Spider-Man (Insomniac Games series)

Marvel's Spider-Man is the first entry in the series, released for the PlayStation 4 in September 2018. Taking place eight years into Peter Parker's career as Spider-Man, it focuses on the super-human crime lord Mister Negative, and his plot to seize control of New York City's criminal underworld. When he threatens to release a deadly virus with the assistance of a group of escaped supervillains known as the Sinister Six, Spider-Man must confront him and save the city while dealing with the personal problems of his civilian persona. He is accompanied in his efforts by former Daily Bugle colleague and ex-girlfriend Mary Jane Watson, New York City Police Department (NYPD) captain Yuri Watanabe, and Miles Morales, son of NYPD officer Jefferson Davis.[28][29]

Insomniac supported the game with a downloadable content (DLC) campaign, The City that Never Sleeps, consisting of three episodes that were released monthly from October to December 2018. Taking place a few months following the events of the base game, the DLC sees Spider-Man combat a new crime wave led by the physically enhanced mob boss Hammerhead, with the assistance of expert thief and former lover Felicia Hardy, and Silver Sablinova, the owner and operator of the mercenary group Sable International.[30]

Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered collects both the original game and all three chapters of The City That Never Sleeps. The remaster additionally boasts numerous graphical and presentation improvements, namely the implementation of two game presets: "Fidelity Mode" for increasing the game's graphical detail and enabling real-time ray tracing, and "Performance Mode" for scaling the resolution dynamically while increasing the game's framerate. A third presentation option, "Performance RT", was added following the game's launch in order to enable real-time ray tracing while increasing performance capabilities. Other features include "near-instant loading" accomplished by the console SSD as well as support for both Sony's 3D Audio technology and the DualSense controller's haptic feedback. The remaster introduces a reworked in-game model for Peter Parker motion captured by Ben Jordan, replacing original actor John Bubinak, and also includes additional suits not initially available in the original PlayStation 4 release, including the exclusive "Black and Gold Suit" & "Hybrid Suit", inspired by the suits worn by Peter Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).[31][32][33][34]

The game was initially released worldwide in November 2020 as a launch title for the PlayStation 5, and was bundled alongside the Ultimate Edition of Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales on the console. Alternatively, it is obtainable through upgrading the PS4 version of Miles Morales and purchasing the remaster individually, and allowed cross-save functionality between it and the original PS4 version of Marvel's Spider-Man. The remaster was made available for individual purchase as a digital title on the PlayStation Store in May 2023, with existing owners of the original PS4 version being entitled to an upgrade for a fee.[35] A Windows version of the remaster developed by PlayStation sister studio Nixxes Software was released as a standalone title on Steam and the Epic Games Store worldwide in August 2022.[36][37][38] The PC version of the remaster boasts numerous specific improvements, such as NVIDIA DLSS and DLAA support, compatibility with ultrawide and panoramic display monitors, an additional presentation preset known as "Ultimate RT" for capable NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards, native support for various controllers and mouse & keyboard input, and options for unlocked framerates to enhance game performance.[39][40][41]

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales was released in November 2020 on the PlayStation 4, and as a launch title for the PlayStation 5, and was released for Windows in November 2022.[42] It follows Parker's friend Miles Morales, who acquired similar spider-based powers at the end of the first game and was subsequently trained by Parker. When both Parker and Mary Jane Watson go on an excursion to Symkaria for a few weeks, Miles is left to defend New York as its sole Spider-Man, and must protect his new home, Harlem, after it becomes caught in the crossfire of a war between the Roxxon Energy Corporation and a high-tech criminal army called the Underground, led by the mysterious Tinkerer.[43][44]

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 launched on the PlayStation 5 in October 2023.[45][46] It depicts Peter Parker and Miles Morales struggling to navigate their respective futures while balancing their personal lives with their duties to the city as Spider-Men. When the Hunters, an private mercenary group led by Sergei "Kraven" Kravinoff arrive and transform New York into a hunting ground for the Spider-Men and their rogues, Peter and Miles must combat a variety of villains while the former comes into contact with Venom, an extraterrestrial symbiote that bonds to Parker and negatively influences him.[47][48]

In September 2023, shortly before Marvel's Spider-Man 2's release, narrative director Ben Arfmann addressed the possibility of future games.[49] [50] In October 2023, senior creative director Bryan Intihar said that a potential third installment would be "pretty epic", comparing the stories of Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales to the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Iron Man (2008) and the story of Spider-Man 2 to Captain America: Civil War (2016).[51]

In September 2021, Insomniac Games announced at the PlayStation Showcase event that they were in early development for a standalone game, titled Marvel's Wolverine, based on the character of the same name. It features a standalone narrative set within the same continuity as the studios Spider-Man games. It will be released for the PlayStation 5.[52][53][54][55]

