Marvel Rivals is making itsentire rosterfree to play for everyone upon release, eschewing the typical live service model of locking out characters.
If a game is character-based, there is a very good chance you’ll either need to grind or pay to play any new ones. Whether it’s Riot’sValorantandLeague of Legends,Genshin Impact, orApex Legends, new faces tend to be locked behind either paywalls or in-game challenges.
“All heroes unlocked and free to play at launch and beyond!” Marvel Rivals devs announced at Gamescom.
“Yeah, Marvel Rivals might be the game of all time. Never expected this from NetEase of all companies,” aviral tweetsaid in light of the news.
“This is very smart of them to do especially when bringing new players in at any point when their favorite character gets put in the game,”wroteone player. “And that’s the point where they wanna try the game out.”
Although, several others were stillskeptical about the announcement, fearing the game may come out with “the absolute worst” monetization to compensate for any potential lost revenue.
When it comes to the realm of hero shooters, there aren’t many that freely allow players to use all its characters, let alone include the feature on day one.
Related:
Just recently in March, Blizzard made the massive decision tomake all current and future heroes in Overwatch 2 free for players, but that came 10 seasons after it launched. It looks like NetEase’s release is following in Blizzard’s footsteps, but way earlier into their game’s release.
Perhaps in the future, other hero shooters, MOBAs, and various live service games will too make all their characters free for everyone as the industry pivots to accommodate wider audiences.
Jeremy Gan was a Games Writer on Dexerto’s Australia team. He is a journalism graduate and expertly covers CS:GO, Valorant, Overwatch, League of Legends, and Dota 2, as well as trending stories in Twitch and Kick streaming.
