Marvel Rivals Aims To Add 2 New Heroes Every Three Month Season

About two weeks ago I saw an article talking about how Overwatch 2 players were a bit miffed about the new hero-shooter on the block, Marvel Rivals. At the core of the article was the speed at which NetEase was adding heroes to their new game and the lack of speed with new heroes being dropped into Overwatch 2. On the surface, I remember thinking that I get it, people like new things, but I also thought NetEase had things a TAD easier since they were working with an IP containing hundreds of characters and Blizzard's characters were new.

Don't take that as me making excuses for Blizzard, they could certainly introduce heroes at a more rapid clip than they do today, in my opinion. However, I wouldn't expect the two games to always be on the same release cadence when it comes to characters.

That said, it's likely that Overwatch 2 players will be even more upset if Marvel Rivals holds to their current plan. In an interview on Metro with Game Director Guangyun Chen, the plan is to add a new hero in each planned "half" of a season. Since seasons are 3 months long, that means you can expect a new hero every 6 to 7 weeks. That's on top of each season receiving new maps, stories, and cosmetics.

That means if NetEase holds that planned pace, the first year of the game will see 8 new heroes added to the roster. For reference, Overwatch 2 has added 10 new heroes since its launch slightly over 2 years ago.

Also in the interview, Jeff the Land Shark comes up a few times...as he should. First, the team has been very surprised to see him blow up on social media. Second, if you're having problems avoiding Jeff's Ultimate, Chen's advice is simple, "Make sure you keep your formation spread out and as soon as you hear Jeff saying ‘Nom, Nom, Nom’ before he unleashes the ultimate, you want to scatter away. And don’t hesitate to use your Mobility skills if you need to."