Marvel Snap publisher to be closed amid ByteDance restructure

If the world hasn’t seen enough games industry layoffs as of late, it seems Marvel Snap publisher Nuverse is next. Despite launching one of the best mobile games in recent years, the publisher is being downsized.

Nuverse’s layoffs come via a Reuters report regarding parent company ByteDance, the company behind social media giant TikTok. After a poor year, ByteDance is discontinuing its gaming efforts as well as laying off workers at its VR company Pico.

This comes as ByteDance seeks to almost completely remove itself from the industry as a whole, ceasing work on any mainstream games moving forward. This decision has been made to “make adjustments to centre on long-term strategic growth areas” with gaming not providing the company with hope in the future.

In terms of the impact on personnel, this strategic restructure is set to affect “hundreds of employees” but this is to be confirmed in due course. Regardless of what does transpire, many will lose their jobs and will have to look elsewhere for employment.

Other gaming efforts within the company such as the more casual brand Ohayoo and any TikTok game development will remain untouched, progressing with any plans that have been put in place already. It appears staff will also be unaffected in these areas.

In addition, Reuters also reported earlier this month that ByteDance had already started looking for “buyers for game developing subsidiary Moonton Technology” while subsequently “cutting” a large portion of the content team within VR company Pico. All of this points toward a dim outlook and suggests that we won’t see ByteDance in this space for a long time, or ever again for that matter.

Since the news broke, due to there being such a large core fan base for Marvel Snap, advocates took to social media platforms to share their concerns for what’s to come. Thankfully, the official Marvel Snap X account has since posted that regardless of any changes or restructures within the parent company, “SNAP will continue to operate and flourish in the future”.

While this is a positive sign that Snap doesn’t look like it is to be added to the pile of defunct live service games right now, there’s no saying that when the restructures do come into full effect that content may slow down dramatically.

All that can be hoped for is that Marvel Snap doesn’t get the Thanos treatment any time soon and that players new and old can experience these epic virtual card battles for some time to come.