Don’t believe everything you read on the web. Unless it comes from horse’s mouth, that is. Insomniac Games developer James Stevenson has revealed that Spider-Man on PS4 wasn’t the only offer they had on the table. Marvel and Sony gave them the key to the superhero license kingdom.
While posting on ResetEra’s forums, Stevenson explained the process behind how the partnership with Marvel come to fruition. Firstly, Sony initiated contact by asking if the Ratchet and Clank developers wanted to work with Marvel (I assume the meeting was about 10 seconds long and featured only the words, ‘Well, duh.’) and it went from there. And by there I mean Marvel let Insomniac choose what universe and superhero they wanted to make a game about. They chose Spidey.
While your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man seems a natural fit for Insomniac, it seems quite shocking that they were effectively given carte blanche on where they wanted to go next. It’s indicative of how much Sony trust Insomniac and, more importantly, how much Marvel trust their properties in the hands of world-class developers.
So, what could we have ended up getting? Sunset Overdrive was about as close to a balls-to-the-wall superhero game you could get without a license. A colorful world inhabited by Deadpool or Squirrel Girl could’ve gone down a treat, as could an X-Men game. Imagine controlling Daredevil with the wizards at Insomniac behind the wheel. Bliss.
Be that as it may, we’ve ended up with the webhead Spider-Man on PS4. This might not be the last we hear of a collaboration between Marvel, Sony and/or another big studio. We can but dream. A Rockstar-developed open-world Old Man Logan, anyone?
