Marvel Rivals is ringing in the holiday season with its very first Winter Event, debuting new skins, special gifts, and a Jeff the Land Shark-focused game mode.
The new online shooter from developer NetEase Games has proven to be a major hit, ushering players into the Marvel Multiverse for some competitive team-based gameplay.
Rivals is set to be the latest in a long line of games-as-a-service (following in the footsteps of Fortnite, Rocket League, and Call of Duty Warzone), offering new content drops for players as time goes on.
When Will Marvel Rivals' Winter Event Start?
The Marvel Rivals Winter Event kicks off on Thursday, December 19 at 11 p.m. PT. and is suspected to last for at least two weeks (through to the week of January 3). Because of the event's late-night release, it will debut on Friday, December 20 in most territories, releasing at 2 a.m. ET.
This will likely come after some server downtime, meaning the game may be taken offline for a short period of time before its official release. That is just speculative at this point, though, and no downtime has been confirmed.
Below is a full list of expected release times for the Marvel Rivals Winter Event, via Marvel Rivals on X (formerly Twitter):
- GMT (Greenwich Mean Time): December 20, 2024, at 5 a.m.
- EST (Eastern Standard Time - US): December 20, 2024, at 2 a.m.
- CST (Central Standard Time - US): December 20, 2024 at 1 a.m.
- MST (Mountain Standard Time - US): December 20, 2024, at midnight
- PST (Pacific Standard Time - US): December 19, 2024 at 11 p.m.
- AST (Alaska Standard Time): December 19, 2024 at 10 p.m.
- HST (Hawaii Standard Time): December 19, 2024 at 9 p.m.
- CET (Central European Time): December 20, 2024 at 6 a.m.
- EET (Eastern European Time): December 20, 2024 at 7 a.m.
- IST (India Standard Time): December 20, 2024 at 10:30 a.m.
- CST (China Standard Time): December 20, 2024 at 11 a.m.
- JST (Japan Standard Time): December 20, 2024 at noon
- AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time): December 20, 2024 at 4 p.m.
- NZDT (New Zealand Daylight Time): December 20, 2024 at 6 p.m.
What News Skins Are Part of Marvel Rivals' Winter Event?
Typical of these sorts of content drops in ongoing games like Marvel Rivals come a series of new cosmetic items and skins for players to enjoy.
Rivals' Winter Event does not disappoint on this front, bringing with it new holiday-themes skins for characters like Magik, Venom, Rocket, and Groot, and joining an already stellar collection of skins present in the game (read more about the stunning collection of Marvel Rival launch skins here).
Magik's skin sees her ready to hit the slopes, dressed to the nines in her beast mountain wear, sporting snow pants, snowboard boots, and a pair of ski goggles.
Venom's Winter Event look asks the question — what if the iconic Marvel symbiote spent some time hanging out with Jack Frost? The new look has the villain coated in ice, looking like players may catch a chill if they get too close.
Similarly to Magik's Winter look, Rocket's new skin puts the Guardian of the Galaxy in his best winter outfit, wearing new goggles, a puffer jacket, and crampons on his feels.
The last premium skin transforms the lovable Groot into a walking talking Christmas tree, adding snow-capped branches to his head and bits of evergreen fur to his legs.
Exact pricing for the Magik, Venom, Rocket, and Groot Winter Even skins have not been made public as of writing.
Also arriving with the new release will be a special winter-themed skin for Jeff the Land Shark. This new look for the super-powered apex predator will be free for all users as a special holiday gift from the Marvel Rivals development team.
Also teased in the trailer for the Winter Event was what seemed to be a new MVP animation for Jeff, seeing young Jeffrey building a snowman (via X), but such an addition has not been confirmed and could merely be a bespoke animation made for the trailer.
As has been the case with the teasing of more characters coming to Marvel Rivals, the event's official announcement came with the mention of more, so fans will surely have plenty to ogle over beyond these already-announced skins.
Jeff's Winter Splash Festival: New Gamemode Explained
Also included in Marvel Rivals Winter Event is a brand-new game mode focused exclusively on Jeff the Land Shark.
Jeff (one of 33 playable heroes available at launch), has quickly become a fan-favorite character in Rivals' early life, which is serendipitous seeing as NetEase and Marvel Games are putting such a focus on the hero in its first event post-launch.
The new game mode, named "Jeff's Winter Splash Festival" is a take on the 'paint the town'-style gameplay of Nintendo's Splatoon franchise. The mode has all players taking control of a Jeff of their own, using the character's Joyful Splash ability to paint as much of the map as possible.
The winner of each game is then not determined by the capturing of a point or moving of a payload like the rest of the game, but by what team gets the most paint on the environment.
Jeff's Winter Splash Festival is set to last as long as the Winter Event itself, with no future plans for the mode having been disclosed.
However, if it proves to be popular, it would not be all that surprising if the special game type is brought back down the line either in a limited capacity or as a permanent addition to the online shooter.
Marvel Rivals is now available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
