Marvel's Wolverine

Marvel's Wolverine
Marvel's Wolverine
Developer(s)	Insomniac Games
Publisher(s)	Sony Interactive; Entertainment
Director(s)	Brian Horton; Cameron Christian;
Writer(s)	Mary Kenney; Walt Williams; Nick Folkman;
Series	Marvel's Spider-Man
Platform(s)	PlayStation 5

Marvel's Wolverine is an upcoming video game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Based on the Marvel Comics character Wolverine, it is inspired by the long-running comic book mythology, while also deriving from various adaptations in other media. Marvel's Wolverine is a standalone entry in the Marvel's Spider-Man series, telling an original, self-contained story that shares continuity with Insomniac Games' other Marvel titles.

Insomniac Games, SIE and Marvel Games entered discussions about developing further games centered on Marvel characters beyond Spider-Man during the development of Marvel's Spider-Man (2018) for PlayStation 4, with the developer expressing interest in adapting Wolverine, before pitching the title to the aforementioned parties. The game was officially announced in September 2021, alongside the confirmed involvement of creative director Brian Horton and game director Cameron Christian, who previously collaborated on Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020). The game is written by Miles Morales co-writer Mary Kenney, and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (2023) co-writers Walt Williams and Nick Folkman. The game was among the major subjects of a targeted ransomware attack on Insomniac Games in December 2023, which saw various development assets showcasing gameplay and story elements briefly become publicly accessible.

Marvel's Wolverine is set for release on the PlayStation 5.

Plot

Characters and setting

Marvel's Wolverine features an ensemble cast drawn from the comic book mythology of the character, the wider X-Men mythos, and various adaptations in other media. The game follows James "Logan" Howlett / Wolverine, a centuries-old mutant with retractable claws, heightened animalistic instincts and a pronounced healing factor, who is grafted with an indestructible adamantium alloy in his skeleton following intense experimentation.^[1]

Development

During the development of Marvel's Spider-Man (2018), developer Insomniac Games, Marvel Games and publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment discussed prospects for future games based on Marvel Comics properties beyond Spider-Man, with the team at Insomniac continually suggesting their desire to work on a game featuring Wolverine. The development team were drawn to the character through the similar moral compass he shares with Spider-Man, notably the fact that "both heroes feel deeply compelled to defend people who are less able to do so". Insomniac eventually elected to pitch this idea to both Marvel and Sony as their next licensed property following their successful collaboration with the two parties on developing Marvel's Spider-Man.^[2]

Marvel's Wolverine was officially announced alongside Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (2023) by Insomniac Games, during the PlayStation Showcase event in September 2021. The developers shortly confirmed thereafter that the standalone game shares continuity with the Marvel's Spider-Man games.^[3]^[4] The game's creative and game directors are Brian Horton and Cameron Christian, respectively reprising their roles from Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020),^[4] with Horton describing the game as "full size, mature tone" in contrast to his work on that game.^[5] Mary Kenney served as the game's writer with Spec Ops: The Line writer Walt Williams.^[6]^[7] Motion capture preparation had begun by April 2022,^[8] when lead animator Mike Yosh posted a photo of a motion capture soundstage on Twitter. In June 2023, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (2021) co-writer Nick Folkman revealed on Twitter that he had been simultaneously involved as a writer on both Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Marvel's Wolverine, and that he would be completely focused on the latter now that his work on the former game had been completed.^[9] Marvel's Spider-Man 2 creative director Bryan Intihar reconfirmed the game's shared continuity to the studio's Spider-Man titles in October 2023, saying "they're all 1048".^[10]