In October 2023, senior narrative director Jon Paquette and Insomniac discussed the possibility of a spin-off game involving the Venom character after the character's debut in Spider-Man 2.[56]

All of the currently released games in the Marvel's Spider-Man series have been composed by John Paesano.[98][99][100] The respective soundtracks for Marvel's Spider-Man and Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales have been collected in digital streaming and physical vinyl formats in collaboration with Mondo.[101][102] Additionally, three vocal tracks were produced for the Miles Morales original soundtrack: "I'm Ready" by Jaden Smith,[103] and "Where We Come From" and "This is My Time" by Lecrae.[104] A vocal track for Marvel's Spider-Man 2, "Swing" by EarthGang ft. Benji, was released on streaming services in September 2023.[105]

Marvel's Spider-Man: City at War was published by Marvel Comics as their first title under their Gamerverse label in March 2019, serving as a six issue comic book adaptation of Marvel's Spider-Man's main campaign narrative, while expanding on specific story events. The adaptation was written by Dennis Hopeless, with art by Luca Maresca and colorist David Curiel.[106]

Marvel's Spider-Man: Velocity, published later in 2019, spans five issues and depicts an original narrative set within the continuity of the game. The story takes place between the events of the main campaign in Marvel's Spider-Man, and the events of the three-part downloadable content (DLC) campaign, The City That Never Sleeps, and explores the origin behind Parker's creation of the Velocity Suit, in addition to his encounter with the supervillain Swarm, and a separate investigation conducted by Mary Jane Watson and her colleague from the Daily Bugle, Ben Urich, into Haley Harvey, otherwise nicknamed the Speed Demon.[107][108]

Marvel's Spider-Man: The Black Cat Strikes, published in 2020, is a five issue limited series adapting the events of The City That Never Sleeps. Dennis Hopeless and Luca Maresca reprise their duties as story writer and artist, respectively. In addition to directly adapting the events from the game's narrative, the story additionally expands on Peter Parker and Felicia Hardy's relationship and history, through scenarios not depicted in the DLC chapters.[109]

As part of Free Comic Book Day in 2023, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Marvel published one-shot prequel comic that leads into the events of Marvel's Spider-Man 2, released on May 6, in local comic shops, and digitally on the Marvel Unlimited app. The comic was written by Christos Gage, who previously served as a writer on Marvel's Spider-Man, with art by Ig Gaura. The story follows Peter Parker, Miles Morales and Mary Jane Watson as the three of them struggle to balance Morales' school life, MJ's work and the responsibility the two Spider-Men have to New York as they come into conflict with a magic-infused criminal named The Hood.[110]

Marvel's Spider-Man: Hostile Takeover was written by David Liss and published by Titan Books on August 21, 2018. It is a prequel novel covering events before the main campaign of Marvel's Spider-Man, detailing Peter Parker's continued efforts to expose businessman Wilson Fisk's activities as the Kingpin of Crime, his encounter with the doppelganger vigilante Blood Spider, and his confrontation with Fisk's surrogate niece and assailant, Maya Lopez / Echo, who is convinced by Fisk that Spider-Man killed her father.[111][112]

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales – Wings of Fury was written by Brittney Morris and published by Titan Books on November 10, 2020. It is a prequel novel taking place between the events of the downloadable content (DLC) campaign The City That Never Sleeps (2018) and the standalone game Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020). The story depicts Morales' early partnership with Peter Parker / Spider-Man, as the two vigilantes set out to apprehend Adrian Toomes / Vulture, who has broken out of the Raft and teamed with his granddaughter Tiana Toomes, going under the alias "Starling".[113][114]

Marvel's Spider-Man: The Art of the Game was published by Titan Books on September 11, 2018. Written by Paul Davies, it compiles numerous concept art pieces and renders of the game's primary cast, and various elements such as locations, costumes and tech, paired with additional insight into the game's creative process from developers, artists and designers who worked on the game.[115]

Marvel's Spider-Man Script Book, authored by Jon Paquette, Christos Gage, and Benjamin Arfmann, was published on February 11, 2020. It features the game's original script alongside numerous art pieces and renders with added insights and commentary from the game's writers.[116]

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales – The Art of the Game, authored by Matt Ralphs, was published by Titan Books on February 23, 2021. It compiles concept illustrations and various in-game renderings of characters, tech, locations, gadgets and costumes from throughout the development period of the title.[117]

