Could an Xbox version of Insomniac’s Spider-Man games eventually be released, given parent company Sony’s recent softening on multiplatform not just on PC, but with the likes of Helldivers 2 and Marathon coming to Microsoft’s console? Based on a comment from Insomniac itself, Xbox owners shouldn’t hold their breath.
A fan replied to a tweet from Insomniac celebrating Valentine’s Day to ask about the possibility of Spider-Man swinging onto Xbox, and the developer’s response was pretty clear: “Not likely.”
Now, you might say that’s obvious. But, as the replies have pointed out, once upon a time Insomniac ruled out Marvel’s Spider-Man ever coming to PC, and it ended up making the jump from PlayStation exclusivity to personal computers.
it will never appear on Xbox or PC. It’s a permanent PS4 exclusive publisher by Sony Interactive Entertainment
— Insomniac Games (@insomniacgames) June 28, 2017
Now, nearly nine years after that tweet, Sony not only publishes games on PC, but on Xbox and Nintendo Switch. Arrowhead’s record-breaking Helldivers 2, for example, launched on Xbox Series X and S complete with a Halo crossover. And Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter Marathon is coming out on Xbox as well as PC and PlayStation. The times have changed.
Spider-Man, though, does feel like it would be crossing a thicker line to get to Xbox, and Insomniac’s tweet suggests that to be the case. In the shorter term, Insomniac’s Marvel’s Wolverine is due out later this year — exclusively on PlayStation 5. Meanwhile, Insomniac fans expect another Spider-Man game eventually, a continuation of the story as set out in 2023’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which launched on PC in January last year. (Last year, Yuri Lowenthal suggested Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 will see Peter Parker doing his Spider-Man thing despite what the ending of Spider-Man 2 suggests.)
Sony’s approach contrasts with that of Microsoft, which has fully embraced multiplatform for pretty much all its first-party video games. When Microsoft finally announced Playground’s Forza Horizon 6 and confirmed it would launch on PlayStation 5 after Xbox and PC, it came as a surprise. Nowadays, Xbox Game Studios is one of the most prolific and successful publishers on PlayStation.
In October last year, Microsoft said the idea of a video game exclusive locked to a single storefront had become “antiquated for most people,” but Sony still refuses to launch its big single-player games on anything other than PlayStation day-one (the latest example of this is Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Yotei). Multiplayer games, however do tend to launch on PC at the same time. Guerrilla’s recently announced co-op action game Horizon Hunters Gathering is set for PS5 and PC. Marathon’s day-one multiplatform launch is something of an outlier.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
