Former Blizzard boss blasts Marvel Rivals' similarity to Overwatch

Former Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra has slammed Marvel Rivals, intimating its an Overwatch clone.

In a now-deleted tweet posted yesterday, Ybarra called NetEase Games' free-to-play team-based PVP shooter "Overwatch Marvel Rivals", adding that much like Tencent's Light of Motiram is "a clear copy of Horizon Zero Dawn", Marvel Rivals clearly took inspiration from Blizzard's own team-based PVP shooter, Overwatch.

"Looks like Overwatch Marvel Rivals ships tomorrow," Ybarra wrote in the now-deleted tweet. "Much like Light of Motiram (a clear copy of [Horizon Zero Dawn]) out of China.

"I mean, even the character name - Windowmaker in [Overwatch] vs. Black Widow in Marvel Rivals lol - NetEase/Tencent - all the same."

Before Ybarra deleted the post, however, a community note appended to the tweet said: "Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, is a popular Marvel hero who made her comic debut in 1964, more than 50 years before Overwatch and Widowmaker were created."

Marvel Rivals finally released in full yesterday on 6th December 2024. Getting off to a heroic start on Steam, it managed to already reach a peak concurrent player count of 444,286 over on Valve's platform, with this number likely rising further again over the weekend.

The game itself is described as a "thrilling, fast-paced, cooperative gameplay experience", and one which on its announcement head of Marvel Games Jay Ong called one of the team's "most ambitious game development projects", and one the developer has "poured [its] heart and soul into".