Ex-Blizzard President Mike Ybarra criticizes Marvel Rivals, calling it an Overwatch copy and highlighting similarities between Marvel Rivals’ Black Widow and Overwatch’s Widowmaker.
Marvel Rivals, the 6v6 combat shooter developed by NetEase Games in collaboration with Marvel Games, is finally launching in less than 24 hours. With a roster packed full of iconic Marvel heroes and villains, the game has generated plenty of hype, especially among fans of Overwatch.
Players have praised its sleek character designs and surprisingly deep gameplay systems. The pre-load for Marvel Rivals is already out for everyone on PC, but console players will have to wait until launch day to download the game.
While there’s been a ton of hype around Marvel Rivals in the last couple of days, not all the chatter has been positive.
Mike Ybarra Implies Overwatch’s Widowmaker Inspired Marvel Rivals’ Black Widow’s Name
Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra recently took to X (Twitter) to criticize Marvel Rivals, accusing it of copying Overwatch. Ybarra didn’t mince words in his post. He wrote: “Looks like Overwatch Marvel Rivals ships tomorrow. Much like Light of Motiram (a clear copy of HZD) [Sony’s Horizon Zero Dawn] out of China.”
“I mean even the character name – Widowmaker in OW vs. Black Widow in Marvel Rivals lol. NetEase/TenCent – all the same.” His comparison between Black Widow, Marvel’s famous spy, and Overwatch’s Widowmaker drew the most attention.
He also compared Marvel Rivals to Tencent’s recently revealed Light of Motiram, a game fans have dubbed a “blatant copy” of Sony’s Horizon series. Ybarra’s critique seems to reflect growing concerns about perceived cloning in the industry, particularly among some Chinese developers.
However, his remarks about Black Widow’s name have started some backlash. Users were quick to point out that Black Widow isn’t a NetEase creation, it’s a Marvel Comics character dating back to 1964, long before Overwatch even existed.
One user replied, “Weird that you think Black Widow is a copy of Widowmaker like she didn’t exist decades before.” Paul Tassi, a writer for Forbes, chimed in with a sarcastic comment: “Can’t believe NetEase would invent a character named Black Widow, a copy of Widowmaker. I’d say this would actually be a pretty good joke but the Light of Motiram comment implies otherwise.”
In other Marvel Rivals news, recent datamined leaks have revealed some exciting new characters from the Marvel comics that we might see in the game post-launch. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
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