Marvel Rivals Officially Responds To Storm Swimsuit Skin Backlash
Marvel Rivals Is Upgrading Storm's Summer Skin To Legendary After Backlash
Marvel Rivals has been dealing with a pretty nasty backlash over the past 24 hours, primarily from the game's black community. Upon the reveal of the game's next wave of summer skins, many noticed that Storm's was a little bit lacking, with some theorizing that she was a last-minute addition due to complaints about her absence from the Egyptian-themed season in 9.0.
We then go through the official gameplay reveals for these skins, confirming that Storm's summer skin would be Epic quality instead of Legendary. Not only does she have far less customizable options than other skins releasing at the same time, but she's also missing custom animation effects, and this is all made worse by the fact that every female summer skin besides Storm's has been Legendary.
Storm has been neglected for a while, only having one Legendary to her name despite being a hero that's been part of the game's roster since launch, and many believe it's due to blatant racism at NetEase. Blade is also a character that's been neglected since his introduction, Moon Girl didn't accompany Devil Dino, and it's been a while since we've seen a good Black Panther skin too.
Marvel Rivals Is Upgrading Storm's Summer Skin
Thankfully, NetEase is quite quick to act when it comes to feedback, at least regarding Marvel Rivals, and has already addressed the backlash via its social media channels. In a new post on Twitter, NetEase explains that it's decided to upgrade Storm's summer skin to Legendary for free at some point in the near future, giving her a new MVP animation and a new lobby animation.
NetEase has also pledged to keep selling Storm's skin for the same price, despite the upgrade, and those that buy the skin now will be able to upgrade to the Legendary version when it's updated in a later patch. On top of that, it's also made players aware that more Legendary skins for Storm are on the way.
However, the post does end on a serious note, as NetEase calls out fans that have been harassing developers and moderators over the controversy, calling the behavior "not acceptable." This is most likely in reference to the comments that have been flooding Discord and aimed at Marvel games executive producer Danny Koo.
While it's nice that Storm is finally getting the love that she deserves, it shouldn't come at the expense of people that likely weren't involved in the skin-making process at all, or any developer for that matter. Fans got what they wanted this time, but if we're increasingly hostile in the future, we may not get this kind of good grace in the future.