Marvel Rivals Has A Map Problem, But Can Future Updates Fix It?

But it could still be doing more. In its current state, Marvel Rivals has a major map variety problem. While it's not a dealbreaker in its current state, it could grow into a bigger issue over time, and could eventually become a key factor in the game's eventual decline. However, there's an easy way to fix the problem before it gets too bad.

Marvel Rivals Will Need More Map Variety To Keep Players Interested

Marvel Rivals Maps Are Lacking

In its current (and admittedly very early) state, Marvel Rivals' maps just don't have enough variety to sustain a player base in the long-term. Marvel Rivals has 11 maps at the time of writing; compare that to (the much further along) Overwatch 2's 36. A player could conceivably see every map the game has to offer within just a few hours of play. Even as they're still experimenting with its roster of heroes, this can cause fatigue to set in pretty quickly.

For live-service multiplayer games like Marvel Rivals, long-term player retention (and new player attraction) is vital. If players get bored, they'll move onto whatever the next flavor-of-the-month service game is. This can quickly have a snowball effect, as the more player counts drop, the harder it is to get into a match, and long queues will cause even more players to give up on the game in turn.

To further the issue, there's not enough variety amid the maps that currently exist. Three of them come from the Tokyo 2099 setting, and two each from Yggsgard, Wakanda, and Manhattan. These blend together aesthetically, if not structurally, which makes Rivals' already limited map pool feel even smaller than it actually does. The same maps seem to come up repeatedly in queues, which presents a limited view of a vast and varied universe.

And relatively few of these maps actually have unique features that make it meaningfully different to play on them versus others. Most of them are rather simple, with predictable lane-and-checkpoint structures. Even each map's more charactristic trappings aren't all that interesting: a Midtown back alley isn't that distinct from a hidden path in Shin-Shibuya, a Yggsgard mission area no different from a Wakanda one.

How Marvel Rivals Could Solve Its Map Problem

New Maps Versus New Characters

Marvel Rivals developers NetEase have claimed they'll release new character drops about every 45 days, which is an ambitious promise. But that's a lot of characters, and could cause the roster to become bloated and imbalanced over time. A massive list of characters can be impressive, but it may actually intimidate prospective players who don't want to sample tens of heroes before picking out their main. And while these early new characters, like the Fantastic Four, have lots of fans, what happens when Rivals runs out of ideas and has to start plumbing the depths for heroes like Glob Herman?

There's an easy way to solve both problems while still keeping the game interesting. Content updates every month and a half is a great proposition, but they don't all have to be heroes. Instead, Marvel Rivals would be better off using, say, every third 45-day update to introduce a new map. More heroes than maps is certainly the right path, but a consistent flow of both is the only way to achieve balance and stave off player boredom.

More Maps Are Thankfully On The Way

Marvel Rivals Will Likely Get New Maps In Season 2

Thankfully, NetEase has confirmed that at least one more map is coming to Marvel Rivals soon: Central Park, which is part of the ongoing Season 1. It doesn't promise the most variety - it's another Manhattan map, after all - but it's a good first step. A few other map names have allegedly been leaked by dataminers, but at present, there's next to no information to go off of about any of these upcoming maps.

So far, new maps are tied to new seasons in Marvel Rivals. The two new maps we've already gotten in the past few months, Midtown and Sanctum Sanctorum, were both revealed alongside The Fantastic Four and go along with the Empire of Eternal Night theme. That means we'll likely see new map reveals every time a new season comes around, and those new maps will then be released sporadically over the ensuing months. With Season 1 due to end in April, the next crop of new maps will likely be revealed just before spring, then released by July.

So it's clear that NetEase is working on a fix for its lack of variety, but it may be a little bit of a wait. At this point, the lack of new maps likely won't be too great a deterrent to player retention, especially with Central Park due soon to stave off boredom. But Marvel Rivals will have to keep up that pace in order to remain interesting over the years: it's as important as a steady stream of new heroes.