Insomniac Games Data Leak Reveals ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’ Developer Has Exclusive Video Game Rights To The X-Men Until 2035
Spencer Baculi
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Welcome to the console wars, X-Men, I hope you survive the experience.
For better or worse, a massive leak of developer Insomniac Games’ internal data has revealed that the Sony-owned studio has apparently signed a deal with Marvel Entertainment for the exclusive rights to develop any video games based on their Merry Band of Mutants.
RELATED RUMOR: Marvel Studios’ Upcoming ‘X-Men’ Reboot To Center On Female Mutants, Feature Mr. Sinister As Villain
A massive blow to the Marvel’s Spider-Man series developer’s future plans, the saga of the now infamous leak first began on December 12th when the noted ransomware group Rhysida, through as of yet undisclosed means, managed to gain access to Insomniac Games’ servers.
Able to collect roughly 1.3 million files composing 1.67 terabytes of company data before getting out, the Rhysida then proceeded to auction off their bounty to the highest bidder, with the starting bid on the entire leak beginning at 50 Bitcoin (or roughly $2 Million USD).
“With just 7 days on the clock, seize the opportunity to bid on exclusive, unique, and impressive data,” the group declared. “Open your wallets and be ready to buy exclusive data. We sell only to one hand, no reselling, you will be the only owner!”
However, though aware of the leak, Insomniac Games ultimately chose not to play ball, and as such December 19th saw Rhysida respond by sharing near everything they had acquired – a small portion of the information was apparently acquired by an unknown buyer during the auction – to the public.
As such, players were soon made privy to a range of information regarding Insomniac Games’ operations, most notably their future plans for the aforementioned web-slinger, personal identifying information for numerous employees the group, and even a playable build of the developer’s upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine title.
But upon a full review of the leaked files, curious players also discovered another significant, albeit not-as-flashy bit of information contained therein: confirmation of an apparent decade-long X-clusivity deal signed between Insomniac Games and Marvel Entertainment.
Per details of the agreement presented by Insomniac Games, “Between now and December 31st, Marvel cannot release or announce any X-Men games on console/PC/streaming, or use an X-Men character as a competitive advantage in a game (e.g., ‘Play as Wolverine in Ultimate Alliance exclusively on Xbox).”
“X-Men characters can appear in multi-family Marvel games (e.g., Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy),” they further explained of the deal, “and Marvel retains rights to children’s games and certain X-Men games from the 1990s, but they cannot release or announce these within 45 days before or after release or announce of any of our X-Men games.”
All things considered, it appears that Insomniac Games’ Wolverine is not a stand-alone title, but rather the first in a new, planned line of X-related video game outings.
Unfortunately for players, between the leaked gameplay footage showing that its mechanics are yet another tired copy of the Arkham series’ – complete with Wolverine’s enhanced senses replacing Batman’s ‘Detective Vision’ – and the hamfisted writing seen in the studio’s recent Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, this deal could end up spelling more disaster than fortune for the beloved mutant super team.
As of writing, the ostensibly kick-off to Insomniac Games’ X-line, Marvel’s Wolverine, is set to rage onto shelves sometime in 2026.
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