Former Blizzard Boss Slams Marvel Rivals, Comparing It to Horizon-Like Light of Motiram

From the company that ripped off Warhammer to get their big break that's a bit rich.

So I think most of us have launched an email/comment before better sense stepped in. I think the general consensus was that it was very much an Overwatch clone - but I've not played it myself. I kinda suspect few people are complaing about character design though... there's a generally a clear record of who did what character art first.

Games however are such an interesting (and I'm sure frustrating) thing to manage IP around - because it's so hard to say this game-style/mechanic was originally made by Company X...so lots of people can and do mimic game styles... sometimes with great effect. Is that wrong - if the game is good? There's a lot of very popular games that are effective copies of other games.

Not sure where I stand on this.

I'm going to keep it real, but Overwatch should never have won GOTY back in 2016 if you look what it went up against.... Just saying.

@FutilityInExcellence trademark relates to the branding - what they did was put a patent on the idea of having a generated roster of NPC's that were impacted on earlier gamer choice. There's no way that this should be a patent... it's a basic game mechanic, and it's likely done more harm to the industry (in blocking it as a mechanic under threat of litigation) than most others.

It's the same as Nintendo suing for having a monster capture mechanic... they weren't the first to do it - but putting a patent together decades down the track to protect a basic concept of a game (they didn't invent) doesn't make gaming better.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare Companies care about their own profits and rightfully so. No one else is gonna care for them.

I am just saying that there are no original ideas anymore. Just different mixtures of ideas and iterations. That former Blizzard dev has no right to complain.

@FutilityInExcellence we don't need to bring Tammy and the T-Rex into this. That unrated cut is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.

@Oram77 it still deserved a GOTY though regardless. overwatch used to be amazing

@FutilityInExcellence I get your intent... it's just not quite so easy. I think if you've a strong creative association with anything - your feelings aren't just about what's legal or not. I think the original comments were maybe not well formed, but the frustration was genuine. Doesn't make it right - but makes it understandable.

And yes - most games are influenced by a lot of different things that came before it... like movies, like paintings, like literature, like philosophy... hell, even science is based on the idea of moving others ideas forward.

I think what I'm saying is, we should all just cut people some slack; and accept that if you worked on something, perhaps you might say something stupid. If you keep doubling/tripling down - then that's perhaps a different story....

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare It's not like I have doxed him and I am threatening him if he doesn't stop. It's just banter to kill the boredom.

It's still very frustrating to see actual developers complain about stuff like that. I love gaming and every time some senior developer says or does something stupid I get reminded that the gaming industry is not being worked on exclusively by people who want to make good games. There are money hungry execs, radicalized activists, people who will shut down good ideas because they think that they know better or are afraid of 'stealing'. A good example are the character designs in Concord. They created assets, pressed the randomization button and left it at that.

By his logic Overwatch ripped off Team Fortress 2.

Team.Fortress.2

He should sit the F down with that opinion

@FutilityInExcellence what now?... I'm not sure if you're accidentally responding to someone else's comment... I'm just saying that trade-marking isn't a solution to stopping people copying games - and that patenting is a possible solution but it's also kinda a douche thing to do IMO; especially when your patented mechanic isn't that new or revolutionary.

I also agree with the Concord character designs being very mid... but if you asked me, would I vote to shut the studio down because they went very 'generic' I would say no. Instead I'd say, the studio needs to improve - put out better characters... make the game-play more unique or worthwhile (if charging people money for it). I wouldn't say - well, you failed in the first 7 days, by the end of the 10th day, you're ALL fired. Copying can be good - or in the case of Concord, they put out a game that was also very derivative... intentionally. They just didn't put enough effort into making it worthwile.

That's just me... I honestly thought Sony could have learned from NMS (and countless other games like Sea of Thieves or Fallout 76). Sometimes the best option is to learn from mistakes, so that you can grow in order to learn even more from success (rather than just shut things down like a petulant schoolboy who wants to take his bat and go home).

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare I don't think that copying is a real problem. If it was people would have boycotted most racing, sports, fps and Ubisoft style games not made by them like HZD.

The reason Concord's studio got shut down was because there was no hype about the product. NMS, Fallout 76 and Cyberpunk had a lot of hype so even if they became worth playing a year after launch people will show up. Concord came out of nowhere and it quite frankly didn't do anything right. There is no way to justify keeping that studio alive. And there is no way to justify keeping that Sony CEO in charge after his contract comes to an end lmao. Talk about out of touch.

@Gunnerzaurus 100% this, if Widowmaker didn't exist then Black Widows kit in Rivals would've been based on something else, maybe Skye from Paladins, and the sniper role would've likely gone to a marvel hero more akin to the TF2s Sniper or Strix from Paladins. I love Rivals but people don't seem to realize how much netease kit designs are inspired/copied from other games especially Overwatch and Paladins

@Oram77 sorry, but I think Overwatch deserved GOTY in 2016.

The competition was:

• Overwatch
• Uncharted 4: A Theif’s End
• Titanfall 2
• Doom (2016)
• Inside

All great games. But Overwatch was a great multiplayer game, had a massive player base, and is still being talked about today (albeit negatively).

Titanfall 2 was great, but lacked commercial success. Uncharted 4 was a cinematic treat. Inside was a unique game that deserved a spotlight. Doom sparked a franchise reboot.

So they were all good, but objectively, Overwatch deserved the win. It is the one that stuck around the longest, had the biggest impact in gaming (spawning numerous ‘clones’ despite itself being a clone) and at its peak with new cinematic, constant updates and heroes etc. It was a fantastic game.

