The next big update for NetEase Games’ Marvel Rivals is on the way, with the developers sharing what players can expect from Season 4 on Wednesday.
In the reveal trailer for Marvel Rivals Season 4, we see blind lawyer and crime fighter Matt Murdock, a.k.a. Daredevil, facing off with Angela, daughter of Odin.
Both of these characters are being added with the new season, which kicks off on Sept. 12, 2025.
A new Vanguard joins the fray
The first character being added from the new duo is Angela. She’s a Vanguard, the first since Emma Frost at the start of Season 2, bringing a sorely-needed new tank to the game. It’s been rough waiting this long through Season 3, which added two Duelists in a row with Phoenix and Blade.
In a developer overview video, game director Guangguang explains that Angela commands the Ichors, allowing her to form different weapons, while her wing allows her to take to the skies.
She also has a team-up with her brother, Thor, granting him the ability to throw a spear and then leap to that point, dealing damage. To my great rejoicing, Thor is also getting a buff this season, with yet-undetailed improvements coming to his Ultimate ability.
Other known character balance changes include slight nerfs coming for Loki and Luna Snow, while Sue Storm and Doctor Strange are getting buffed.
If you enjoyed the sizzling summer swimsuit skin lineup back in July, then rejoice, because wave two is on the way. Despite the cooler temperatures, Mantis, Sue Storm, and others look to be shedding some clothes with new outfits coming on Sept. 18, 2025, shortly after Season 4 begins.
Finally, while it won’t be ready this season, the developers have also confirmed that the team is working on placement matches. This is a huge deal for anyone who has been struggling to play Ranked, as the seasonal resets made it an utter slog to fight back out of lower ranks that become overstuffed with players of a similar skill level.
Marvel Rivals is coming to PlayStation 4 … unfortunately
To close out the developer update, the team shared that Marvel Rivals is coming to PlayStation 4 on September 12, bringing the game to Sony’s last-generation gaming hardware.
While I understand the likely thought process — the game is free-to-play, so expanding it to another existing platform can bring in more revenue — I’ll freely admit I’m extremely disappointed in this decision.
Marvel Rivals takes advantage of many high-end Unreal Engine 5 features, and can even run at 120 FPS on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. Bluntly, to say I’m not expecting this version of the game to run well would be an understatement of ludicrous proportions.
Having Marvel Rivals players on older hard drives and ancient CPUs will increase match loading times, and taking away the lightning-quick match search times the game is known for isn’t something I’m looking forward to.
It’s also bizarre because it’s the complete opposite of what we’ve seen from so many other game developers.
Many annual sports franchises finally dropped Xbox One and PlayStation 4 this year, while HoYoverse shared that the PlayStation 4 version of Genshin Impact is being wound down.
Similarly, PUBG Corp recently shared that support for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 was ending. There are exceptions (Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is still launching on last-generation systems this November), but it’s an increasingly thin list.
Hopefully, my fears are overblown, but I’m simply not expecting this to go well for players in any way.
Marvel Rivals is currently available on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (Steam and Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, and (soon) PlayStation 4.
