Spider-Man (2018 video game)

Marvel's Spider-Man is an upcoming action-adventure game based on the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man, developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 4. It will be the first licensed game developed by Insomniac. The game will tell a new story about Spider-Man that is not tied to an existing comic book, video game, or film. It will cover both the Peter Parker and Spider-Man aspects of the character and will feature an older and more experienced Spider-Man.

The game is scheduled to be released worldwide on September 7, 2018. After the intended release however, there will be extra content being added to Spider-Man via the "City Never Sleeps Initiative".

Gameplay
Spider-Man is an action-adventure game set in an open world modern-day New York City and played from a third-person perspective. It features combat systems such as an aerial combat, spider sense and reflexes, and finishing moves. Spider-Man can push attacking enemies off of buildings, though Spider-Man will not let them fall, webbing them to the side of the building. The player will be able to use Spider-Man's abilities such as web slinging and wall-crawling as well other gameplay elements, one of which will be the ability to traverse using parkour, and the crafting and use of gadgets and alternative suits with special powers. Environmental combat, quick time events and stealth will also be featured in the game. Peter Parker (outside of his Spider-Man suit) will be playable in parts of the game and Mary Jane Watson will be playable in "key moments" of the game.

Characters
In addition to Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson, Miles Morales, Aunt May, Norman Osborn, Yuri Watanabe, Black Cat, and Silver Sable will appear in the game. It also contains numerous cameos, references and mentions of other characters from the Marvel Universe, such as Daredevil and the Avengers. Villains originating in Spider-Man and other Marvel comics will also appear, including Mister Negative, Kingpin, Shocker, Electro, Rhino, Scorpion, Vulture and Taskmaster.

Plot
Peter Parker is 23 years old and interning at a laboratory while about to graduate from college. Peter has been Spider-Man for eight years and has settled into his role as protector of New York City. Early in the story, Spider-Man defeats Wilson Fisk. Afterwards, a new gang emerges known as the Inner Demons who are taking over Fisk's territory. Spider-Man arrives at a construction site owned by Kingpin and must defend Kingpin's men who are under attack by the Inner Demons. While fending off the Inner Demons from the construction site, Peter learns that Martin Li, one of New York's most prominent philanthropists, leads the Inner Demons under his alter-ego Mister Negative. Martin also runs the F.E.A.S.T. shelters located across the city, which complicates things for Peter's personal life as his Aunt May works at F.E.A.S.T..

Development
Marvel Games approached Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) wanting them to publish a Marvel game and to treat the game like a first party SIE title. The game will be the first licensed game developed by Insomniac Games after 22 years of developing intellectual properties they have created, such as Spyro, Ratchet & Clank and Resistance. Bryan Intihar, the producer of Sunset Overdrive and former community manager of Insomniac Games, is the creative director of the project and Ryan Smith is the game director. It is Intihar's first time working in that role on a game. The community manager of Insomniac Games confirmed that they are using Sunset Overdrive's modified game engine. The game features the largest production team for an Insomniac game. The game was announced during Sony's E3 2016 press conference on June 13. It will be the first in a series of games made by Insomniac and Sony and marks the start of Marvel Games' new strategy to work with the "best game companies" who are passionate about their characters.

Yuri Lowenthal is the voice and physical actor for Spider-Man in the game. In early 2015, Lowenthal got the role after some initial pushback within Insomniac due to him voicing one of the main playable characters for Insomniac's most recently released game at the time, Sunset Overdrive, but ultimately the game's lead writer Jon Paquette convinced the studio to cast him in the role due to his trust in Lowenthal's acting ability. Lowenthal worked with two stunt people throughout the game's development. He tried to differentiate between his voices for Peter Parker and Spider-Man but thought that they could not be totally different and as a result spent a large amount of time "finessing and massaging" his performance to achieve a balance. Jon Paquette, Christos Gage, Ben Arfmann, and Dan Slott serve as writers of the game.

In April 2017, Ryan Penagos, Vice President and Executive Editor of Marvel Digital Media, stated that the game would be released in 2017. At Sony's E3 2017 conference, the first gameplay demo was shown and it was announced that the game would be released in 2018. Shawn Layden, the president of SIE America and chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios later confirmed that Spider-Man, and SIE's other games announced for 2018 at the conference, will be released in the first half of 2018. The game is scheduled to be released on September 7, 2018. In addition to the special edition of the game, a Limited Edition Spider-Man PS4 Pro bundle will be released on the same day as the game. The bundle will include the standard game, a PlayStation 4 Pro console customized around the theme of Spider-Man, in red color with a large white Spider-Man logo on the side, and a red Dualshock 4 controller with white buttons.

Music
During the 2018 San Diego Comic Con, it was announced that John Paesano would be composing the score for the game.

In other media
The Spider-Man from the game will be featured in the comic storyline "Spidergeddon". The storyline is written by Christos Gage (who also wrote the video game), who noted "Spidergeddon" takes place after the events of the game. The first issue in the storyline, Spidergeddon #0, will be released on September 26, 2018.