When we reported that popular mod hub Nexus Mods was removing creepy political propaganda mods for Marvel Rivals, many of our readers expressed surprise that mods were even allowed to begin with. Well, you had reason to wonder, and it’s officially over, as the hero shooter has now silently integrated a technology that attempts to block mods with the release of Season 1.
When the new season launched, players began to note on the game’s Discord surprise that their mods were suddenly not working. As it turns out, the shooter now uses a feature known as asset hash checking that scans game files to see if they’ve been altered in any way. Furthermore, this feature was quietly added by developer NetEase, as it wasn’t in the season’s patch notes, nor was it announced by the studio.
It should be noted that Rivals’ own terms of service point out that mods are verboten, and NetEase told Polygon, “It is not recommended to modify any game files, as doing so carries the risk of getting banned.” No players have reported being banned for mods as of yet, and mod makers have already found some workarounds that could do some serious damage to framerates and hardware, but this update to the game seems to draw a pretty clear line in the sand.
Meanwhile, Season 1’s release has seen the team shooter crest new concurrency heights on Steam (and very likely on other platforms) with a new all-time peak of over 644K players over the weekend, a new 24-hour peak of over 565K, and what appears to be a consistent headcount of over 500K thus far, all of which are gains when compared to numbers from its launch month. So mods or no, it would seem that Rivals isn’t a flash in the pan in terms of popularity so far.
🎉 2.5M Milestone: Unbelievable Surprises Await! 🎉
We've hit a massive 2.5 MILLION members, and the celebration has only just begun!
🚀 To kick things off, we're throwing a mind-blowing special giveaway includes TWO AMD 7900XTX Graphics Cards! 🎮💥
This is our BIG… pic.twitter.com/O0qqNu870B
— Marvel Rivals (@MarvelRivals) January 11, 2025
