Amidst the abrupt layoffs of some employees who worked Marvel Rivals, it's now reported that the game's cancelation was considered prior to its release, which is a surprising revelation, given it has already surpassed 40 million players.According to Bloomberg, there were discussions about canceling the game. NetEase CEO William Ding reportedly didn't want to pay Disney for using popular Marvel characters like Spider-Man and Wolverine, and asked artists to replace them with NetEase's own hero designs. While this change didn't end up happening, the wasted effort reportedly cost millions of dollars. However, a NetEase spokesperson denied this account, explaining that the company and Marvel have had a close relationship since 2017.The sudden layoff of US-based Marvel Rivals developers despite the game's massive success raised questions among fans. "We recently made the difficult decision to adjust Marvel Rivals development team structure for organizational reasons and to optimize development efficiency for the game," NetEase said in a statement earlier this week. "This resulted in a reduction of a design team based in Seattle that is part of a larger global design function in support of Marvel Rivals."Continue Reading at GameSpot