Marvel Snap devs vow to fix one of its biggest problems in 2025

By Tomas Franzese Published December 19, 2024

Key art for the Surtur season of Marvel Snap. — Second Dinner

Marvel Snap developer Second Dinner has outlined its 2025 plans to fix one of the biggest problems plaguing the collectible card game.

Marvel Snap has been my most-played game of each year since its May 2022 beta release. While I still play the game daily, I, as well as many others, have had growing frustrations with the game this year. Modes like Deadpool’s Diner have been disappointing, but more importantly, acquiring new cards has become extremely frustrating. A new Marvel Snap card comes out every week, but players earn tokens to purchase them at an extremely slow rate. Spotlight caches that contain new cards get filled with unhelpful fodder or duplicates that grant only 1,000 tokens, while “Series Drops” that make existing cards easier to acquire typically only happen to cards that aren’t meta-relevant.

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This all makes keeping up with the meta an expensive task for hardcore players and a nearly impossible one for new players. Second Dinner has mostly stayed silent on these complaints since it introduced Spotlight Caches. but admitted card acquisition was an issue in a blog post ahead of the winter holidays. In a post on X, Second Dinner said it plans on addressing issues like the “overall lack of agency in acquiring new cards” and “the randomness of the Spotlight Cache system feeling frustrating.”

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Second Dinner says it wants to fix these issues with the game and has solutions in mind. Its journey to correct these problems will begin with January’s Marvel Snap patch, where the game will be “doubling the drop rate of Series 3 cards in Collector’s Reserves, from 2 out of every 9 to 4 out of every 9,” and “increasing the token payout from Spotlight Cache duplicates from 1000 tokens to 2000 tokens.” A large “series drop” of cards, which essentially makes dropped cards cheaper to acquire, is also planned for the first quarter of 2025.

More substantial changes are coming after that, although Second Dinner admits that “rebuilding some core aspects of Snap takes time to get right.” As a result, the developer admits “it will take a few months” before card acquisition in Marvel Snap feels fully fixed.

Marvel Snap is available now for PC, iOS, and Android.

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As a Gaming Staff Writer at Digital Trends, Tomas Franzese reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…

Gaming

Marvel Snap is the first game to nail MCU movie tie-ins

Key art for Marvel Snap's Into the Quantum Realm season.

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania hit theaters this weekend, and you will know that’s the case even if your only connection to comic books is through Marvel Snap. Throughout February, Marvel Snap is in its “Into the Quantum Realm” season. It’s all centered around content themed on that microscopic world from the new Marvel movie. It introduces cards based on Ant-Man movie characters like M.O.D.O.K., Ghost, Stature, and Kang the Conqueror, as well as new locations based on places that have been in Marvel Cinematic Universe movies like the Quantum Realm, Quantum Tunnel, Camp Lehigh, and the Sacred Timeline.
Into the Quantum Realm Season | Developer Update | February 2023
Developer Second Dinner made similar tie-in seasons for Thor: Love and Thunder and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever last year. As a fan of both Marvel movies and Marvel video games, these Marvel Snap seasons have done a fantastic job thus far integrating the two. Marvel’s film and gaming efforts have mostly remained separate, often intentionally, since a couple of terrible tie-in games during the MCU's Phase 1.
Often, it feels like comic book games have to be either direct tie-ins or wholly disconnected from the films in theaters at the time. However, Marvel Snap shows that any comic book game can still feel relevant to what’s happening in theaters in subtle but satisfying ways.
A seamless crossover
With each new Season of Marvel Snap, I love keeping an eye out for what's new in the card game. Because of how wildly different each round can be, new cards and locations can impact games differently every time they appear. M.O.D.O.K., in particular, opens up some interesting strategies as it can discard your entire hand upon its reveal. Before I know it, I find that I'm using new cards and looking up information on the characters and locations I am playing with.
One of the unspoken strengths of Marvel Snap is how casually it can introduce or reexpose its players to a vast amount of characters and locales from the Marvel universe. Not only is that approach good for shedding light on less popular corners of the universe, like The Savage Land, but it also makes it a good marketing and crossover tool for the latest Marvel movie.
M.O.D.O.K., Ant-Man, and the Quantum Realm are on the top of my mind right now, as Marvel Snap is one of the games I play the most. Now, I find myself a bit more excited to see Quantumania than I was based on the trailers, even after mixed reviews. That's just effective marketing.
This is technically not a direct crossover event or a brand-new tie-in game; it’s just exposing me to the right Marvel content to supplement what I’m seeing in the cultural zeitgeist. Then, once Quantumania being in theaters isn’t as relevant, Marvel Snap can move on and continue exploring new parts of the Marvel universe with future seasons.
Finding success
This seasonal tie-in approach Marvel Snap takes is an effective and clever piece of marketing that keeps me engaged with both the game and MCU films. In fact, no superhero game before has been able to tie into movies quite like this. Marvel Strike Force and Contest of Champions character cameos feel a little too ham-fisted, while Sega’s licensed Marvel games from the late 2010s were too much of a mixed bag to ever work. Marvel’s Avengers, a live service game featuring many characters getting new movies and shows, was also never able to get this cadence right.
Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania | New Trailer
While Marvel’s Avengers would get costumes based on the MCU, it rarely ever felt in line with what the MCU released at the time. Occasionally, additions like the Red Room and Jane Foster’s Mighty Thor would line up correctly, but those felt like exceptions rather than the rule when the game didn’t have a consistent seasonal structure. Even though its narrative purposefully wasn’t connected to the MCU, Marvel’s Avengers' post-launch support could have attracted more attention and even bolstered the movies had it lined things up as well as Marvel Snap has.
As Marvel’s Avengers loses support later this year, its failure to capitalize upon and enhance the game with MCU tie-ins in compelling ways can be seen as one of its many failures. It also raises questions on how future D.C. games will connect to their universe. James Gunn’s current plan seems to incorporate video games heavily, having them filling gaps in his narrative’s story rather than directly tying into a specific film or just serving as supplementary hype material like Marvel Snap.
Admittedly, the resources and effort required for a new game are very different from what’s needed for a new Marvel Snap season. Still, Second Dinner has shown how comic book movies and video games can nicely tie together without stepping on each other’s feet. Simply getting players in the correct headspace and theming for whatever’s in theaters is enough, especially if the game in question is a live service title with a seasonal structure.

Gaming

Marvel Snap is dangerously close to becoming a pay-to-win game

Venom effects on a Marvel Snap playng field

Marvel Snap is undoubtedly one of the best free-to-play mobile games on the market. With over 14 million downloads and counting, it's clear that the quality, as well as the casual and card game nature of the title, are doing a great job at keeping a sustained interest among players.

MARVEL SNAP | Gameplay Trailer

Gaming

Marvel Snap Battle Mode: How to play Marvel Snap with friends

Rogue and Gambit in Marvel Snap.

Free-to-play card game Marvel Snap has taken the video game industry by storm, bringing even non-comic book fans on board to enjoy its wild antics. It's a game with a satisfying loop, a rewarding sense of progression, and plenty to unlock, without ever feeling overwhelming. Despite this, developer Second Dinner still has lots in store for Marvel Snap players, including a new way to play with friends.

After months of waiting, you can finally pair up with your friends to battle it out online. This is thanks to the new Battle Mode in Marvel Snap, which aims to allow a more casual way to play with anyone you'd like.