Marvel Rivals is doomed to perpetually be in comparison with Overwatch. It’s a team-based shooter with heroes, and a few of these heroes occur to have rather a lot in widespread with those in Overwatch. NetEase has by no means immediately mentioned Blizzard’s recreation was an inspiration, however a now-removed line in Marvel Rivals’ code confirms that somebody on the event staff knew precisely what sort of recreation they have been making.
That line described a hero in Chinese language as a “Soldier: 76 duplicate”, which is a direct reference to the Overwatch character. No one was meant to see it, however due to a bunch of Marvel Rivals knowledge miners, we all know somebody put it there earlier than it was patched out.
“[NetEase] erased it in newer builds nevertheless it’s nonetheless caught in my head since Marvel Rivals is the ‘Overwatch clone’ for many individuals,” Visceral, one of many knowledge miners, informed gamexplore by way of DMs. “Was fairly foolish after I stumbled throughout it.”

Picture: NetEase Video games by way of X0XLEAKS
Visceral is a part of the group who runs X0XLEAKS on X, a preferred account that usually posts upcoming skins and heroes discovered inside the recreation’s code — usually earlier than NetEase formally declares them. Every time a brand new replace comes out, the staff dives into it utilizing customized instruments to see what’s been added.
These instruments allow them to see all of the issues the builders disguise within the recreation’s information, like character fashions, maps, textures, and contours of textual content. “Simply clicking via your recreation folder received’t offer you something,” Visceral mentioned. “So that you both want customized/self-made extraction scripts or third get together software program to entry the precise recreation belongings.” After which it’s good to know what to search for.
X0XLEAKS has proof that hints at a number of unannounced heroes coming to Marvel Rivals, together with Blade, Daredevil, Phoenix, and Professor X. Typically these are simply names written out within the code, however generally they’re full lists of talents, team-ups, and voice strains. Even so, nothing they’ve discovered is actual till NetEase says it’s.
Marvel Rivals government producer Danny Koo mentioned in an IGN story about knowledge miners earlier this 12 months that heroes undergo lots of iteration earlier than they’re launched. “So there may very well be some info left within the code, and it would imply that we now have tried these instructions and so they could seem or could not seem in our future plans,” Koo mentioned.
Koo doesn’t advocate messing with the sport’s information, but additionally doesn’t appear significantly bothered by knowledge miners sticking their arms in them anyway. Like with any reside service recreation, it’s going to occur whether or not you need it to or not.
We contacted NetEase concerning the Soldier: 76 discover and data-mining and can replace this put up after we hear again.
“Actually, I feel data-mining is a net-positive for the sport,” Stella, one other member of X0XLEAKS, informed gamexplore. “In actuality it retains folks excited and engaged with what’s developing, you’ll discover folks logging in once more once they normally wouldn’t to take a look at some new piece of content material that perhaps the builders didn’t highlight. I do know particularly for a few of Hoyoverse’s video games, you get folks particularly excited to exit and farm new supplies they could want for upcoming characters earlier than they arrive out.”
Anybody can study to data-mine with free instruments on-line, Visceral mentioned, nevertheless it takes some talent to confirm the juiciest particulars. After they discovered a point out of Daredevil within the information, they didn’t put up about it till they have been certain it was legit. “We took our time and made certain it was the precise hero, translated the identical sentence with 10 completely different translators on-line, in contrast official Chinese language writings of the hero in query, let a number of impartial native audio system translate the Chinese language textual content to ensure its 100% the precise hero and it ended up being Daredevil,” they mentioned.
“There are additionally issues we don’t speak about on X like each single hero to this point having voice strains for not with the ability to get healed (like anti-healing from Overwatch), there aren’t any indications AFAIK of any single hero now or sooner or later with the ability to do one thing like that,” X0XLEAKS’ Matfacio informed gamexplore.
Regardless of having over 45,000 followers on X, X0XLEAKS doesn’t receives a commission for any of this. They do it as a result of they love the sport and need to share what they discover with different followers.
“I get pleasure from seeing how the builders are implementing new options, the design selections that go into it, and the way I can use among the info within the recreation to assist gamers out,” Stella mentioned. “I discover digging into how these video games are constructed to be essentially the most enjoyable half, it’s an enormous drawback fixing puzzle to me.”
“I feel to actually do stable reporting on one thing it’s a must to be keen about it in any other case it turns into a chore,” Stella mentioned. “We wouldn’t be leaking video games we’re not keen about. NetEase has executed a terrific job making a enjoyable shake-up to the scene.”

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