DC Has the Chance to Do the Funniest Thing With Its Rumored Marvel Rivals Clone

Marvel Rivals has undeniably been one of Marvel’s biggest risks regarding how it would adapt to the claustrophobic pressures and standards of the contemporary video game industry. Having suffered a couple of notable misfires from developers Eidos-Montreal and Crystal Dynamics concerning a single-player Guardians of the Galaxy game and a live-service, multiplayer Avengers game, respectively—whose common denominator was their publisher, Square Enix—it was a bold choice to embrace the live-service realm once again, particularly for a 6v6 hero shooter with a striking art style.

Perhaps imbued by this art style and what the genre could do to help revitalize Marvel in a new age, Marvel Rivals is a sensational live-service game that can now rest on its laurels and debut new playable characters for the foreseeable future while reveling in post-launch seasonal content and cosmetic bundles. Meanwhile, DC and Warner Bros. have continuously struggled to find their footing in the video game landscape apart from the seminal Batman: Arkham franchise. Now, with another high-stakes stab at a live-service game, DC could and should lean fully and unabashedly into the idea of a ‘Marvel Rivals clone,’ which, conceptually, already has a stalwart fanbase.

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DC is Once More in the Live-Service Market—WB Games Montreal, No Less

There may always be at least a tiny bit of interest in whatever new DC game is on the horizon because of how monumental DC is. Likewise, James Gunn’s first DCU entries, Creature Commandos and Superman, are working tremendously hard to rewrite DC’s legacy in the modern-day with new audiences in mind and an overhaul to the cinematic universe’s overall storytelling structure. It’s still unknown how Gunn’s DCU will affect future DC games, assuming that it will, but a recent job posting from WB Games Montreal reveals that there is a new live-service DC game in development.

WB Games Montreal is known for developing Batman: Arkham Origins and Gotham Knights, the former being a cult classic that has endured to become a fan-favorite Arkham game, and the latter being a highly maligned action-RPG that failed to successfully withdraw itself from Batman’s shadow. For it to be developing a live-service game suggests that Warner Bros. is indeed indulging in such efforts wholeheartedly, and there’d simply be no better option for DC right now than to launch its own Marvel Rivals clone, which it could cleverly dub ‘DC Allies’ in contrast.

If DC Really Wants Its Own Marvel Rivals, It Shouldn’t Exactly Be Marvel Rivals

James Gunn and Peter Safran have said they’re open to DC having its own Marvel Rivals equivalent, but if that happens, it shouldn’t be just a clone.

DC Desperately Needs Its Own Marvel Rivals, and Shouldn’t Be Shy About It

Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, WB Games Montreal’s Gotham Knights, and Monolith’s would-be Wonder Woman have blemished Warner Bros. Games, and it will take a truly unique or formidable pitch to dig it out of the rut it’s in. Insisting on another live-service game demonstrates nothing if not bravery, and a Marvel Rivals clone embracing NetEase’s strengths and ingenuity could be wholly admirable, much less brilliant, especially if it went with a title as on-the-nose as DC Allies and behaved precisely like the naked DC Comics counterpart to Marvel Rivals that it would be.

In fact, DC Allies is the title of a subreddit that’s immersively devoted to the premise of the hypothetical game, and DC and WB Games Montreal breathing legitimate life into it would evidently be a dream come true for its fanbase.

To be fair, Marvel Rivals isn’t exactly original or unique since it copies Overwatch’s homework quite intimately. Therefore, a DC Allies Marvel Rivals clone doing the same couldn’t be frowned upon or spoken ill of concerning where it drew its inspiration from. A DC Allies could even decide to alienate itself a little from Marvel Rivals in a few design-conscious ways if it felt the need to:

A first-person perspective, though it would be diminishing the cosmetic opportunities that are proudly boasted by Marvel Rivals’ third-person perspective.
4v4 or 5v5 instead of 6v6, though it would hopefully have an intriguing reason for whatever composition it chooses.
A different art style, though whatever it chose would likely be perceived as derivative, even if it went with hyperrealistic visuals.

It’s enticing to imagine what characters like Martian Manhunter, Zatanna, Flash, or Raven might play like. Plus, like Marvel Rivals’ original continuity lore, it’d be fascinating to discover a brand-new DC universe with the developer’s own iterations on beloved characters, settings, and canon events. That said, only time may tell what WB Games Montreal’s live-service DC game will manifest as, and that’s dependent on whether it manifests at all.