Marvel Rivals directly referenced an Overwatch hero in its code

Marvel Rivals is doomed to forever be compared to Overwatch. It’s a team-based shooter with heroes, and some of those heroes happen to have a lot in common with the ones in Overwatch. NetEase has never directly said Blizzard’s game was an inspiration, but a now-removed line in Marvel Rivals’ code confirms that someone on the development team knew exactly what kind of game they were making.

That line described a hero in Chinese as a “Soldier: 76 replica”, which is a direct reference to the Overwatch character. Nobody was meant to see it, but thanks to a group of Marvel Rivals data miners, we know someone put it there before it was patched out.

“[NetEase] erased it in newer builds but it’s still stuck in my head since Marvel Rivals is the ‘Overwatch clone’ for many people,” Visceral, one of the data miners, told Polygon via DMs. “Was pretty silly when I stumbled across it.”

Visceral is part of the group who runs X0XLEAKS on X, a popular account that regularly posts upcoming skins and heroes found within the game’s code — often before NetEase officially announces them. Whenever a new update comes out, the team dives into it using custom tools to see what’s been added.

Those tools let them see all the things the developers hide in the game’s files, like character models, maps, textures, and lines of text. “Just clicking through your game folder won’t give you anything,” Visceral said. “So you either need custom/self-made extraction scripts or third party software to access the actual game assets.” And then you need to know what to look for.

X0XLEAKS has evidence that hints at several unannounced heroes coming to Marvel Rivals, including Blade, Daredevil, Phoenix, and Professor X. Sometimes these are just names written out in the code, but sometimes they’re full lists of abilities, team-ups, and voice lines. Even so, nothing they’ve found is real until NetEase says it is.

Marvel Rivals executive producer Danny Koo said in an IGN story about data miners earlier this year that heroes go through a lot of iteration before they’re released. “So there could be some information left in the code, and it might mean that we have tried those directions and they may appear or may not appear in our future plans,” Koo said.

Koo doesn’t recommend messing with the game’s files, but also doesn’t seem particularly bothered by data miners sticking their hands in them anyway. Like with any live service game, it’s going to happen whether you want it to or not.

We contacted NetEase about the Soldier: 76 find and data-mining and will update this post when we hear back.

“Honestly, I think data-mining is a net-positive for the game,” Stella, another member of X0XLEAKS, told Polygon. “In reality it keeps people excited and engaged with what’s coming up, you’ll find people logging in again when they usually wouldn’t to check out some new piece of content that maybe the developers didn’t spotlight. I know especially for some of Hoyoverse’s games, you get people especially excited to go out and farm new materials they might need for upcoming characters before they come out.”

Anyone can learn to data-mine with free tools online, Visceral said, but it takes some skill to verify the juiciest details. When they found a mention of Daredevil in the files, they didn’t post about it until they were sure it was legit. “We took our time and made sure it was the right hero, translated the same sentence with 10 different translators online, compared official Chinese writings of the hero in question, let multiple independent native speakers translate the Chinese text to make sure its 100% the right hero and it ended up being Daredevil,” they said.

“There are also things we don’t talk about on X like every single hero so far having voice lines for not being able to get healed (like anti-healing from Overwatch), there are no indications AFAIK of any single hero now or in the future being able to do something like that,” X0XLEAKS’ Matfacio told Polygon.

Despite having over 45,000 followers on X, X0XLEAKS doesn’t get paid for any of this. They do it because they love the game and want to share what they find with other fans.

“I enjoy seeing how the developers are implementing new features, the design decisions that go into it, and how I can use some of the information in the game to help players out,” Stella said. “I find digging into how these games are constructed to be the most fun part, it’s a big problem solving puzzle to me.”

“I think to really do solid reporting on something you have to be passionate about it otherwise it becomes a chore,” Stella said. “We wouldn’t be leaking games we’re not passionate about. NetEase has done a great job making a fun shake-up to the scene.”