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Popular streamer Ludwig has shared his thoughts on the recent Marvel Rivals job cuts. On February 18, 2025, Thaddeus Sasser, Marvel Rivals' game director, announced on LinkedIn that NetEase Games had laid off its US-based team:
"This is such a weird industry ... My stellar, talented team just helped deliver an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games ... and were just laid off! Oh well! Times are tough all over - Let's find these incredible people new jobs, because we all need to eat, right? :D"
Jack Burrows, level designer for the hero-shooter, also posted on LinkedIn:
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"Hey folks! Welp, just got laid off from my job working on Marvel Rivals with NetEase. Was an enormous pleasure to work with my American coworkers who join me in this sad culling. Just couldn't dodge that big boot I guess, no matter how big the success of the gig."
On the same day, prominent esports personality Jake Lucky shared an X post about the situation, writing:
"Marvel Rivals Game Director and his entire Seattle based team has been laid off by NetEase according to LinkedIn posts. Following one of the most successful game launches we have seen in a long time..."
Ludwig responded to Lucky's X post, calling the game industry "evil." He added:
"It is f**king insane that you can release on of the most successful games in the last 10 years and still get canned. the game industry is evil bro"
Ludwig says he "hates" Marvel because they launched Marvel Rivals at the same time as his game's release
In a YouTube Shorts uploaded on October 3, 2024, Ludwig stated that he "hates" Marvel. While claiming to be a longtime fan of the superhero franchise, the content creator explained how he came to "hate" the conglomerate:
"You see, I'm releasing my first-ever videogame called Rivals of Aether II. But it used to be called Rivals 2. That was, however, until the giant Disney-owned conglomerate Marvel decided to release a game called Marvel Rivals. The same exact quarter as our game was releasing.
"Unfortunately, we don't have tens of millions of dollars to market our game, but I think it'd be really funny if Rivals of Aether II was higher on the trending page than Marvel Rivals."
Ludwig made headlines on January 30, 2025, when he responded to a viral X post claiming that he "came out as non-binary."
