Employees From Team Working on ‘Marvel Rivals’ and ‘Destiny: Rising’ Were Arrested

Multiple employees from NetEase Games, a studio developing Marvel Rivals and Destiny: Rising, have been arrested in Hangzhou, China. Per Leifeng.com, several “high-ranking” staff members were “taken away by NetEase’s internal anti-corruption department for investigation.” Among the arrested was NetEase’s General Manager, Xiang Lang.

Additionally, it’s currently speculated the detained employees were laundering money. “The contract value involved in this case is approximately 2 billion yuan (roughly $280,025,762 USD), and the actual amount involved is estimated to be between 800 million and 1 billion yuan, and 28 suppliers have been affected,” Leifeng reports.

“After the incident, it was not only Xiang Lang who was investigated. It was reported that several employees of his channel center were also under investigation. Among them were employees who were responsible for purchasing traffic for many of NetEase’s top products. Most of the employees involved, including Xiang Lang, have no longer been found in NetEase’s internal system today.”

It was ‘destiny’: netease employees were arrested for alleged money laundering

So, yeah, that apparently happened! NetEase folks got tired of Marvel Rivals and Destiny: Rising, I guess. Yuji Naka (the dude who made Sonic) also went to prison, you know. Although, “white-collar crimes” are taken way more seriously in countries beyond America. Rightfully so, if you ask me. In most states, you might receive a single-digit sentence for stealing millions of dollars.

But, white-collar crime certainly isn’t a “cool” crime. It’s hard to brag about going to prison if you went in there for insider trading or embezzlement. I guess you could make money laundering sound interesting enough if you tie it to, say, Breaking Bad or something. Also, speaking of Yuji Naka, I have to share a morbid joke with y’all.

I always thought it was a little funny that Naka went to prison after being responsible for Balan Wonderworld. Before I knew the charge was insider trading, I assumed he went to jail because that game came out. And was awful. To this day, I believe Naka’s pretty upset about how Balan Wonderworld panned out. The game being his last hurrah and all… yeah, I can see why that would be rage-inducing.