Marvel's Spider-Man (video game)

• 1. Introduction

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  Marvel's Spider-Man, released for the PlayStation 4 on the 7th of September 2018, sold 3.3 million units in its first three days. That figure includes copies bundled with consoles. It made the game the fastest-selling first-party release in Sony's history, narrowly beating the 3.1 million of God of War. Its developer, Insomniac Games, had never made a licensed game in its 22-year history. How did a studio that built only its own worlds end up with one of the most recognizable heroes in comics? What did it do to make crossing Manhattan on a strand of web feel right? And why did a superhero game spend so much effort on the man under the mask?

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• 2. A Neutral Response

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  Connie Booth, Sony Interactive Entertainment's Vice President of Product Development, paid a visit to Insomniac Games to see its CEO, Ted Price. Insomniac had recently shipped Sunset Overdrive, an Xbox One exclusive. No formal agreement existed yet, so the early talks stayed off the record. Booth floated the idea of a game built on a Marvel Comics property. Price remembered his own reaction as "fairly neutral," since his studio had only ever developed original properties. His developers, by contrast, were enthusiastic.

  The timing suited Marvel too. Jay Ong, Senior Vice President of Marvel Games, said the company's earlier games had been made to coincide with film releases, which left developers too little time to make something impressive. Activision had been responsible for Spider-Man games since 2000. Ong said that arrangement was over, and future Spider-Man games would sit with Sony and Insomniac. Marvel did not want an adaptation of an existing film or comic story. It let Insomniac pick any character and tell an original tale.

  The team picked Spider-Man because they related to the gap between the hero and his everyman alter ego, Peter Parker. Creative director Bryan Intihar put it this way: "I feel like he's the most relatable of the heroes. As much as I love Tony Stark, it's harder to identify with a billionaire. As much as I love Thor, it's hard to identify with a god. Peter makes mistakes, he has ups and downs in his career, his relationships, his family. I think we can all relate to that". Price added that Spider-Man was "so human, and he's so relatable," and guessed he was the most popular Marvel character in the world. There was a technical argument as well. The dynamic traversal system in Sunset Overdrive could be built upon for a web-slinger.

  Art director Jacinda Chew was among the team members who found the project daunting, given Spider-Man's popularity and the pile of existing stories and versions. She saw opportunity in that long history. She consulted online references and Marvel staff who knew the character deeply.

  Work began in 2014. The game ran on Insomniac's proprietary engine, first used for Sunset Overdrive and later modified to support 4K resolution and HDR for Ratchet & Clank in 2016. The game was announced in June 2016 at Sony's Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference. After roughly four years of development, it was finalized and released to manufacturing in July 2018.

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• 3. Swinging and Fighting

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  Insomniac divided its version of Manhattan into 800 square tiles, each covering roughly 128 m2. As Spider-Man moves, tiles out of view leave memory and tiles in view take their place. Chief architect and core director Mike Fitzgerald said that at top speed, the game loads a new tile every second. Swinging itself was tuned for fun rather than realism. The team combined camera movement, character animation, and field of view to make motion feel heroic. A web strand must attach to a physical object, so every building in the game carries many anchor points. The game picks the ideal one to preserve the player's momentum and direction. Releasing at the right moment gains height or speed. Webs can also be aimed precisely to pull Spider-Man toward a chosen spot, and he runs up walls and vaults obstacles automatically. For those who prefer not to swing, an optional fast travel system uses the New York City Subway.

  Three buttons run the fights: one dodges, one strikes, and one fires webs. Webs can pin enemies to nearby objects and remove them from the battle at once. Anyone knocked from a great height is caught in a web cocoon, so the fall never kills. Spider-Man also fights with the environment, hurling manhole covers, grenades, and webbed-up enemies. Successful chains of attacks fill a meter called Focus. Spending part of it heals him, and a full meter allows a finishing attack that takes down an enemy instantly. His spider-sense appears as a white icon around his head, warning of an incoming strike. A dodge timed just before impact lets him answer with webbing.

