On the morning of December 19, hackers who had previously hacked Insomniac Games posted about 2 terabytes of the company’s internal data online. Information about future projects and sales data on Sony exclusives has leaked. What exactly was leaked and how it can affect the company – we’ll look at it in this material.
Marvel’s Wolverine
A significant part of the leaked data concerns the future game about Wolverine.
The basis of the gameplay of Marvel’s Wolverine is a slasher with a camera from behind, which is reminiscent of the combat from the God of War reboot – you can even catch the similarity of the animations. The game will also feature combat segments on motorcycles.
There are already stitches of 25 minutes of gameplay online
Apart from the combat system, everything else is reminiscent of the Spider-Man games – Wolverine will be able to climb walls using his claws, jump on surfaces for silent kills, and conduct investigations using his keen senses such as smell.
The plot of the game has also leaked online – there will be spoilers below. Logan and Jean Gray will team up against Mister Sinister. As the plot progresses, love will break out between them and the desire for revenge that unites them will turn into a heroic story in which the heroes will have to meet many friends and enemies. They will also show us how Logan received the adamantium skeleton.
The action will take place in at least five large locations – Alaska, Canada and Japan, as well as in two fictional places: in the special dimension Avalon and on the island of Madripoor.
Marvel’s Wolverine is a linear project. The game will have 34 missions, which will take about 16 hours to complete, and a cooperative Survival mode. At the same time, it will be possible to play as both Logan and Jean Gray – something similar can be seen in the leaked videos of the gameplay.
Apparently, the development build, the version of the game currently in development, was also leaked. However, you can only run it on a devkit – a special version of the console created for developers.
The cast of the project has also become known:
- Liam McIntyre will play Logan (Wolverine), the main character;
- Krizia Bios as Jean Gray – the main character, the second protagonist after Logan;
- Noga Wind will play the role of Leech, a young mutant who is cared for by Jin;
- Pragati Guruprasad as Davina, the leader of the mutant village in Madripoor;
- Nicole Pasan will play Raven Darklom (Mystique) – she will take on the guise of Bolivar Trask in Madripoor;
- Kelly Hu will play Jessan Hoan (Tigress), Raven’s wife;
- Debra Wilson as Callisto, the matriarch of Jean’s newfound family in Brooklyn;
- Raphael Corkhill will play Arkady Rossovich (Omega Red);
- Jonathan Tashiobu Tanigaki will play Shiro Yoshida, a free mutant fighter from Tokyo;
- Brett Gipson as Victor Creed (Sabretooth), Logan’s adoptive brother;
- Troy Baker will play Nathaniel Essex (Mr. Sinister / Sinister), the adoptive father of Logan and Victor;
- Jeff Nordlink will play Walter Lankowski (Bigfoot), a scientist who escaped from Essex;
- Jolene Kim will play Yuriko Oyama (Lady Deathstrike), one of Wolverine’s enemies.
In total, at least three projects about the X-Men should be released from Insomniac, the first of which will be Marvel’s Wolverine, the second Marvel’s X-Men, while nothing is yet known about the third game. The contract for the brand’s games is concluded until 2035.
Marvel’s Venom и Marvel’s Spider-man 3
Plans for Insomniac’s spider releases have also become known.
Marvel’s Venom is in development – a game about the main antagonist of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. As in the case of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, this will be a small project for 8-10 hours, which will become a link between the second and third “Man-Man” spider.” The game will have 3 playable characters: Venom and two Spider-Men – Peter Parker and Miles Morales. There will be 3 bosses for the entire campaign, one of which – probably the main one – will be Carnage.
It also became known that Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 could be split into two parts, like a reimagining of Final Fantasy VII. The two parts of Spider-Man 3 could be released in 2027 and 2028, with a total development cost estimated at US$400 million.
Concept art for Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 featured Silk and the Green Goblin, who were teased at the very end of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
In addition, Insomniac was planning to develop an online project based on Marvel’s Spider-Man. Approximate title: The Great Web. The game was supposed to have an open world, and the project itself was supposed to be like GTA Online with global events. Each player would be given a superhero that could be customized. In The Great Web concepts you can see Spider-Gwen, Silk, Sand Venom, Mysterio and other heroes with villains.
Schedule and sales
In addition to information related directly to games, Insomniac’s approximate release schedule has also become known:
- Marvel’s Venom — 2025;
- Marvel’s Wolverine — 2026;
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 — 2028;
- New part of Ratchet & Clank – 2029;
- Marvel’s X-Men — 2030;
- New IP – 2031;
- Marvel’s X-Men 3 — 2033;
- New IP – 2035.
In this regard, there was also a slide from an internal presentation explaining the company’s productivity:
- Several commands.
- A clear schedule for many years to come.
- Smart shifting of workload from one project to another.
There is also information about Sony ports for PC:
- Porting prices turned out to be ridiculous compared to the main budgets of the products – the company already plans to spend on porting Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 and Marvel’s Wolverine.
- Ports costing less than $30 million need only receive email approval from Sony to receive funding.