2023 Rhysida hack

In December 2023, Insomniac Games was targeted in a ransomware attack that compromised various development documents and personal employee information. Among the surfaced materials, early in-game images and concept art featuring other characters were leaked online.^[11] The perpetrators of the hack, Rhysida, threatened to publish all procured images and resources obtained from the hack seven days from the incident, additionally holding an auction for the data with a starting price at 50 Bitcoin, equivalent to US$2 million. Sony Interactive Entertainment issued a statement to Video Games Chronicle stating their intent to investigate the reports surrounding the hack, but did not anticipate the incident to affect other divisions of SIE or Sony Corporation as a whole.^[12] Upon the deadline's conclusion, company information including employee data, model dumps and pre-production slates for various games in development were published online at Rhysida's behest. These materials included various production assets related to Marvel's Wolverine, such as vertical gameplay slices, animation and model tests, concept art, finalized plot and character details, as well as sensitive information concerning the in-house staff and contract workers involved in the game's development, including the unintended reveal of the game's voice cast.^[13]^[14]

In the hours following the leak, early playable builds of the game were similarly circulated online and made accessible by dataminers. Sony Interactive Entertainment responded by issuing DMCA takedown notices through internet service providers, towards any individuals who attempted to download and play using the files.^[15] Insomniac Games issued a statement addressing the hack three days later, stating that the events that transpired took an "extremely distressing" emotional toll on the development teams involved in their upcoming projects, but that the data breach would not impact their development plans, including production on Marvel's Wolverine. They also thanked the community for "the outpouring of compassion and unwavering support" expressed towards the game and developer, and affirmed that they would share more details when the timing was right.^[16]

The events of the hack and its unwarranted consequences for the developer were met with widespread sympathy throughout the video game industry. Developer and publisher Remedy Entertainment called unsolicited publication of employee and staff information, "truly disgraceful and shameful."^[17] Remedy Entertainment writer Eric Stirpē released a separate statement, exclaiming that simply using the term "leak" did not fully describe the extent of Insomniac Games' situation, and going on to decry entertainment news outlets and social media influencers for attempting to showcase and report on illegally procured material such as the assets pertaining to Marvel's Wolverine.^[18] Rami Ismail, former co-founder of the now-defunct independent studio Vlambeer expressed support towards the developers at Insomniac Games, while also observing, "This is beyond fucked up – hackers leaking game data is already really fucked up, but leaking employee data is absolutely inexcusable."^[19] Encouragement was also expressed from other developers at Sony's first-party PlayStation Studios teams, such as Santa Monica Studio creative director Cory Barlog and Naughty Dog's co-president and creative head Neil Druckmann.^[20]^[21]

Release

Marvel's Wolverine is set for release on the PlayStation 5.^[3]^[4]

Future

Follow-up

The ransomware attack on Insomniac Games in December 2023 revealed additional Marvel video games in various stages of development at the studio, including that Marvel's Wolverine is intended to act as the first game in a planned trilogy centered around the X-Men in a similar fashion to the Marvel's Spider-Man games. Furthermore, the hack confirmed the existence of a new licensing deal between Insomniac Games, publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment and Marvel, to produce X-Men video games collaboratively until at least 2035, on the stipulation that while X-Men characters and elements were still able to appear in other Marvel titles, Marvel would not be able to announce any licensed X-Men games from other publishers for console, PC and cloud streaming while the agreement was in effect, nor could they allow other first-party publishers such as Xbox and Nintendo to use X-Men-affiliated characters or elements in a competitive advantage for multi-platform Marvel games.^[22]^[23]

Possible Spider-Man connections

While promoting Marvel's Spider-Man 2 in October 2023, creative director Bryan Intihar was questioned on an IGN podcast regarding the potential to more closely connect the Marvel's Spider-Man games with Marvel's Wolverine, particularly in reference to the respective characters crossing over in future titles as they have in the comics, and making note of the inclusion of a Wolverine-themed unlockable suit for Miles Morales/Spider-Man in the former game. Intihar stated he preferred that the Wolverine team remained committed to making the game stand on its own, but did not rule out the possibility of pairing the characters in the future as they had discussed earlier in development.^[24]^[25]^[26]