  Different enemies demand different answers. Fighters with melee weapons must be knocked into the air, shielded foes must be hit from behind, and whip wielders drag Spider-Man out of the sky until he counterattacks. Armored agents soak up more damage, and brutes and jetpack wearers fill out the roster. Gadgets include electric webbing, concussive blasts, and impact webbing that launches enemies backward and sticks them to a surface. Suits, some based on versions of the character from other media and some original to the game, carry special abilities. They can raise Focus gain, lower gravity, improve stealth, grant invulnerability, or fire an electromagnetic pulse that disables enemy weapons. Once earned, suits and powers can be freely combined. Leveling up opens skills in three specialties: ground combat, aerial combat, and traversal.

  Upgrades are bought with six kinds of Tokens. Challenge Tokens come from Taskmaster's timed combat, stealth, and traversal trials. Backpack Tokens come from finding Peter's old backpacks, which hold mementos from his past. Research Tokens reward research station missions, science minigames, and the collecting of pigeons. Crime Tokens come from stopping street crimes, Base Tokens from clearing enemy bases, and Landmark Tokens from photographing specific places around the city. Circuit Puzzles ask the player to arrange an electric grid, and Pattern Puzzles ask for a pattern rebuilt from parts. Unscrambling radio towers highlights collectibles, missions, and active crimes.

  Not every section stars Spider-Man. Peter Parker's segments lean on puzzles, while Mary Jane Watson and Miles Morales play through stealth. The game launched with three difficulty levels named Friendly, Amazing, and Spectacular. A later update added a fourth called Ultimate, which raises enemy damage and health while lowering Spider-Man's, plus a New Game Plus option that carries over everything earned. Accessibility options let players skip puzzle minigames, enlarge subtitles, complete quick time events automatically, and replace button tapping with holding. A photo mode adds filters, frames, and stickers, and its camera can circle Spider-Man or take selfies.

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• 4. The Devil's Breath

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  Peter Parker is 23 years old in this story, a research assistant eight years into his career as Spider-Man. Yuri Lowenthal voices him. Peter struggles to balance his two lives. Mary Jane Watson, his ex-girlfriend, is now a Daily Bugle reporter, and NYPD captain Yuri Watanabe helps him in the field. His Aunt May volunteers at the F.E.A.S.T. homeless shelter, run by the philanthropist Martin Li. At work, Peter is mentored by the respected scientist Dr. Otto Octavius.

  The story opens just after Spider-Man has captured the crime boss Wilson Fisk. A masked gang called the Inner Demons starts seizing Fisk's illicit assets and hunting for something called Devil's Breath. Officer Jefferson Davis helps Spider-Man stop one attack, and Jefferson is praised as a hero at a re-election event for Mayor Norman Osborn. The Demons strike that event, killing Jefferson and many others. Peter sees Martin Li change into the Demons' leader, Mister Negative, before he is knocked unconscious. Afterward, Norman hires Silver Sablinova and Sable International to replace the police. Peter also befriends Jefferson's son, Miles Morales, and persuades him to volunteer at F.E.A.S.T.

  Devil's Breath turns out to be a lethal, highly contagious bioweapon that Oscorp created by accident while seeking a cure for genetic diseases. Martin steals the only sample and threatens to release it unless Norman surrenders to him. Spider-Man and Mary Jane stop him, and Martin is locked in a maximum-security prison called the Raft. Meanwhile, Norman has pulled the funding for Otto and Peter's prosthetics research to force Otto into Oscorp's service. Otto becomes consumed by the idea of limbs that exceed the human body. He builds four mechanical tentacles, controlled through a neural interface. He admits to Peter that a neuromuscular disease will eventually immobilize him. Peter warns that the interface could change his mind and personality. Otto keeps using it in secret, furious at Norman.

  A breakout at the Raft sends Spider-Man to investigate, and he finds that Martin, Electro, Vulture, Rhino, and Scorpion are free. They beat him and deliver him to Otto, who now calls himself Doctor Octopus. Otto warns him to stay out of it, retakes the Devil's Breath, and releases it in Times Square. The outbreak infects many people, Aunt May among them. Norman declares martial law and brands Spider-Man a fugitive. Spider-Man gradually takes the city back by defeating Electro, Vulture, Rhino, and Scorpion.

