Marvel fans surprised by new free game officially dropping in December

NetEase, the developers behind the upcoming hero shooter Marvel Rivals, just announced that the game is officially dropping on December 6th this year… much to some fans surprise.

The game is an Overwatch-style shooter that features several prominent Marvel heroes as playable characters, including (but definitely not limited to) Spider-Man, Loki, Iron Man, Jeff the Land Shark, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Hulk, Scarlet Witch, and Rocket Racoon.

It will also feature Galacta (daughter of Galactus) and Dr Doom in unplayable roles, the former of which is probably unplayable because she’s the size of a planet.

Folks on Twitter were happy to hear news of its official release date, but a lot of people were also disappointed to hear that the date is a bit further away than they expected.

A lot of people saw the news on DiscussingFilm’s Twitter post about the announcement, and many shared their disappointment that they’ll have to wait so long.

“YES!” exclaimed one user, “...was hoping sooner but I'll take it.”

“I thought since the beta was so well received we’d get it sooner. So hype” replied another.

Given the relatively positive reception to the open beta that recently took place, it’s no surprise that fans are excited to get their hands on it as soon as possible.

The beta itself might have influenced this later release date however, as the beta test uncovered some framerate issues on one specific console.

During the beta, many users complained that Marvel Rivals ran exceptionally poorly on Xbox Series S consoles. This had the roughest effect on the game’s visuals, as Marvel Rivals attempted to target a consistent 60 frames - even though the Xbox Series S clearly couldn’t handle it.

Regardless of what release date NetEase had in mind prior to the beta, it’s not any stretch of the imagination to assume that the full release likely got pushed back somewhat so that it could be optimised further.