Microsoft Reportedly Turned Down A Deal With Marvel Before Insomniac Games Started Working On Marvel’s Spider-Man

For those that can certainly recall from the announcement back in fall 2021, Insomniac Games is to continue its story of Marvel’s Spider-Man. Following the separated tales of the 2018 title alongside the standalone Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, both heroes pair together as the newest trailer unveils Venom to be the main antagonist for the next iteration.

But, as many are familiar, this will remain unique to PlayStation 5. And alike the previous entries for PlayStation 4 as well, there’s nowhere else you can play these. However, it was not originally intended to be a PlayStation exclusive. In fact, Microsoft was pressed by Marvel to strike a deal in developing an original Spider-Man game previously.

According to Nigthengale on ResetEra from ‘The Ultimate History of Video Games, Volume 2: Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and the Billion-Dollar Battle to Shape Modern Gaming’, Marvel Executive Vice President Jay Ong told that Microsoft turned down the opportunity to focus on its own first-party projects at the time.

What he needed was a publishing partner who hadn’t adopted the “crappy licensed games” mentality. He needed a company with an eye for long-term investments, one with a vested interest that would benefit from building a franchise. That partner would need to have a deep pool of talent, commitment to quality, and inexhaustibly deep pockets. There were three companies that fit that description.

One of them, Nintendo, mostly developed games based on its own intellectual properties. Being from console first-party in my past, I pinged both sides, both Xbox and PlayStation, and said, “We don’t have any big console deals with anyone right now. What would you like to do?” Microsoft’s strategy was to focus on their own IP. They passed.

He continued, “I sat down with these two execs from PlayStation third-party, Adam Boyes and John Drake, in August 2014, in a conference room in Burbank. I said, ‘We have a dream that this is possible, that we could beat Arkham and have one game at least and maybe multiple games that could drive adoption of your platform.’”

After the initial conversation got the wheels turning at Sony Interactive Entertainment to bring the project to life and handed it over to Insomniac Games to craft the game. “Sony turned the project over to Insomniac Games,*18 an independent studio at the time, but one of Sony’s most important partners. Insomniac had a long list of hits that were published under the Sony label—Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank, Resistance: Fall of Man, and most recently Sunset Overdrive.*19

“Insomniac was an obvious choice for the project. As a studio, Insomniac had an impeccable record as both a designer of hit games and a reliable partner for Sony. Another plus, one of the studio’s most recent games, Sunset Overdrive, incorporated a fast-paced, highly acrobatic style of combat that was equal parts parkour, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and Call of Duty, a very Spider-Man style of fighting that involved swinging and grinding over cities while facing multiple enemies.

“Insomniac’s ability to create games based on already existing intellectual property may have caused some concern. Historically, the studio created IP rather than building off of other companies’ ideas. In truth, other companies adapted Insomniac’s IP.*20” Insomniac Ganes CEO Ted Price added, “When we heard of the opportunity[…]  it was a real surprise for me because up until that point we had been working on our own IP and hadn’t really contemplated working on existing franchises.”

Reiterating on Microsoft’s ambition elsewhere, the firm then already shipped Sunset Overdrive – a separate Insomniac Games title. And similarly to the Xbox firm turning down the deal with Marvel, it is suggested that the same was also acted from Sony likely when Sunset Overdrive was originally pitched according to an interview with IGN in 2014.

We pitched it a few different places, and it was really important to [Insomniac CEO] Ted [Price] that we own the IP, so some of the conversations broke down over that. With Microsoft, they just came in very energetic and excited to work with Insomniac, period. And we’d heard some really good things about them and some resources that they would be allowing us to have.

Marcus Smith, Sunset Overdrive Co-Creator

Which is surprisingly ironic as Sony Interactive Entertainment when acquiring Insomniac Games back in 2019 did verify that it did get its hands on the Sunset Overdrive IP as part of the arrangement. As for Marvel’s Spider-Man, Ong was correct on it overtaking the Arkham series as the game later went on to outsell Batman Arkham City which was the most sold superhero title from 2011 to 2018.

Elsewhere from the new novel from Steven L. Kent, it was also revealed that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of Patriots was not intended to be a PlayStation exclusive. Instead, Konami decided to halt on an Xbox 360 version since it did not want to release the game with seven separate discs. You can read the full report by heading here.

Are you surprised by the new reveal on Microsoft wit hMarvel?

Source: ResetEra