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News just broke from Reuters that ByteDance, the company that made TikTok, plans to restructure or shut down its subsidiary company Nuverse, the current publisher of Marvel Snap. What could this mean for Marvel Snap? Read on below.
Who is ByteDance and Nuverse?
Nuverse handles the publishing side of Marvel Snap, the gaming division of ByteDance, the Chinese company who is also behind one of the biggest apps in the world – TikTok. This was their entry into gaming, to rival the industry dominated by giant Tencent, with their flagship title League of Legends.
Nuverse is currently servicing games such as Earth: Revival, Figure Story, Ragnarok X: Next Generation, Warhammer 40,000: Lost Crusade, Flower, Dragonheir: Silent Gods, and other titles currently in development – both inhouse and by third parties.
What is Happening to Nuverse?
Currently, the gaming industry is affected by the economy at large. According to Reuters, anonymous sources told them that ByteDance is to internally announce today the shutting down down of its Nuverse gaming brand and full retreat from mainstream video games, with no plan to return to the market.
Furthermore, ByteDance will allegedly tell employees to stop working on unreleased games by December, and that it will look for ways to divest from titles already launched, the sources said. Bleach: Soul Resonance for example, could be one of the affected upcoming games.
What Does This Mean for Marvel Snap?
Not too long ago, Marvel Snap overhauled their Nuverse web shop where players can directly buy in-game items and redeem codes, as well as giving incentives to spend such as the Milestone Anniversavings event and exclusive bundles. The Double Gold on First Purchase is currently not implanted here yet. The extra bonus was that players could generally buy from the web shop at a slightly discounted price.
It is also likely that Nuverse also handled customer service and support, events (such as Battle Recaps, Discord Nitro collaborations, and so on), content for new cards, and other various promotions. Here is their response from the Community Manager on the official Discord server, who is part of the Nuverse team:
Dear SNAPPERS,
Some of our players have expressed their concerns regarding reported structural changes at Nuverse. We wish to thank you for your concern and assure you that regardless of any changes at Nuverse, SNAP will continue to operate and flourish in the future!
Thank you & happy SNAPPING!
Ultra—Skye – Marvel Snap Discord
While exactly how Marvel Snap will be affected by this news, if true, is currently not known, monetization of the game could possibly play a factor here.
What About Second Dinner?
As players might commonly know about more, Second Dinner is the development studio behind Marvel Snap, spearheaded by the iconic former Hearthstone game director and current Chief Development Officer, Ben Brode.
Although they are based in the United States, we do not know their level of relation to the publisher itself. However, according to mobilegamer.biz, Marvel Snap generated almost $100 million since its official launch in October 2022.
Second Dinner is also hiring for an unannounced game currently in development, which we know nothing about yet other than what we can deduce from the job description (a mobile puzzle game?).
There is no doubt Marvel Snap has innovated in the digital card game genre and made a huge impact – but it remains to see how the publishing deal has panned out for Nuverse themselves. The major question lies whether Nuverse will agree to divest Marvel Snap to Second Dinner or another publishing company, and if the change will bring more positive changes to the game going forward.
Conclusion
What do you think will happen to the future of Marvel Snap following this news? Will Second Dinner be managing on its own or find a new publisher to work with? Let us know in the comments below!
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