TikTok Maker ByteDance Reportedly Ditching Gaming, Marvel Snap Tries to Reassure Worried Players

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Well-received online card game Marvel Snap has issued a statement aimed at reassuring concerned players after its publisher was reportedly set for significant trouble.

Reuters reports that TikTok maker ByteDance plans to wind down its Nuverse gaming brand and retreat from mainstream video games, and is looking for ways to sell off launched titles. That would include Marvel Snap, developer Second Dinner’s Marvel-themed Hearthstone-a-like that launched in 2022. Nuverse publishes Marvel Snap across mobile and PC.

According to Reuters, ByteDance will tell employees today to stop working on unreleased games by December, and will look for ways to divest from titles already launched. It’s a decision likely to impact “hundreds” of employees, Reuters said. Nuverse was only set up in 2019, and was seen as part of ByteDance’s big-budget bid to get in on the video game market. Reuters said Nuverse hadn’t performed well enough, and that Marvel Snap had “amassed a cult following but was not a commercial hit”.

Now, a tweet from the official Marvel Snap account addressed the report. “Some of our players have expressed their concerns regarding reported structural changes at Nuverse,” the statement reads. “We wish to thank you for your concern and assure you that regardless of any changes at Nuverse, Snap will continue to operate and flourish in the future!”

Dear SNAPPERS,
Some of our players have expressed their concerns regarding reported structural changes at Nuverse.
We wish to thank you for your concern and assure you that regardless of any changes at Nuverse, SNAP will continue to operate and flourish in the future!

— MARVEL SNAP (@MARVELSNAP) November 27, 2023

It’s unclear exactly what “continue to operate and flourish in the future” means, but if ByteDance plans to sell off the game, perhaps it will find a home at another publisher.

Second Dinner was co-founded by former Hearthstone director Ben Brode and fellow Blizzard veteran Hamilton Chu back in 2019. Others from Blizzard’s Hearthstone team joined to work on Marvel Snap, which is published through a partnership with Marvel and publisher Nuverse.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.