  Inside Norman's penthouse, Mary Jane learns that Oscorp built Devil's Breath to cure Norman's terminally ill son, Harry. Martin was a childhood test subject for that cure. An explosion of energy gave him his powers, killed his parents, and fed his hatred of Norman. She also finds that an antidote exists and that Martin has taken it. Spider-Man defeats Martin, but Otto arrives, brutalizes him, and escapes with the antidote and Norman. While Peter recovers, Miles is bitten by an Oscorp genetically modified spider that Mary Jane unknowingly carried out of the penthouse.

  Wounded, Peter builds an armored suit and confronts Otto atop Oscorp Tower, where he rescues Norman. Otto reveals that he knows Peter's secret identity. Spider-Man still retrieves the antidote and defeats Otto, who is arrested. Then Peter must choose between the limited cure that could save May and a vaccine for the infected masses. He chooses everyone. Before she dies, May tells him she knows he is Spider-Man and is proud of him. Three months later, New York is back to normal, Peter and Mary Jane rekindle their relationship, and Miles reveals his new spider-like powers. Norman, who resigned as mayor in disgrace, visits a hidden laboratory where Harry lies in stasis, wrapped in a black, web-like substance. It reacts to his touch by copying him.

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• 5. Peter's Choices

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  Lead writer Jon Paquette led a team that included Ben Arfman and Kelsey Beachum, with Christos Gage co-writing the script and Dan Slott contributing additional story ideas. Their research into earlier versions of Spider-Man produced a rule of thumb: whenever Spider-Man wins, Peter Parker loses, and the reverse. Paquette did not want to lean too heavily on any single version. Intihar said the game was meant to be as much Peter's story as Spider-Man's. The writers skipped the origin story, reasoning that everyone already knew it.

  Yuri Lowenthal gave Peter a gentler voice and Spider-Man a more confident one, working with voice director Kris Zimmerman. He did not want the two to sound completely different, and he practiced at length to find the balance. Paquette had pushed the studio to cast him, because he trusted Lowenthal's acting and would not have raised the name otherwise. For the open-world dialogue, the team recorded multiple versions of each conversation, one for a resting Spider-Man and one for an exerted one. The audio can switch mid-conversation if the player moves from calm to combat. Lowenthal worked with two stunt coordinators over the course of development.

  Dr. Otto Octavius exists in the story because the writers wanted Peter's job to reflect his intelligence. They thought of having Peter work for Otto and share some responsibility for creating one of his greatest nemeses. Paquette aimed to make Otto a tragic figure, an optimist and a mentor, rather than the usual megalomaniac. He wanted the friendship detailed so the turn into Doctor Octopus would mean more. Intihar described the two men as parallels in intelligence and compassion.

  Mary Jane Watson gets her own agency. The writers wanted her to be a hero in her own right, which forces Peter to learn not to be overprotective and to rely on other people. Arfman called her his favorite character to write, and her new career as a reporter makes her an active partner. Miles Morales entered the story as a younger character for younger audiences to identify with, once the team settled on an older Peter.

  Aunt May's death was considered vital to Peter's growth, and it was also a challenge, because May plays a large role in so many Spider-Man stories. Paquette said the moment had to be earned. Marvel at first vetoed it, then changed its mind as development went on. Early in the game, May tells Peter that he is only human, a message Paquette read as a warning not to take on everything alone. By the third act Peter relies on Mary Jane and Miles, but too late to save everyone, and he is given an "impossible choice." Paquette called it the heroic sacrifice that reveals what Peter really cares about. The writers saw it as an echo of Uncle Ben's death, which follows a selfish decision by Peter. May dies because of a completely selfless one. Peter will feel mixed guilt as a result, so a bittersweet scene with Mary Jane was added to end the game on a more positive note.

  Paquette called Mister Negative the hero of his own story. His origin gives purpose to both Norman Osborn, who does bad things to save his son, and Otto. Martin Li was given ties to Aunt May and to Peter to add stress to Peter's life. Yuri Watanabe was written as a kindred spirit who shares Spider-Man's sense of responsibility to protect the city whatever the personal cost. Gage wrote many of J. Jonah Jameson's podcast rants, saying he related to being a grouchy, middle-aged man. Gage thought the podcasts, though they blame Spider-Man again and again, show what ordinary residents think. He also pushed for Silver Sable, because he felt a force was needed to raise the stakes as the city turned dire. The in-game social media posts came from Insomniac staff and Sony's QA department.

