As soon as Season 1 kicked off on Friday, a wave of confusion rolled through the Marvel Rivals community. Players flocked to the Discord server, puzzled as to why their beloved mods had suddenly stopped working. The culprit turned out to be a new feature called asset hash checking, which scans through game files and disables anything altered.
MerryJoyKey, who created the Marvel Rivals mod manager found on NexusMods, addressed the community by saying, “While there’s a slim chance, I’ll be on the lookout for a workaround. I’ll promptly update you if we stumble upon one.” For now, though, updates to the mod have been shelved until a viable solution emerges.
Players felt blindsided because NetEase didn’t provide any heads-up regarding this change. It wasn’t mentioned in the Season 1 patch notes either. The only warning came earlier that week when a spokesperson told Polygon, “Altering game files isn’t advised, as it may lead to a ban.”
Despite the stern warning, no one has reported any bans yet. The official terms of use had always flagged mods as a no-go zone, but that hadn’t deterred players from experimenting. NexusMods was bustling with thousands of downloads and uploads for Marvel Rivals, gaining traction alongside mod-heavy giants like Skyrim and Cyberpunk 2077. Interestingly, mods featuring custom skins depicting former U.S. presidents were pulled down by NexusMods due to their policy against sociopolitical content.
In the competitive multiplayer scene, it’s not uncommon for developers to take a strict stance against mods due to potential unfair advantages. Though Marvel Rivals mods didn’t reach exploitative levels, it’s likely the company wanted to prevent any spiraling out of control.
Now, players will need to customize their superheroes the old-fashioned way, by saving up and purchasing skins from the in-game shop. The days of quirky crossovers like Iron Man Vegeta or Iron Fist Goku seem to have faded into the past.
