Marvel Snap publisher ByteDance is set to wind down gaming brand Nuverse as it steps away from mainstream video games.
ByteDance told Reuters on Nov. 26 a decision was made to restructure after a review, though failed to provide full details, and has “made the difficult decision to restructure our gaming business.” Sources added that employees will be told to cease work on unreleased games by December, while they will look to divest from titles that have already been released, possibly including Marvel Snap.
Although Marvel Snap has become extremely popular with a huge cult following, the game is not considered to be a commercial hit and it remains to be seen what plans ByteDance has moving forward—though it has been stated already that casual games that run on TikTok will not be impacted.
It seems unlikely the development of Marvel Snap, which features regular seasonal content and continued updates bringing new cards, variants, and more, will be ceased entirely, though it does leave things up in the air. Dot Esports has approached Second Dinner for comment and clarification on the situation.
Second Dinner is the direct creator of Marvel Snap and is an “award-winning independent game studio based in California,” and it could be that it moves to handle the game entirely on its own or find another publisher to work with.
Crucially, the Marvel license is tied to Second Dinner and will therefore not be affected by the decision made by publisher ByteDance, giving Marvel Snap the capacity to move away from its current publisher without any hiccups.
Marvel Snap won Mobile Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2022 and remains popular. The game was released on Steam in August 2023 and is rated highly, with 84 percent of all-time reviews on the platform being positive.