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• 6. Suits and Score

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  Art director Jacinda Chew's team set out to modernize Spider-Man's costume while honoring Steve Ditko's original design. The new suit has a large white spider symbol across the torso, gauntlet-like gloves, and sneakers drawn from athletic wear instead of knee-high boots. Chew said the goal was clothing a "23-year-old, would-be superhero" would wear in 2018 New York City. White joined the traditional red and blue. She compared the suit to compression wear, with each color standing for a different material. Blue is the most flexible and covers the limbs. Red is thicker, protecting against minor scuffs. White resembles carbon fiber, gives the most protection, and sits on the chest, hands, and feet. Every costume has custom web-shooters made for it.

  Mary Jane, in this version, is an aspiring reporter in a smart, sensible, stylish outfit that nods to her modeling history. Chew said the team aimed to use many body types for female characters. Mister Negative began as a young rebel in a leather jacket and sunglasses. As the story developed, the team gave him a black-and-white suit that shows both his human side and his negative-photo-effect persona. Otto's classic comic look, a bowl cut and green glasses, was modernized into a balding, nerdy scientist.

  The third act after the Raft escape was once much bigger, with separate battles against Vulture and Electro. Intihar said that version was not working, and cutting it hurt because it strayed from the team's vision. Someone proposed merging the two fights and put together a short demo showing it working as an aerial battle. That is how the fight appears in the finished game. Technical choices raised the stakes too. Each character has a high-quality model of about 60,000 vertices for closeups and cutscenes, and the final boss uses a million polygons, the most Insomniac had spent on a character at that time.

  John Paesano composed the score over more than two years, starting while the story was still being written. He wanted music that acted as a character in its own right and created a cinematic atmosphere instead of sitting in the background. The main theme took about two months. Pieces of it then became the basis for music for other characters. Paesano scored from Peter's perspective more than Spider-Man's, to stress humanity over heroics, and added gravitas to suit an older hero. He kept one simple, recognizable Spider-Man and Peter Parker theme and varied its instruments and arrangements. He wanted to avoid a problem he saw in Marvel Cinematic Universe films, where many character scores get lost in each other. He even wove the theme into villain music, a technique he compared to John Williams on Star Wars, to remind listeners that everything belongs to Peter's story.

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• 7. Marketing and Expansion

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  A 90-second advertisement called "Be Greater" aired during the 2018 NFL Kickoff Game, which drew about 19.5 million viewers. It showed Spider-Man fighting foes including Rhino and Scorpion. PlayStation marketing head Eric Lempel said it was among the most expensive ads the company had ever run. Videos narrated by characters such as J. Jonah Jameson showed off features, and the artist Alex Ross painted a custom cover for an issue of Game Informer. In New York City, one subway train was fully converted, with an exterior advertisement, Spider-Man chairs and posters, and Daily Bugle ads.

  Shortly before release, some fans complained that marketing images of an early build and a later build showed the same scene, but with a smaller puddle in the later one. Insomniac community director James Stevenson replied personally to say there was no visual downgrade. The studio later parodied the complaint by offering cartoon puddle stickers for photo mode. After release, Jacinda Chew offered to remove an in-game marriage proposal that a fan had requested, once it emerged that the relationship had ended. The fan chose to keep the message, saying "I just want to see someone get married, through that thing."

  The City That Never Sleeps, a three-episode story expansion, began on the 23rd of October 2018 with "The Heist." Set several months after the main game, it brings Black Cat back to New York for a heist that pulls Spider-Man into conflict with the Maggia crime families. Episode 2, "Turf Wars," arrived on the 20th of November, following Spider-Man and Yuri Watanabe as they try to stop Hammerhead from seizing control of crime in the city. The finale, "Silver Lining," arrived on the 21st of December. Silver Sable returns to reclaim stolen technology and teams up with Spider-Man against Hammerhead, who has used it to become virtually indestructible. Each episode added new missions, challenges hosted by Screwball, enemies, trophies, and three costumes. Those included Spider-UK, the Iron Spider, and a suit based on the alternate Peter B. Parker from Into the Spider-Verse. The suit from Sam Raimi's films arrived separately in December as the "Webbed Suit," and the "Bombastic Bag-Man Suit," based on issue 258 of The Amazing Spider-Man from 1984, followed in January 2019.

