In recent years, ByteDance has been making efforts to get into the gaming market, primarily through mobile games. Despite the success of titles like Marvel Snap, the comapny isn't pleased with the outlook of its games publishing division and is now planning on shutting things down.
Speaking with Reuters, the Chinese tech company best known for owning TikTok, confirmed that it plans to restructure its games publishing arm, Nuverse, to recentre its efforts on “growth areas”. According to sources familiar with the matter, this means Nuverse, which has published games like Marvel Snap and One Piece: The Voyage, will no longer be involved in the games industry.
If you play a Nuverse published title like Marvel Snap, then it is worth noting that this does not mean the end of support for these titles. In the case of Marvel Snap at least, developer ‘Second Dinner' has already confirmed that despite changes at the publisher, the studio is still well positioned to continue working on the game and will be moving forward with its future development plans, including new seasonal content and card drops.
One can only hope that this change will give Second Dinner a little more leeway on the game's monetisation. While Marvel Snap was initially very generous to free players, changes to rewards and progression have created a situation where the game is now somewhat unfair to those not spending money beyond the monthly season pass and the prices for many of their packs are astronomical.
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KitGuru Says: The games industry is highly competitive and utilising a big and expensive IP under a license does not always guarentee success. With that said, Marvel Snap did make over $100 million this year, so we wouldn't be surprised to see a new publisher step in, or to see Second Dinner switch to a self-publishing model, which could lead to a return to a fairer monetisation model.