Insomniac's Peter Parker appeared in the crossover event "Spider-Geddon" (2018), a sequel to the 2014 storyline "Spider-Verse" written by Christos Gage and published by Marvel Comics on September 26, 2018, following the character's debut appearance in Marvel's Spider-Man. It established the game's events as taking place in the universe of "Earth-1048" within the larger Marvel Multiverse. In the story, Parker joins forces with the Superior Spider-Army led by Otto Octavius / Superior Spider-Man, in order to combat the recently liberated Inheritors and avert the deaths of all Spider-People across the multiverse. The story of Spider-Geddon takes place after the events of the game, and also introduces the universe's version of Tarantula, with Octavius secretly leaving a message for his game counterpart, to allow him to potentially also become the Superior Spider-Man.[118][119]

Parker's Advanced Suit from Marvel's Spider-Man is depicted in the Spider-Lair among the lineup of alternate suits worn by the Peter Parker of Miles Morales' reality in the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018).[120] Parker himself makes a physical appearance in its sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), as the Spider-Man of Earth-1048 and a member of the Spider-Society led by Miguel O' Hara / Spider-Man 2099, with Yuri Lowenthal briefly reprising his voice role from the games.[121][122] In addition, gameplay of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 was featured in a scene at Miles Morales' dorm room, where his best friend Ganke Lee was seen playing the game on a PlayStation 5 console.[123]

The Marvel's Spider-Man series, among other titles developed by Insomniac Games, was referenced in Astro's Playroom (2020), a pack-in game for the PlayStation 5 released at the console's launch, which featured numerous allusions to various franchises published on or exclusive to PlayStation consoles. When entering the Caching Caves area, turning south-east of the Shock Walls leads to a room with an Astro Bot hanging upside-down from a web on the ceiling, referencing a pose commonly associated with the character.[124]

Marvel's Iron Man VR was released in July 2020 on the PlayStation VR, and later ported to the Meta Quest 2 and released by Oculus Studios in November 2022. Published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, it features a standalone narrative which references the continuity of the Marvel's Spider-Man games.[125] Director Ryan Payton later stated that despite the developer's intent to tell a standalone narrative, "there are definitely opportunities to link the worlds" and he hoped that the two-game series could share some references to each other in future installments.[126]

As of May 2022, the Marvel's Spider-Man series has sold over 33 million copies worldwide.[149] Marvel's Spider-Man (2018) managed to sell 3.3 million units—including those bundled with PlayStation 4 consoles, within its first three days of release, resulting in the title surpassing the 3.1 million unit mark previously achieved by God of War (2018) to become the fastest selling first-party video game release in Sony Interactive Entertainment's history,[150] as well as the fastest-selling PlayStation 4 exclusive entirely, up until that record was usurped by Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020) from Square Enix at 3.5 million units within the same timeframe.[151] The news outlet USA Today additionally estimated that the game made at least $198 million during said period for Sony, surpassing the $117 million domestic box office total accumulated by the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017. Additionally, sales projections from The NPD Group touted that Marvel's Spider-Man had garnered 37% higher release-month sales than the combined totals for every previous Spider-Man game released since 1995.[152] By July 2019, Marvel's Spider-Man became the best-selling game based on a comic book character, beating out the combined lifetime sales of Batman: Arkham City (2011) from WB Games and Rocksteady,[153] after having already achieved the title of the fastest-selling comic book-based game in the U.S. in November 2018.[154] The game additionally became one of the best-selling Western-developed PlayStation 4 titles in Japan, being surpassed only by Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018) and Minecraft (2011), as well as the best-selling Western-developed SIE title since Crash Bandicoot: Warped for the original PlayStation, developed by Naughty Dog in 1998.[155] The game's Remastered release for Windows debuted with a concurrent peak of 63,384 players on the Steam platform, making it the second largest debut for a PlayStation Studios title on Steam following God of War.[156]

The PlayStation 4 version of Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020) sold 22,882 physical copies within its first week on sale in Japan, making it the eighth-best-selling retail game of the week in the country. During the same week, the PlayStation 5 version was the tenth-best-selling retail game in Japan, selling 18,640 physical copies.[157] Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales was also the best-selling physical PlayStation 5 launch game in the UK.[158] In Germany, the game sold over 100,000 copies in its launch month[159] and 200,000 copies by the end of December 2020.[160] As of December 2020, the game has sold a combined total of 663,000 digital copies across both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 platforms.[161] In April 2021, Jeff Grubb of VentureBeat reported that the game had outsold both The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima (both 2020) with regards to lifetime sales.[162] As of July 2021, the game had sold over 6.5 million copies.[163][164] Miles Morales was the twelfth best-selling game of 2020, and the sixth best-selling game of 2021.[165][166]

In May 2022, the Marvel's Spider-Man series was reported to have sold over 33 million copies.[167]