A growing sentiment among the Marvel Rivals community came to a head today with NetEase Games finally being forced to respond. Kind of.
For quite some time now, players have been calling out a pattern of the game’s treatment of its black characters and how Legendary skins are being distributed. Yesterday, NetEase revealed a summer swimsuit skin for Storm of the X-Men, and it quickly became the latest piece of ammunition in the argument.
Unlike other female swimsuit skins in the game, Storm’s was revealed to be of the Epic variety, meaning it would not have the special trimmings of a Legendary (like unique visual and sound effects). The uproar was almost immediate, spreading into the game’s Discord server and across numerous social channels.
Storm’s skin is now in the game, along with other new swimsuit outfits for Black Cat, Scarlet Witch, and Magik, but the latter two are featured at the top of the game’s shop as part of its “Pop & Win” gacha, while Storm and Black Cat can only be found after scrolling.
Last night, NetEase posted on social media about the situation specifically regarding this one Storm skin, and said it will rectify it in a future update. The skin will be upgraded to Legendary for free, including “an all-new lobby animation and updated MVP animation,” but it will remain to be sold at its current price of $16.
“While we deeply value the expressive nature of our players, our number one goal is to create a positive community for everyone who loves this game,” NetEase said. “And while we understand that tensions run high, harassment of our staff, including the development team and moderators, is not acceptable. As the upgrades will take some time, please be patient, as we are already hard at work on the above.”
A growing number of players chiming in online claim that Storm’s treatment is part of an overall pattern in Marvel Rivals where characters of color get left in the lurch while certain others (namely a select few like Luna Snow Psylocke) get special treatment from the China-based NetEase. But the devs say more for Storm is on the way.
“We want to ensure the community that there will be more Storm Legendary tier costumes coming, so please keep your eyes on the skies over the rest of the year,” NetEase said.
Many online claim that a pattern has formed by pointing to the fact that black characters Blade and Moon Girl were introduced to the game in prison at first. There’s even a spray in the game featuring Blade breaking out of prison shackles. There are other examples given by the community, like how Psylocke(an alternate version) has been teamed up with the X-Men in the game’s lore while Storm (one of the team’s defining characters) is not.
Blade also has just one Legendary skin along with Storm, but the balance of who gets the best skins is seemingly all over the place. Jeff the Land Shark has six, for example, while characters who’ve been in the game for a long time like Black Widow and Human Torch have zero. Cloak & Dagger (a mixed-race couple and combo character), meanwhile, have five.
But for many, it’s not just about the amount of skins, but the lack of frequency. I feel like the conversation won’t end here, but will remain something to keep an eye on as to how the studio handles things moving forward.
While the devs have yet to directly address the specific accusations (and I doubt they ever will), NetEase is likely hoping the quick turnaround on this change for Storm may stem the tide of anger for a while.
