Marvel Rivals producer on game balance: ‘If a character is no longer fun, then we’re not doing our job’

Marvel Rivals' aggressive pace of adding a new character every month for almost a year now keeps the game fresh, but also creates some issues with game balance. If you talk to most Rivals players at any given time, they could list off a bunch of complaints about who's overpowered, who needs a buff, and so on. The same can be said about any competitive game, really, but with a live-service title, it's always going to be a hot-button topic. Image via NetEase Games Marvel Rivals' executive producer Danny Koo spoke with Destructoid's Editor-in-Chief Rachel Samples at GDC this week, and he had some interesting things to say about how the game is balanced, and how NetEase Games even measures and determines "fun." "Once a new hero is out there, and a new meta is formed in the game, there are two things to balance," Koo said. "So one set of things is that we have those play data and see what the pressure points are, and what the complaints and feedback from the players are. That's one set of things to balance. The other side is perception. So, for example, different brackets of player proficiency have a different take on what is overpowered, what is imbalanced. So, we have to be very careful with that portion. So all in all, with this combination, we collect the data, we tune it, and it does take several weeks to verify that it doesn't break anything else before we deploy the balancing. So, we are balancing consistently, but one thing is common: across all balancing, we first and foremost always balance for fun. So, if a character is no longer fun, then we're not doing our job." Fun is subjective, of course, but Koo said that NetEase Games utilizes something it calls "a time to kill," which is like the time to a player's action in any given time, and that's a crucial indicator (but one of several) when it comes to how the devs measure how much fun is being had. "So, if you spend the first 30 seconds doing nothing, that means [time to kill] is empty," Koo said. "We want to get players into battle as soon as possible. That is the fun part about it. You have an encounter, and you have a choice. Either you engage, or you strategize with your team, or you provide cover for your team. So, there's a lot of mechanics in the game that players can employ. Now, if a player just walks out of the spawn point and immediately gets KO'd, that's not fun, right? So, that is the balance of fun. And if we look at players' chatter, player content creation, and you see if they're having fun in their video based on their emotional response or their observation, then that's the subjective portion that we can also collect data." Dealing with different levels of player skill (brackets, as Koo mentioned), is tricky to navigate, but that's also taken into account when it comes to deploying balance patches, the next of which is coming alongside season seven when it launches next week. Image via NetEase Games "It's more like that's a barometer of seeing how many people in a certain group versus how many group in a minority," Koo said. "And we use that as a barometer when we look at the data. So, if the data is within the range of acceptable performance, then we look at a bracket and see which bracket most likely happens. If it's in the lower bracket of a competition, then we can take certain action to just do minor changes. But if it affects high-performance stuff, any changes that we do will actually swing the win rate by a lot, which is what we don't want. So, that's why we have the play tests after we adjust it for several weeks to stabilize it." While Rivals has a competitive esports scene and ranked ladder, there's also a good chunk of players who play the game casually in different modes, like the 18-vs-18 respawn, where players can just kick back and click heads. But that is also taken into account when it comes to balancing and even planning out other modes. "We know there are players that only want to come in and have fun and not be competitive," he said. "And we also know that there are players that are very sweaty and no matter what, they're going to go battle for hours, right, in ranking. So, that's why we introduced several modes of what we call 'relaxation' to get away from de-stressing, give you something else to do before you jump back to the midst of a battle. And we find that appealing and also able to slow down the discourse." Marvel Rivals season seven begins next week, and adds a new hero along with it, so the balancing will continue for the foreseeable future. This interview has been edited for clarity. The post Marvel Rivals producer on game balance: ‘If a character is no longer fun, then we’re not doing our job’ appeared first on Destructoid.

Mar 12, 2026 - 03:30

Marvel Rivals producer on game balance: ‘If a character is no longer fun, then we’re not doing our job’

Marvel Rivals' aggressive pace of adding a new character every month for almost a year now keeps the game fresh, but also creates some issues with game balance.

If you talk to most Rivals players at any given time, they could list off a bunch of complaints about who's overpowered, who needs a buff, and so on. The same can be said about any competitive game, really, but with a live-service title, it's always going to be a hot-button topic.

Image via NetEase Games Marvel Rivals' executive producer Danny Koo spoke with Destructoid's Editor-in-Chief Rachel Samples at GDC this week, and he had some interesting things to say about how the game is balanced, and how NetEase Games even measures and determines "fun."

"Once a new hero is out there, and a new meta is formed in the game, there are two things to balance," Koo said. "So one set of things is that we have those play data and see what the pressure points are, and what the complaints and feedback from the players are. That's one set of things to balance. The other side is perception. So, for example, different brackets of player proficiency have a different take on what is overpowered, what is imbalanced. So, we have to be very careful with that portion. So all in all, with this combination, we collect the data, we tune it, and it does take several weeks to verify that it doesn't break anything else before we deploy the balancing. So, we are balancing consistently, but one thing is common: across all balancing, we first and foremost always balance for fun. So, if a character is no longer fun, then we're not doing our job."

Fun is subjective, of course, but Koo said that NetEase Games utilizes something it calls "a time to kill," which is like the time to a player's action in any given time, and that's a crucial indicator (but one of several) when it comes to how the devs measure how much fun is being had.

"So, if you spend the first 30 seconds doing nothing, that means [time to kill] is empty," Koo said. "We want to get players into battle as soon as possible. That is the fun part about it. You have an encounter, and you have a choice. Either you engage, or you strategize with your team, or you provide cover for your team. So, there's a lot of mechanics in the game that players can employ. Now, if a player just walks out of the spawn point and immediately gets KO'd, that's not fun, right? So, that is the balance of fun. And if we look at players' chatter, player content creation, and you see if they're having fun in their video based on their emotional response or their observation, then that's the subjective portion that we can also collect data."

Dealing with different levels of player skill (brackets, as Koo mentioned), is tricky to navigate, but that's also taken into account when it comes to deploying balance patches, the next of which is coming alongside season seven when it launches next week.

Image via NetEase Games "It's more like that's a barometer of seeing how many people in a certain group versus how many group in a minority," Koo said. "And we use that as a barometer when we look at the data. So, if the data is within the range of acceptable performance, then we look at a bracket and see which bracket most likely happens. If it's in the lower bracket of a competition, then we can take certain action to just do minor changes. But if it affects high-performance stuff, any changes that we do will actually swing the win rate by a lot, which is what we don't want. So, that's why we have the play tests after we adjust it for several weeks to stabilize it."

While Rivals has a competitive esports scene and ranked ladder, there's also a good chunk of players who play the game casually in different modes, like the 18-vs-18 respawn, where players can just kick back and click heads. But that is also taken into account when it comes to balancing and even planning out other modes.

"We know there are players that only want to come in and have fun and not be competitive," he said. "And we also know that there are players that are very sweaty and no matter what, they're going to go battle for hours, right, in ranking. So, that's why we introduced several modes of what we call 'relaxation' to get away from de-stressing, give you something else to do before you jump back to the midst of a battle. And we find that appealing and also able to slow down the discourse."

Marvel Rivals season seven begins next week, and adds a new hero along with it, so the balancing will continue for the foreseeable future.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

The post Marvel Rivals producer on game balance: ‘If a character is no longer fun, then we’re not doing our job’ appeared first on Destructoid.

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