By Sagar V. Mankar 
NetEase has laid off its entire Seattle-based development team for Marvel Rivals, despite the game’s significant success.
The surprising announcement came from Game Director Thaddeus Sasser via a LinkedIn post, where he revealed that his “stellar, talented team” was let go shortly after helping deliver “the successful franchise.”
“This is such a weird industry…My stellar, talented team just helped deliver an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games…..and were just laid off! Oh well! Times are tough all over – Let’s find these incredible people new jobs, because we all need to eat, right?”
The layoffs affect the entire US-based development team at NetEase’s Seattle studio, which was primarily responsible for game and level design.
According to Insider Gaming, these cuts specifically targeted the US team, while the main development team in China remains unaffected.
Level designers Jack Burrows and Garry McGee were among those affected by the layoffs. Burrows expressed his disappointment on a LinkedIn post, noting that the team’s success with the game couldn’t prevent the “sad culling.” McGee echoed similar sentiments, highlighting how the game had exceeded their expectations in terms of popularity and noting “strange times all across the industry.”
Speaking of performance, Marvel Rivals drew over 20 million players shortly after its launch. Steam statistics show it consistently maintains more than 250,000 daily concurrent players on the platform alone, with a peak of 644,269 players. The development team had been praised for their transparency and community engagement, with regular updates and insights into balance changes.
As reported by Eurogamer, this isn’t NetEase’s first reduction in its Western operations recently. The company has previously scaled back other projects, including the pause of operations at Worlds Untold, led by BioWare veteran Mac Walters in November. Similarly, Jar of Sparks, a NetEase first-party developer founded by former Halo Infinite head of design Jerry Hook, halted development on its unannounced project in January 2025.
At the time of reporting, NetEase has not publicly disclosed the reasoning behind these layoffs. Their website still displays job listings, though these are now limited to their Barcelona branch.
Update at 2.21 pm on 19/02/2025: NetEase issued a statement saying that the recent layoffs were implemented for “organizational reasons and to enhance development efficiency.”
The future impact on Marvel Rivals’ development remains unclear, particularly regarding the ongoing Season 1.5, which had generated buzz for new characters like The Human Torch and The Thing.
These layoffs join a growing list of workforce reductions across the gaming industry in 2025, affecting notable companies such as Unity, HiRez Studios, Sumo Digital, Ubisoft, and Midnight Society.
Since the beginning of 2023, the industry has witnessed over 25,000 job losses. The first two months of 2025 alone have seen approximately 1000 layoffs across 30 different companies.