Sales of PlayStation games on Steam have also leaked. The information is dated early 2023:
- Horizon: Zero Dawn – 3.3 million copies;
- God of War – 2.5 million;
- Days Gone – 1.7 million;
- Marvel’s Spider-Man – 1.3 million;
- Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection — 483 тысячи;
- Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales – 450 thousand;
- Sackboy: A Big Adventure – 65 thousand.
We can draw approximate conclusions – porting games to PC not only pays for itself, but brings incredible profits to Sony. Even if Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered was not purchased at full price on the day of release, but at a discount of $20, the profit was more than $24 million!
A port of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 to PC is currently being actively discussed – in September, a month before the release, Insomniac formed a feasibility study and presentation of a port of the game to PC.
Sales data for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart has also appeared. Apparently, the game paid off – the budget was $81 million, including marketing, while Sony earned $145 million. And this is data for February 2022, now the numbers are even higher.
In addition, concepts for the next Ratchet & Clank game have appeared.
Some more financial information about Insomniac Games products, and some of them didn’t even appear on PlayStation:
- Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, with a budget of $156 million, brought in $260 million and sold 10.2 million copies.
- Sunset Overdrive earned the company $567 with 1.89 million copies sold.
- The studio made no money at all from the co-op Fuse, with total sales of $4.86 million.
Fiscal Year 2021 Games
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – 2.34 million;
- MLB The Show 21 – 1.606 million;
- Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut – 1.494 million;
- Returnal – 866 thousand;
- Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection — 329 тысяч;
- Death Stranding Director’s Cut – 210 thousand.
Fiscal Year 2020 Games:
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales – 10.184 million;
- The Last of Us Part II – 9.636 million;
- Ghost of Tsushima — 7.436 million;
- Demon’s Souls Remake – 1.857 million;
- Sackboy: A Big Adventure – 1.289 million;
- Predator: Hunting Grounds – 778 thousand.
Games from the catalog (up to fiscal year 2020):
- Spider-Man 2018 – 22.121 million;
- God of War PS4 – 20.826 million;
- Horizon Zero Dawn – 19.261 million;
- Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – 18.616 million;
- The Last of Us Remastered – 18.242 million;
- Gran Turismo Sport – 12.726 million;
- Uncharted Collection – 9.684 million;
- Bloodborne – 7.464 million;
- Days Gone – 7.322 million;
- Ratchet & Clank – 6.97 million;
- God of War 3 Remastered — 5.57 million;
- Detroit Become Human – 5.406 million;
- LittleBigPlanet 3 – 5.391 million;
- Uncharted: The Lost Legacy – 5.246 million;
- InFamous: Second Son – 5.084 million;
- Driveclub – 4.764 million;
- Death Stranding – 4.157 million;
- Until Dawn – 3.906 million.
In addition, they leaked data about the expenses and income of Insomniac’s latest games for 1.7 billion turnover, dated in the fall of 2023. The table does not include total earnings from Marvel’s Spider-Man, nor does it include projections for future games. Highlights: Miles Morales has a 122% return on investment (ROI); Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart has not made a profit as of fall 2022; Spider-Man 2’s budget was $315 million; The figures for Spider-Man 3 and Wolverine in the table are approximate, but the creation of both games will also require a budget of more than $300 million.
Details of the agreement with Marvel have also leaked online. It became known that Insomniac’s royalty ranges from 9% and higher, depending on the product sold. In addition, there is a clause stating that in case of low sales volume – less than 6 million copies – then other publishers may join the agreement and/or fines may be issued.
In addition, a Sony study on how the inclusion of games in a PS Plus subscription affects their sales was found online. Using the Horizon series of games as an example, it can be seen that after they are added to the catalog, their sales rate drops significantly.
Consequences
Given all this information, if everything goes according to plan, then in the coming years Insomniac will become almost the leading studio at Sony. This is all thanks to the popularity of their franchises, high productivity and good quality of their products. The latter, however, will have to be proven to the players over and over again.
Nevertheless, such a global leak will certainly affect the work of the studio – they may have to completely restructure their plans. But even in this case, it can still have a negative impact on sales. On the other hand, if we are talking about the products of large gaming companies, then this is not the first such case – and leaks only fuel interest in the products.
Speaking of sales. If you look at the data until February 2022, Sony is doing very well here. In this regard, two questions arise: why are they embarrassed to share data, and why was this refocus on games-services necessary at all?
The last two generations of Sony games were loved by players as a blockbuster approach to single products. And the transition to gaming services was not only a slap in the faces of fans – which is a common thing for large companies – but also a simply stupid move. Why change something that already works? This is where all the problems come from.
Bottom line
This is one of the largest leaks in the history of the gaming industry and Sony in particular. The flow of information still does not stop. We learned about the sales of the company’s games, from which the conclusion follows that the company created all its current problems for itself.
Although this leak will have little impact on the company globally, Insomniac’s plans will most likely be rewritten. At least partially. In this regard, it will be very interesting to follow their future projects.
