Here Are The Marvel Rivals’ Release Times For Launch Day

Riding a tidal wave of hype, NetEase’s Marvel Rivals launches today, a supposed Overwatch-killer where that name may not be an exaggeration, even if it did rip-off Black Widow from Widowmaker (jokes).

The superhero hero shooter launches on PC, PlayStation and Xbox either today, December 5, or tomorrow, December 6, depending on your region. Now, NetEase has confirmed what the launch times for Marvel Rivals are:

• PST – December 5, 4 PM
• CST – December 5, 6 PM
• EST – December 5, 7 PM
• UTC+0 – December 6 – 00:00 AM
• UTC+9 (JP/KR) – December 6 – 9 AM

So, while the release date for Marvel Rivals is widely known as December 6, the Americas get to play for some amount of hours on December 5, albeit there’s no way to know how servers are going to perform on launch day, and it’s probably wise to assume you’re not going to get in exactly at these listed times. If so, that would be something of a miracle from NetEase.

But I think they’ve performed another miracle, producing a game that essentially everyone, minus former Blizzard executives, thinks looks very cool. Marvel Rivals has been making the rounds with great-looking skins and character kits for weeks, but most recently, the revelation that its battle passes are not going to expire is a welcome change from how those work normally (sadly that did not help its fallen superhero brethren, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Marvel’s Avengers, which did the same thing).

This week it was announced that multiplayer shooter XDefiant would be shut down next year, the latest in a long list of titles that have done the same. But Marvel Rivals, in contrast, feels almost destined to succeed, not just because it looks cool, but because those who have played it say it really is that good. I would expect this does significant damage to Overwatch’s playerbase, along with perhaps collateral damage even to other shooters.

This weekend is the moment of truth and yes, the conversation may be largely about servers as tends to be the case with any big multiplayer launch. But once people get in and are able to play, that’s when the real test begins of whether this game just has great art or is as good as early players are saying. Given how many games in this genre have absolutely tanked as of late, it would be good to see one succeed for a change.

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