Marvel Rivals terms of service has "non-disparagement" clause to prevent players giving "negative reviews"
Content creators cannot "make any public statements or engage in discussions that are detrimental to the reputation of the game".
UPDATE 6pm UK: Netease has apologised for "inappropriate and misleading terms" in its content creator contract.
In a statement posted in Discord shortly after the contract began to make headlines, the Marvel Rivals Content Creator Team said it "sincerely apologised" for the "miscommunication and your unpleasant experiences".
"We are aware that there are inappropriate and misleading terms in the commitment regarding sharing non-disparagement content," the full statement said. "We sincerely apology [sic] for the miscommunication and your unpleasant experiences!
"Our stand is absolutely open for both suggestions and criticisms to improve our game. And we [sic] our mission is to make Marvel Rivals better satisfy players by those constructive suggestions.
"We are now working on revise the miscommunication terms from our commitment," it continues. "The progress will be shared with every creator in a timely manner. Marvel Rivals always welcome creators join our community and create amazing contents together with us. Content creators are respected not only as a player, but part of the community here. Speaking of this, a suggestions form for Content Creator program is about to release in the [Discord] which open to all opinions. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!"
At the time of writing, it's not clear if previous signed contracts are now null and void, but NetEase says "all terms will go live only when both parties have discussed and have agreed" the terms.
In a statement to press, NetEase said: "The contract is a draft version aiming for long-term co-operation with the creators who are interested in Marvel Rivals. The development team hopes to have more meaningful and consistent feedback, suggestions, and criticisms through more in-depth cooperation."
Original story follows.
ORIGINAL STORY 1.50pm UK: Players and content creators have hit back at Marvel Rivals for a playtest terms of service contract that prohibits players from making "statements that are detrimental to the reputation of the game".
As shared by former professional eSports player and Twitch streamer Brandon "A_Seagull" Larned, the contract "signs away your right to negatively review the game".
In section 2.1 of the agreement – subtitled "Non-Disparagement" – content creators are obliged to "agree not to make any public statements or engage in discussions that are detrimental to the reputation of the game".
This "includes but is not limited to", "making disparaging or satirical comments about any game-related material, such as game features, characters, or music", and "engaging in malicious comparisons with competitors or belittling the gameplay or differences of Marvel Rivals or providing subjective negative reviews of the game".
As noted by Larned, "many streamers have signed [the contract] without reading just to play".
Interestingly, the FAQs published in the game's discord community says that there is "no NDA for our Closed Alpha Test" and players are "encouraged to share their experience and all types of content on all platforms".
A couple of players have also shared concerns about the terms of service on the official Discord server, but as yet, there's been no response to their queries.
Others on Twitter/X claim the developers agreed to "revise" the contract, but have seemingly yet to do so.
At the time of writing, the hero team-based PvP shooter – which is published by NetEase Games – has yet to publicly comment on the matter. We've reached out to NetEase and will update if and when we hear more.
Marvel Rivals is an upcoming free-to-play, team-based PVP shooter for PC with the backing of Chinese publishing giant NetEase.
Described as a "thrilling, fast-paced, cooperative gameplay experience", Marvel Rivals will pit teams of six against each other as they fight it out over a variety of destructible environments with characters from across the Marvel universe. This includes the likes of Iron Man, Groot, Scarlet Witch and more.