Marvel Rivals has introduced its first developer-focused technical update, titled Technically Speaking. In this inaugural entry, the game’s Technical Director, Fanfan, stepped in front of the camera for the first time to provide insights on how the team is working to improve performance, reduce stuttering, and increase overall stability.
Acknowledging ongoing community discussions, Fanfan explained that feedback around issues such as sudden stutters and hardware-related crashes has been taken seriously. The team has already implemented changes in areas like shader compilation, ability processing, and parallel computing to ensure smoother gameplay across platforms.
One of the primary concerns highlighted was stuttering during high-intensity battles. To address this, the developers redesigned their shader loading system. Instead of preloading every shader upfront, which caused long startup times and high memory usage, the new method prioritizes only the most commonly used shaders. According to Fanfan, this has reduced startup time and memory usage by around 40 percent. In addition, the team has optimized over 200 performance hotspots by spreading calculations across frames and leveraging parallel processing.
The update also detailed several performance enhancements, including a new PC performance testing tool introduced in Season 3. This tool simulates combat scenarios, measures CPU, GPU, and network performance, and recommends optimized settings based on player hardware. Parallelism improvements have also been rolled out, allowing the game to make better use of multi-core CPUs. Internal testing suggests these adjustments provide an average frame rate boost of 30 percent.
Marvel Rivals’ recent PlayStation 4 release was another key focus. Since the system falls below the game’s minimum PC specifications, the developers pushed optimizations in game logic, rendering, and memory management. These upgrades, while designed for PS4, are also expected to benefit other platforms in the upcoming Season 4.
On stability, Fanfan outlined the team’s ongoing work with Intel CPUs, GPU crash troubleshooting, and collaboration with hardware manufacturers. Since launch, crash reports have been reduced by more than half, though the team emphasized that investigations and fixes are an ongoing priority.
Marvel Rivals, developed by NetEase Games in partnership with Marvel Games, continues to grow its audience. The free-to-play hero shooter has reached over 40 million players as of February 2025, with support spanning PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and, more recently, PlayStation 4. The developers reaffirmed their commitment to providing regular updates, with Fanfan promising to share future milestones as they arrive.
