The license to create games based on Spider-Man would have fallen into the hands of Microsoft and Xbox, depriving Sony and its PlayStation of the highly successful Marvel’s Spider-Man and Miles Morales exclusives. That’s what Jay Ong, Executive Vice President and Director of Marvel Games, said in an excerpt from The Ultimate History of Video Games Vol. 2 Signed by Stephen L. Kent.
Unhappy with Activision products licensed throughout the 2000s, Ong says he set out to find a new publisher to explore Spider-Man’s intellectual property. In an effort to find a “perfect haven” for the character, where he would likely thrive, Ong turned to the makers of Xbox and PlayStation to negotiate an exclusive partnership. According to the Marvel leader, Microsoft would have preferred to decline the offer to focus on its intellectual property.
Sony, for its part, could have been more receptive. A meeting between Ong, Adam Boyes, and John Drake, who is responsible for PlayStation’s third-party negotiations, took place in August 2014 in Burbank to lay the groundwork for the ambitious new partnership. “I said, ‘We have the most incredible dream of beating Arkham (Rocksteady’s Batman series) and having at least one, if not several, game that will potentially contribute to your console adoption,” Ong revealed.
Subsequently, Sony submitted a preliminary project, proposing the production of the first Spider-Man game with AAA resources, and entrusted it to the studio Insomniac, which was still independent at that time, but was already considered “one of the most important” allies of the manufacturer. The sequel is history, as Marvel’s Spider-Man was a huge success, selling 20 million copies, and another 6.5 million copies of Miles Morales, which launched alongside PS5 in 2020.
Studio Insomniac is incorporated into Sony Worldwide Studios and today the partnership has been extended to another license. Next to Spider-Man from Marvel 2 Under development for PS5, the Californian studio is also working hard on another prestigious Marvel franchise, Wolverine.
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