While NetEase has previously spoken about wanting to strike a balance when it comes to developing Marvel Rivals for both casual players as well as more competitive players that might be interested in esports, Marvel Games executive producer Danny Koo has reiterated the idea.
Speaking to PCGamer at GDC 2025, Koo spoke about Marvel Rivals‘ developers prioritising fun gameplay over wanting competitive balance. While the latter might be popular amongst a smaller subset of players, the fun gameplay is where Marvel Rivals gets its massive audience of casual players from.
“So every character we balance for fun, first and foremost, as in if the character is fun or not [to play], that’s always number one,” said Koo. “And then the team has data on win rates, making sure that no one character is too painful and oppressive so that everybody’s still having fun. But that’s secondary.”
Koo went on to talk about wanting to make sure players are having fun by offering unique characters that all manage to play differently. He brings up Human Torch and Storm as two examples that have unique gameplay, but still manage to work together well thanks to their abilities mixing up to create a larger threat for opposing teams.
“[Players] want to feel like they’re playing as unique a character as possible,” said Koo. “And the team has pulled it off with every single character. I mean, the latest content with Human Torch and Storm, the flame and whirlwind combination, becomes a firestorm. That in itself is visually spectacular. But then I think the graphic team also needs to make sure that it doesn’t kill your entire graphic resources, especially if you’re in the eye of the storm.”
He also spoke about wanting to find a balance between casual and competitive play, and wanting both styles of gameplay to co-exist. According to Koo, most players tend to not go for the more competitive style of gameplay, instead preferring to have quick, casual matches through Quick Play rather than jumping into Ranked modes.
“[Casual and competitive] co-exist, but the majority of the players will not play competitive anyway, that’s for sure,” Koo explained. “They just want to have fun with friends and go, ‘Hey, let’s queue and do a quick play.’ But competitive is also important, right? Because [players] also want an avenue to show off their mastery.”
Koo spoke about making sure that a team is balanced by pairing up more casual players with high-skill competitive ones. This allows both teams in any given Marvel Rivals match to have an even chance at winning the game while still experiencing the style of gameplay they prefer.
“We always look at it and balance it, if necessary, each season to see how fast players progress,” Koo said. “And in terms of matchmaking, we always pair you with people with the same level and the same rate as you to make it a comfortable experience.”
Koo wrapped things up by reiterating that there are still no plans to add a Role Queue mode to Marvel Rivals. “No role queue—that’s what makes this game so unique,” he said.
Marvel Rivals is a free-to-play competitive shooter available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Check out our review for more details.
