Why were Marvel Rivals mods disabled? Industry veteran weighs in
Nexus Mods: HallowMarvel Rivals Season 1 update is finally live, the new instalment of the widely popular hero-shooter brings with it new heroes, skins, maps and much more.
And while these changes have largely been praised by fans and greeted with open arms, one such alteration has spawned massive discussion online.
When Season 1 of Marvel Rivals went live, the devs quietly disabled modding for the game, thereby limiting players from creating their skins and more for the title. Given the game had quickly amassed a strong modding community, this decision from developer NetEase took players by surprise.
Despite some already finding ways to work around the banning of mods, gone are the days when players could transform Iron Man into Vegeta, the Winter Solider in GTA: San Andreas protagonist CJ and more — at least without going through extra steps.
So why did Marvel Rivals disable modding when Season 1 launched? Here is why they decided to do so, as explained by a games developer who has worked on multiple live-service titles.
Industry Veteran weighs in on Marvel Rivals disabled mods
At the time of writing, NetEase Games are yet to provide any further explanation as to why they’ve decided to remove mods. Given how big of a change this is for Marvel Rivals, we expect to hear more from them on this matter soon.
However, banning mods for live-service games is not a new concept, developer Del Walker shared on X (formerly Twitter) why this feature was disabled from the various live-service titles he has worked on throughout his career.
Having worked on the Arkham franchise, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and more, Walker broke down the “reasons [he] was told mods must unfortunately be banned” when working on games similar to Marvel Rivals.
The dev cited “exploits”, “moderation”, “brand” and “skin marketplace” and some of the leading causes that impact a development team’s decision to disable mods and noted that these likely played a role in Marvel Rivals removing them from the game for Season 1.
“Deciding wtf gets banned and what is harmless is a goddamn full-time job. It’s a thankless task that will only lead to hypocrisy – or a dumb PR nightmare about “freedom of speech” vs racism.”
On the topic of skin marketplace being a leading cause for removing access to mods, Walker highlighted this as being the “most important reason.”
“Skin sales drop if you have free mods as an option. Studios ain’t about to let you mess with their income.”
Given how prevalent skins already are in Marvel Rivals, with certain designs leaving players thirsting over characters, it’s expected that this is also the thought process for the Marvel Rivals dev team.
As a Marvel-centric game that only includes heroes from the comic book world, the brand is also a pivotal foundation to Rivals.
“The artistic vision and brand consistency are doomed to get diluted the longer you allow people to warp how your game is perceived,” added Walker.
While mods may not be as prevalent in Marvel Rivals due to the Season 1 update, there is plenty of content included in the new Battle Pass and fresh game mode to keep you occupied.