Barring a big change, Wolverine, the next superhero game from Spider-Man developer Insomniac, is going to come out eventually on PS5. It’s been delayed and is seemingly still a long way off, but it has not yet been cancelled. It’s still going to be playable one day. For the future of the genre, the developer, and gamers everywhere, it really needs to be a good superhero game. The track record for Insomniac is good, but there is arguably more riding on Wolverine than anything else the studio has released in the past decade.
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4. The Genre Might Depend on it
For now, there are precious few superhero video games. Some have been cancelled recently, others delayed. Since Spider-Man 2 in 2023, there’s been a bit of a lull. Superhero movies experienced a similar lull, and the only thing that has really pulled that genre back from the brink is the wild critical acclaim of Thunderbolts, Superman, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. But for a long time, it felt as if the comic book adaptation was firmly on the brink of extinction.
Sadly, the video game counterpart doesn’t yet have anything that’s going to end the lull, partly because the lull is being provided by a lack of games. It’s been slow going for a while. So if the drought ends with a bad game, it can only spell doom for potential future games, even ones that were announced. Two have been cancelled in the last few months: the Wonder Woman game from Monolith and EA’s Black Panther title.
Fortunately, Wolverine does come from an acclaimed developer. Insomniac really hasn’t missed yet with their Spider-Man series, as all three titles are pretty beloved. However, leaks and delays have put this game in precarious territory. The delays are good, because it means Insomniac isn’t rushing. But the longer we wait, the greater the need for this game to really shine becomes.
3. The Leakers Would Win Otherwise
As mentioned, leakers really destroyed Insomniac, releasing so much data and information, setting them back years. It is one of the biggest reasons we haven’t seen anything since Spider-Man 2. They got hit hard, harder perhaps than any gaming company has been hit in recent memory.
Those leaks revealed plenty about Wolverine, which unsurprisingly looked unfinished. It caused some of the public sentiment to shift, with many believing Insomniac might be working on a dud. The leakers have already succeeded in at least derailing the developers, but they cannot allow them to win by putting out a bad game.
2. It Would Potentially End the Spider-Man Series
Few action game series today are as good as Spider-Man. The first game is considered one of the best superhero games of all time, and there’s immense praise for both the sequel and the Miles Morales spin-off. It is the bread and butter for Insomniac right now.
But if Insomniac takes a major hit with Wolverine, it very well could put an end to the developers’ superhero series in general. If they get bad press for the game and lose a lot of money on it, they could see it as a reason to pivot to other genres. The developer won’t shut down or anything, but they could take it as writing on the wall for this particular genre and get out while they’re ahead.
That would be a shame, because not only do we need more superhero games in general, but we can’t afford to lose one of the best superhero game series ever, so there’s a lot riding on this particular outing.
1. There’d Be No Room for More Like It
Wolverine looks like it’s going to be a dark, gritty, and brutal game, likely more than deserving of an M rating. Perhaps ironically, it could be the video game version of Logan, a genre-defining comic book movie that helped open the door for more that came later down the line. Unlike Deadpool, which was also rated R and violent, Logan was serious.
There’s room for the same in video games. Tons of dark characters deserve a game, but if this one fails, then any superhero game made in the future is likely to play it safe, targeting a broad audience without taking any risks. That would be unfortunate for the genre and for all the lost future potential games we’d miss out on.
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