The Marvel Rivals hype train hasn’t seemed to stop since its release, with each update adding more reason to try out the newest free-to-play hero shooter on the market. Aided by a unique art style with a fresh but familiar take over its competitors, Marvel Rivals has more than enough potential to become a new pillar of the genre. One of Marvel Rival’s greatest strengths is its broad roster of iconic comic book characters with plenty more on the way, but there’s one big problem with future releases.

While the competitive hero shooter is filled with iconic characters expected from a big-budget title, such as Captain America, Spider-Man, and Thor, Marvel Rivals also benefits from introducing lesser-known characters from the Marvel Universe. Not only do these unique characters add some unexpected variety to Marvel Rivals’ roster, but they have also given much-deserved attention to underrated characters from the comics themselves. The developers have a near-infinite number of heroes or villains to choose from, and Marvel Rivals is already facing a big problem when it comes to surprising fans with exciting new characters.

Nearly Every Upcoming Marvel Rivals Character Has Been Leaked Already

Lessening The Impact Of Exciting Seasonal Drops

While it can be exciting to search for rumors about content releasing soon, Marvel Rivals has already had a majority of its upcoming characters leaked months in advance, with The Fantastic Four being the first victims of the trend. While it’s not the developer’s fault that some dedicated players are adept at digging through Marvel Rivals‘ hidden files or getting an insider scoop, leaks can harm the planned excitement over future seasons and event-based character drops.

While certain Marvel characters like Deadpool are almost guaranteed to make their way into Marvel Rivals and would cause little surprise to see leaked in advance, it could, unfortunately, spoil the more obscure characters NetEase plans to give the spotlight to in Marvel Rivals.

Given that Marvel Rivals‘s developers have already discussed their new character release goals of roughly one hero every month and a half, there’s still hope for a few surprises here and there in the future. If Marvel Rivals developers NetEase can clamp down on the number of leaks internally or through its data-mined content, fans won’t have to wait too long to get through the current list of leaked characters before they can expect some new surprises.

Marvel Rivals Isn’t The Only Game Suffering From This Problem

Leaks Are A Frequent Occurrence In The Gaming Industry

While Marvel Rivals has already had some considerable leaks about its upcoming characters, they aren’t the only victims of the growing trend. Nearly every detail about the newest Switch 2 was revealed before its recent showcase, although the number of fake leaks made it hard to figure out which ones were real, which was the case for Marvel Rivals’s character leaks as well. While leaks aren’t always the most harmful, cases like Helldivers 2 can show how frustrating they can be for the community at large.

Further leaks could drastically hurt the hype around future seasons.

While much of Helldiver 2‘s leaked faction and abilities have come to pass already, there’s still leaked content fully available in the files that aren’t in the full game yet, causing resentment and frustration over the unnecessary wait. If Marvel Rivals continues to have its future content released so long in advance, further leaks could drastically hurt the hype around future seasons. While oftentimes, players have to go out of their way to look for game leaks, viral posts can easily spoil them for players wanting to be surprised when content is officially announced.

It’s easy to see how this issue with Marvel Rivals causes equal frustration for players forced to wait for a fan-favorite character who was leaked nearly a year before their planned debut.