Marvel Rivals developer NetEase Games has just revealed new details about the upcoming Season 2: Hellfire Gala update that will go live next week on April 11, 2025. The new season adds X-Men Emma Frost to the lineup, and Ultron, who spoils the gala Frost is hosting in the Mutant nation of Krakoa.
This is also the setting of the new maps that’ll be added with Season 2, which, according to a press release, will feature “dreamy botanical landscapes and beautiful fireworks.”
Weekly missions will also be added with Season 2 on top of the already included daily missions, just to give players a little more to do during the three-month-long season.
Speaking of season length, NetEase also revealed that beginning with Season 3, a season in Marvel Rivals will only be two months long, with a new playable character introduced each month.
For Season 2, the first half will introduce Emma Frost as a new Vanguard character, with Ultron, and details about his character type, still to come in the second half of the season. Season 2 will also feature the first time NetEase adjusts or removes certain team-up abilities, which means the game is about to undergo some of its first major changes.
Marvel Rivals launched at the end of 2024, and has so far accomplished what many big publishers have tried and failed to do, which is carving out a slice of the live service pie for itself. NetEase boasts that the game has grown to beyond 40 million players since its launch, and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Marvel Rivals definitely has an advantage over games like Sony’s failed Concord, which was also attempting to establish a new set of characters and a new world for players to enjoy, but as we saw in Marvel’s Avengers, a big IP backing up your game doesn’t mean it’ll be a smash-hit.
NetEase even admits in its developer vision presentation that the studio understands the pressure it is under to sustain the success Marvel Rivals has enjoyed so far. These changes coming in Season 2, which are still to be laid bare in the full patch notes still to come, could prove to be the beginning of a turning point for the game, with the next check coming with the arrival of shorter seasons in Season 3. This was a move made specifically to try to keep players engaged and not let the game stay too stale.
