Change is coming to Marvel Rivals beyond adding Emma Frost and Ultron to the roster. NetEase Games is making a significant shakeup to the game’s post-launch rollout by changing its seasonal schedule, and by extension the rate new heroes join the game.
After the upcoming Season 2, future seasons will be two months long, and each month will bring in a new playable character. Rivals’ opening seasons—whose success helped drive this decision—have been on a three-month cycle, similar to other live-service games like Fortnite or Call of Duty: Warzone, and a new hero came every six weeks. According to director Guangyun Chen, this new structure fulfills “the fundamental dream to integrate even more exciting Marvel heroes into Marvel Rivals.” Chen also teased future game modes that would further help “fulfill everyone’s fantasies about Marvel superheroes.”
A new hero per month is a wild promise, even as NetEase has previously indicated it’s got plenty of characters ready for rollout. For comparison, Rivals has a slightly shorter seasonal schedule than Overwatch 2 (its most direct competitor), which has nine-week seasons and typically introduces a new hero or map (or both). By the end of 2025, Rivals could end up with nearly 50 heroes to its name, which Marvel’s not too worried about. In March, Marvel Games’ Danny Koo told GamesRadar the developers “just throw everything at [the sky], and fun chaos is the key,” and the growing roster gives players more options.
There are a lot of characters who could join Marvel Rivals, and comics fans would love nothing more than for literally everyone to make the cut. We’ll find out in real time whether the monthly rollout is the right call and how well NetEase handles balancing the ever-growing roster.
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