Marvel Rivals is an upcoming game inspired by Overwatch and likely wants good feedback. We know this thanks to a controversial clause they’ve been pushing on anyone who tries their game. Essentially, you can’t say bad things about the game, which led to much backlash. Now, they’re apologizing for it and trying to save face.
The Alpha playtests for Marvel Rivals started on May 10th. Shortly after, streamer Brandon Larned shared an image on Twitter, showing a rule in the content creator agreement that stopped creators from commenting negatively about the game. This meant that content creators couldn’t give a fair and honest review of the game during this early stage of development. After this leak of the controversial clause in their content creator agreement, criticism came quickly. The clause prevented streamers and content creators from criticizing the game during alpha testing.
This actually makes a lot of sense. An Alpha build of any game is a very early and rough build. Any criticism would be unwarranted because it’s still being built. However, you generally don’t allow anyone in on the Alpha because of how rough it is. You wait for the beta when everything is in place, but it needs some adjustments. If anything, Marvel Rivals shouldn’t have had an open playtest to begin with.
The community quickly disapproved, as streamers and players criticized the clause for limiting constructive criticism. Although, as I said above, it’s hard to give good criticism when it’s supposed to be rough. This is just a terrible idea that shouldn’t have gotten this far.
Marvel Rivals posted on their official X (formerly Twitter) account addressing the issue. The tweet acknowledged concerns about the content creator agreement and expressed regret for any confusion it may have caused. The developers admitted that the overly strict terms were a mistake. However, it really sounds like they’re just sidestepping it altogether.
The apology sounds like we misinterpreted it, and not that they didn’t clearly try to limit negative comments. If anything, it’s more of a “sorry you misunderstood us, we should have been clearer.” Instead of a “sorry we tried to censor you, we shouldn’t do that.”
It’s not a good response and shows that the company probably only feels bad for getting caught. Either way, it doesn’t seem like the game will do well when it releases. I have had my doubts about it from the start, and this only makes me doubt it more.
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