Marvel Rivals
Marvel Rivals is about to launch its first official season which will bring the entire Fantastic Four into the game, two now, two later.
NetEase has been previewing this content all week, and now we are on the verge of its release date, Friday, January 10. And the exact time? Rivals has shared that, and it’s 1 AM PST, or 4 AM EST. In other words, in the Americas, when you wake up on Friday morning you will be able to hop in and start playing, barring any potential server issues. But Marvel Rivals did not have any significant server issues at launch, something of a miracle, and that may indeed be the case here.
Marvel Rivals season 1 is about to explode, mark my words. This game has so much momentum it’s unreal. It nearly topped its launch numbers with 445,000 concurrent players on Steam earlier today, and season 1 is poised to blow past those figures, given that this is happening before the season has even launched.
Here’s the official synopsis for the limited story aspect of the season, which involves the Fantastic Four fighting…Dracula. Yes, Dracula is a literal Marvel character, if you didn’t know that.
“Darkness engulfs New York as the Timestream Entanglement leaves Doctor Strange trapped in the Entangled Astral Plane, scattering the Darkhold pages. Dracula and Doctor Doom disrupt the moon’s orbit, plunging the city into eternal night and unleashing an army of vampiric creatures. With the world on the brink, the Fantastic Four join forces with iconic Marvel heroes, standing together in the epic battle to break the mystical darkness with science. Ignite the battle against Dracula with the Fantastic Four in Marvel Rivals!”
Mr. Fantastic and Sue Storm will be released at launch here, and The Human Torch and The Thing will arrive a month and a half from now, midway through the season. The season launches with three new maps, a $10 battle pass with 10 full skins in it, and a bunch of balance changes to shake up the meta, nerfing overpowered heroes and buffing underpowered ones. NetEase has warned, however, that season 1 will be bigger than future ones.
I understand that we’re still in the honeymoon period of Marvel Rivals, alleged Overwatch killer, but in an era when so many hero shooters flop right out of the gate, this has done the exact opposite and continues to put up wild figures, and new records are about to be broken for the game at launch tomorrow.
Remember, season 1 launches on Friday, January 10 at 1 AM PST, 4 AM EST. I will be there, and I expect you will be too.
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