Marvel Rivals Is A Test

Since the moment Marvel Rivals was announced, I have been compelled by it. It’s stuck in the corner of my mind and I don’t know why.

I mean, yes, my first ever published fanfiction was a story shipping Captain America and Iron Man and I did a whole project in my senior year of high school about how Captain America: Civil War adapts the comic storyline (and I have deep opinions about Happy Hogan still being dead, Marvel)

The point is I like Marvel, but not enough that it’d get me to play a PVP shooter. I suck at shooters, I don’t like online multiplayer with strangers, and I’m not inclined to willingly put myself in a situation where strangers online can see how bad I am at shooters.

Generally speaking, the only thing that will get me to play a game in a genre I dislike that much is a compelling plot, and it’s too early to see if Marvel Rivals has that.

And yet, I’ve found myself thinking about it pretty frequently since it came out. There’s one thought I keep coming back to:

If Marvel Rivals is bad, it’ll have to fail spectacularly.

The Bar Is In Hell

Full disclosure: I’ve played Overwatch 2 exactly once. I could say it was so terrible I put it down and never picked it up again, but honestly, I’m just bad at shooters.

My one experience playing with some friends in college, managing to be decent at Lucio in that I healed people at the correct time, and then never played it afterward.

So what I’m saying is I don’t know enough about Overwatch to say if calling Marvel Rivals an Overwatch clone is accurate mechanically, but it seems to be in the spirit of Overwatch and seems to be filling a similar niche.

Now, normally with live services, the problem is there’s not enough of a player base for two games doing the same thing to be super profitable. Fortunately for Marvel Rivals, Overwatch 2 is on the decline after cancelling the thing that was supposed to justify the 2, so Rivals might be able to swoop in and kill-steal the players longing for an experience more akin to the original Overwatch.

The other thing Marvel Rivals is likely to be compared to is Marvel’s Avengers, the recent high-profile Marvel live service game that was also, overwhelmingly a failure.

In short, the bar is so low.

All Marvel Rivals needs is to work on launch, actually have PvE missions, and have a monetization model that doesn’t piss people off and it’ll be a GOTY contender.

Honestly, they might not even need the PvE, that’s just going to be a good cudgel against Overwatch since, again, they canceled their PvE mode and that’s a big deal.

It’s a free lay-up, almost impossible to be received worse than its predecessors. I honestly hope this game is good, and scratches the itch Overwatch fans have had since the first game was shuddered.

That being said, I’m not confident they can do it.

Different Multiverse, Same As The First

The sticking point is going to be monetization. Dragon’s Dogma 2 immediately received backlash just for having microtransactions, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is facing criticism for its grindy mission pass, and overall the general attitude towards microtransactions and live services has gotten less and less charitable.

That hasn’t stopped companies from still trying to monetize and making battle passes that ask you to pay or play for hours. Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League didn’t want to admit that it was a live service.

I don’t know if I trust any company to have the self-restraint to not walk directly into this very obvious landmine in the hopes that this time, enough people will pay to make them a lot of money.

Live services are also antithetical to the idea of respecting the player’s time by design, which is never a good recipe.

Marvel Rivals exists in my mind as almost a cosmic test for the games industry. The writing’s on the wall, will developers read it? Obviously there are good live services, but the stars have really aligned for Marvel Rivals to be one of them if only they can pay attention to what people want instead of what companies would like them to want. Can we get a new game that’s satisfying for free players or doesn’t try to nickel and dime you after you’ve already spent tons of money on it? Can we get another multiplayer game that’s good and not undercut by aggressive monetization from a major studio?

I’m not super confident, but I genuinely hope I get proven wrong.