  Titan Books published Marvel's Spider-Man: Hostile Takeover, written by David Liss, on the 21st of August 2018. It pits Spider-Man against the Kingpin and introduces the game's versions of Echo and Blood Spider. A second book, The Art of the Game by Paul Davies, collects concept art, blueprints, and designs. Spider-Geddon issue 0, written by Gage and released on the 26th of September 2018, sends the Superior Spider-Man to the game's world, Earth-1048, to recruit its Spider-Man. Marvel followed with the six-issue City at War miniseries beginning in March 2019, then Velocity in August 2019 and The Black Cat Strikes in January 2020. Statues came from Diamond Select Toys and Sideshow Collectibles in 2019, and Funko released vinyl figures. The game's advanced suit appears in the film Into the Spider-Verse, and "Insomniac Spider-Man" makes a cameo in Across the Spider-Verse in 2023, with Lowenthal briefly reprising his role.

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• 8. Reception and Legacy

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  Metacritic summed up the critical response as "generally favorable reviews." Game Informer wrote that, "like Batman: Arkham Asylum before it, Spider-Man raises the bar for one of the world's most beloved heroes." VentureBeat called it "the best Spider-Man game... and one of the best super hero games ever." Web-swinging earned unanimous acclaim. EGMNOW called it a streamlined version of the physics system in Spider-Man 2 from 2004, and Game Informer enjoyed swinging so much that it never used fast travel. IGN described swinging at dusk, with the orange sun on reflective glass, as some of the calmest play sessions it had experienced in a while.

  Combat drew praise for its speed and fluidity. USGamer defended it against comparisons to the Batman: Arkham series, saying the range of gadgets set it apart, though it disliked the auto-lock for making targeting hard in big crowds. EGMNOW found the options broad but shallow. The story earned positive reviews. IGN praised Lowenthal's "emotional honesty," and EGMNOW thought the game understood Peter better than almost any comic adaptation. Several critics welcomed the decision to skip the origin story.

  Game Revolution disliked how many side activities turned monotonous after a short time. Reviewers called the open world familiar, and they were disappointed by the towers that reveal portions of the map, a feature that had become standard in earlier open-world games. EGMNOW and VideoGamer.com found the side missions weaker than the main story. Opinions on the Mary Jane and Miles stealth segments split. Game Informer enjoyed them, while VideoGamer.com called them "a bit hit-and-miss."

  The game passed 9 million units by November 2018 and 13.2 million by August 2019, becoming the second best-selling PlayStation 4 game of all time. The series had sold over 33 million units by May 2022. In the United States, NPD projected release-month sales 37% higher than all earlier Spider-Man games combined since tracking began in 1995. In the United Kingdom, it became the fastest-selling physical game of 2018, overtaking Far Cry 5. It topped the charts for three consecutive weeks until FIFA 19 replaced it, and it stayed in the top ten for 13 weeks, until the 3rd of January 2019. In Japan, about 125,154 physical units sold in the first week and 244,051 by the third. Among Western-developed PlayStation 4 games there, only Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Minecraft sold more.

  Wired ranked it first among the games of 2018, Time second, Push Square third, EGM fifth, Polygon ninth, and The Daily Telegraph tenth. Shacknews and The Verge named it Game of the Year. A Famitsu poll of 128 Japanese game developers picked it as their game of the year. In 2019, GamesRadar+ placed it seventy-fifth among the best games of the decade.

  Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered reached the PlayStation 5 on the 12th of November 2020 in select territories, with a wider release on the 19th. At first it came only with the Ultimate Edition of Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales or as a paid upgrade of the standard edition. It added extra suits, trophies, photo mode features, save transfers, and near instant loading, and it changed Peter Parker's face model from John Bubniak to Ben Jordan to better match Lowenthal's facial capture. A Windows port, made with Nixxes Software, followed on the 12th of August 2022. Miles Morales, released on the 12th of November 2020, takes place roughly a year after the first game. Peter has gone to Symkaria as a photographer covering a civil war, leaving Miles as the city's only Spider-Man. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 arrived on the 20th of October 2023, with Tony Todd voicing Venom and Jim Pirri playing Kraven the Hunter. Insomniac also announced Marvel's Wolverine, intended to share continuity with the Spider-Man games and co-directed by Brian Horton and Cameron Christian.

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