Dataminers of Marvel Rivals believe the developers might be playing a clever game of hide-and-seek with them, as they've uncovered lists of potential future characters hidden within the game's code. However, both NetEase and Marvel have made it clear that their focus is squarely on developing the game, not on pulling pranks.

Last month, the datamining community started buzzing when they discovered names of potential future heroes. Some of these, like the Fantastic Four, were quickly confirmed to be real when officially announced. But as more names surfaced, a new theory emerged: some of these could be decoys, intentionally placed by the developers to throw dataminers off the scent.

The debate within the community continues about which of these datamined characters might actually make it into the game. We had the chance to speak directly with Marvel Rivals producer Weicong Wu and Marvel Games executive producer Danny Koo to get to the bottom of this mystery. Both emphasized that no trolling was afoot, but advised taking the datamined names with a pinch of skepticism. Wu explained, "So firstly we want to say that we don't recommend anybody to make adjustments to the files [of the game]. Also, you can see that for each character's design actually we come through a very complicated process and we make a lot of concepts, trials, prototypes, development, et cetera. So there could be some information left in the code, and it might mean that we have tried those directions and they may appear or may not appear in our future plans. And whether or not they will appear in our future pipeline is highly depending on what kind of gameplay experience our players would expect in our game."

Koo added, "If I could have a ten-year plan, it'd be great. But the team experimented with a lot of play styles, heroes. It was like there's someone doing scratch paperwork and then just left a notebook there, and someone [a dataminer] decided to open it with no context."

When pressed directly on whether they were intentionally misleading dataminers, Koo was clear: "No. We would rather spend our time developing the actual game."

During our conversation, we also delved into how characters are selected for inclusion in Marvel Rivals. Wu and Koo revealed that the team plans updates roughly a year in advance, aiming to introduce new characters every month and a half. The process involves assessing the current roster to determine what kind of character and skillset is needed to maintain balance and add diversity. Wu shared that their strategy for game balance focuses more on introducing new characters and experiences rather than extensively tweaking existing ones. This approach keeps the game fresh, fills gaps in the lineup, supports weaker characters with new team abilities, or counters overly dominant ones.

Once a list of potential characters is compiled, NetEase collaborates with Marvel Games to develop initial designs. They then consider what the community is excited about and what's planned in other Marvel divisions, such as upcoming films or comic arcs, to finalize their choices. This comprehensive process explains the presence of numerous hero names in the game's code—NetEase is constantly exploring a wide range of ideas.

Marvel Rivals has been a hit since its launch, and the addition of new characters like the Human Torch and The Thing, set to join the game on February 21, only enhances its appeal. We also discussed the potential for a Nintendo Switch 2 release of Marvel Rivals with Wu and Koo, which you can read more about here.