A developer who worked on NetEase’s upcoming super hero team-based PvP shooter, Marvel Rivals, claims to have not been paid for their work on the game.
The developer in question is character concept artist William Bao, who took to Twitter/X to share that he had worked on Marvel Rivals with NetEase during the COVID period, and that he did not get paid for it. He mentioned that he began to get suspicious around the start of week 3 of his work with the studio. The management at NetEase told him that he was merely working on an art style test for the project, but the feedback kept getting more and more specific.
Bao pointed out that no art test lasts as long as the one he was asked to work on. As per him, NetEase was able to get a lot of free work out of these so-called art tests.
The character concept artist also mentioned that most of the feedback he received during the art test boiled down to NetEase asking him to look at other work and copy it. He said that, at one point, the reference image provided to him was a piece of concept art that had been trending on Artstation the same day.
He called upon all young artists to never indulge in free art tests. He believes that if someone is good enough at their work, they deserve to be compensated for their time and effort. Any work done during such art tests becomes company property and may end up getting used in the final project.
Marvel Rivals is an upcoming super hero team-based PvP shooter, in which players will assemble their favorite Marvel characters and engage in 6 vs 6 battles, utilizing brand-new team-up skills in destructible locations from across the Marvel Multiverse. The game’s Closed Alpha test is set to take place this May.