From a guy who suggested tipping at the end of single-player games, blissfully unaware of “deluxe edition” upgrade most games have now…

@Kienda I mean I would never have thought that a live service game would last longer than single payer games.

@EfYI You admit you haven't played it but still call the game you haven't played "garbage".

@DennisReynolds I am sure that for him the game is garbage because he has no interest in playing it. The problem is that he uses inflammatory words instead of saying 'I am not interested in x'.

Don't forget that people have had the mental faculty to recognize that a fire will burn them even if they didn't put their hand in it first for thousands of years.

Everyone makes a stupid mistake which this is and a funny one.

But don’t delete your tweet just correct yourself.

From what I've played so far which is around 3 hours, I can say he ain't wrong. But then again this game blowing up is what's needed to give Blizzard a kick up the a** and get Overwatch back to what it used to be and not a huge cash grab.

Ain't Ybarra the mole Microsoft planted to make ActBlizz acquisition easier?

Anyways, there is a thing called archetype, dunno if Mike ever heard of it, most characters are based on one and it just happens both Widows are the same archetype, femme fatale
Also, if we are talking about femme fatale spies with a sniper rifle, Sniper Wolf from MGS predates both.

@DennisReynolds Worse than that. Yes, Overwatch ripped off Team Fortress 2, but by Ybarra's logic, Warcraft ripped off Dune 2, World of Warcraft ripped off Everquest (itself far from the first MMORPG) and Diablo ripped off Times of Lore.
By Ybarra's logic, Blizzarfd have never made an original game. Being fair, Blizzards talent was never innovation, it was refinement- the Blizzard version was pretty much always more playable (because they learned from the mistakes the innovaters made).
But yeah, this is just Ybarra being a moron on twitter again.

@Gunnerzaurus but the move sets aren’t even 1:1. A sniper character that also has a burst rifle when not aiming down the sights is a common shooter trope. Other than that they share nothing in common with their moves.

It’s not a fair remark to say Marvel Rivals copies Overwatch, what with Overwatch 2 being a completely miserable experience with non existent progression and Marvel Rivals being fun.

Rivals is ok. If you like it that's great. Far too much gigantic hit box and/or huge projectile shooting for me. Great use of a license tho.

I'm having more fun with it than I did with Overwatch. And yes, I understand its general gameplay is pretty much copy-pasted. But it's amazing what happens when I give a ***** and/or know things about the characters I'm playing as. I don't need to watch a 3 minute cinematic every 4 months to get drip-fed lore.

Plus, despite characters and elements being similar, it has successfully mixed and matched so many elements of so many characters that VERY few are truly 1:1 clones. They all have their own flavor.

Also... it's fun.

@Gunnerzaurus I was going to say the same thing until I actually read his tweet, so I'm guessing you haven't read it yet and just assumed the same thing I did. He specifically claims the name is copied because of the word "widow" and makes no other claim of similarity between them.

@Artois2 I think you missed my point a bit. I wasn’t meaning the player base.

Overwatch isn't just still played. It is also talked about and reference a lot. It helped redefine the hero shooter and brought it mainstream, spawning multiple similar games.

Elden Ring is single player and I guarantee you it will be spoken about and referred to for the next decade, just like Overwatch, BotW, God of War, and many other GOTY winners.

The other games on the list for 2016 are part of big franchises or were good games in their own rights, but they didn’t have the long term appeal that Overwatch has had.

Overwatch was great when it released but it's a shell of it's former self now. Also I agree with other comments, TF2 had Overwatch beat by almost a decade.

I bet the current ActiBlizzKing Overwatch devs are pissed at this dude. It's the game that might eat their lunch, and now this out of touch ex-CEO comes out and embarrasses them.

@Deadlyblack Sure. PC games used to be like that. I remember all my (rich) peers who played on PC making fun of us lowly console scrubs and how blown away we were by Halo.
...this is why I laugh at dudes who built a $2000 rig when they are super upset about bad ports.

@LikelySatan I never once brought up the PC to console comparison, that's not even what the article was about.

Also TF2 had a console port via Orange Box the same year it released on Steam.

@Deadlyblack oh man right! I don't think I even knew TF was in the console version of the Orange Box. Crazy. My bad!
(that's actually downright irresponsible...I was managing a videogame store when it came out...no wonder that place closed)

Imagine the sheer arrogance of thinking Black Widow is ripping off Widowmaker.

STFU Mike.

@LikelySatan It's all good. I've played quite a bit of TF2 on the PS3 with a friend cause it was the only way he could play due to him only having a PS3 and no PC. Funny enough, I still have my PS3 copy of the game.

Make sure that man never works in the industry again.

If you delete your post, maybe think before posting to begin with.

He's right! How dare they "rip off" Team Fortress like that!

Oh wait.

Watching people just letting China take over gaming has been a wild thing to watch.

Lol, it's called competition, just make a better games if you want to beat your competitor 😂

@MasterTanookiChief Western developer prefer going bankrupt rather than giving gamer what they want. Although maybe that's by design, china gave them money with string (esg/dei), and when the company stock fall because nobody bought the esg games, tencent buy that company at discounted price and fire all the problematic employee from dei hiring.

Keep in mind that china ban esg/dei from their own company, you won't find esg/dei from marvel rivals (net ease), genshin impact (mihoyo), and all the gatcha games from china company.

Depends how he framed it if the gameplay from Widowmaker is copied completely then that is not really classy.