Overwatch legend Brandon “Seagull” Larned has expressed his disappointment with supposed anti-criticism clauses in Marvel Rivals’ creator contracts that restrict any negative criticism of the game, and has announced he will no longer play Marvel Rivals in protest.
Seagull went on a rant in a May 11 livestream while breaking down the non-disparagement section of the Marvel Rivals’ content creator contracts. After playing for several hours, Seagull confirmed with five other content creators they “cannot make any public statements or engage in discussions that are detrimental to the reputation of Marvel Rivals.” The contract also prevents creators from “engaging in malicious comparisons with competitors.” The former Overwatch pro immediately urged creators to do their due diligence before signing contracts, turning off his stream shortly after.
“People have signed off what are basically sponsored or hashtag ad streams, and people are signing this without reading it just to get a game key,” Seagull said, hoping that popular creators shed more light on this issue. Several streamers like 39daph consider the clause “very strict,” with viewers and Marvel Rivals fans also agreeing with Seagull’s take in a May 10 Reddit thread.
One user claimed they tuned into Shroud’s stream on May 10 and found the streamer surprised by this contract as he had never seen a clause that prevents creators from talking badly about a game. During a May 10 stream, XQc also mentioned he had to sign documents to get a Marvel Rivals’ alpha code and presumably held himself back from saying anything wrong about the game’s loud launch theme.
While NetEase Games hasn’t publicly addressed this issue, few people in the gaming community believe this is standard practice, especially in the early test phases of a game. So far, most content creators are enjoying Marvel Rivals, but such a contract begs the question—are the reviews just for show?
The Marvel Rivals closed alpha test is running until May 21.
Update, May 12 at 3:52am CT: NetEase has responded to Dot stating the contract was a “draft version aiming for long-term cooperations with the creators who are interested in Marvel Rivals.” NetEase said that their intentions were innocent, but the company has realized the “inappropriate and misleading terms at the first time when involved content creators feedbacked.”
A message was also shared in the Marvel Rivals Discord server, apologizing for the “miscommunication and unpleasant experiences,” and that the company will revise the agreement terms. “Our stand is absolutely open for both suggestions and criticisms to improve our game, and our mission is to make Marvel Rivals better satisfy players by those constructive suggestions,” the message read. We’ve attached it in full below.
NetEase said adjusted terms would go live once both parties had discussed the matter and agreed upon a solution.
