositions" while believing that "no role queue will lead to a richer gaming experience for everyone." Lastly, players can anticipate more maps coming to Marvel Rivals, which Chen commented the team is "planning to introduce even more map diversities" in subsequent updates.