Should’ve paid the ransom.
A week ago we reported on the supposed data breach of Sony’s first-party development studio, Insomniac Games by the ransomware group known as Rhysida. The data breach itself was being auctioned off with just one week on the proverbial clock for Insomniac Games to pay their ransom of which Rhysida managed to obtain illicit data such as employee passports.
Well, that week is over and now the contents of the data breach which is said to be in exceedance of 1.67 terabytes worth of content is now beginning to surface online.
The group mentioned in their leak post that “Not sold [sic] data was uploaded, data hunters, enjoy,” and it seems that a portion of the data has indeed been sold to a bidder. However, only 98 percent of the complete data set has been made available with over 1.3 million files in total.
Examining the initial data set alone exposes an extensive array of level design, character materials, design images, and JPEGs, all related to the Wolverine game. Remarkably, there’s work-in-progress gameplay footage of Marvel’s Wolverine. The leak also encompasses a bootable build of the game, though to execute the build demands a PlayStation 5 devkit.
Interestingly enough, it was highly speculated that the release date for Marvel’s Wolverine would be sometime in late 2024, however enjoyers of bland third-person over the shoulder slop from Sony will be waiting at least another three years as a leaked roadmap indicates a proposed release of 2026, with Marvel’s Venom slated for 2025.
Venom is set to be a canonical bridge between Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3 and will allow for playable “Spider-Heroes” outside of the symbiote itself, rather than explicitly stating the inclusion of Spider-Man as a playable entity, it’s abbreviated as “Spider-Heroes” which could very well include characters such as Manly Jane from Spider-Man 2 for all we know, though the most likely answer is Miles Morales.
IGN would be thrilled about the opportunity to post more “Venom Cake“.
The leaked materials extend to files from Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 video game, alongside internal HR documents like I-9 employment forms and termination records. Screenshots from Insomniac’s Slack channels and contents from employee PCs are also part of the disclosure.
Of particular significance to X-Men enthusiasts is a publishing agreement between Marvel and Sony Interactive Entertainment. Signed by Isaac Perlmutter, Marvel’s chairperson of entertainment, and Jim Ryan, Sony’s president, the document, effective from 26 July 2021, outlines three upcoming X-Men games under the agreement. The first is Wolverine, while the others remain unnamed.
According to the agreement, Sony is expected to spend at least US$120 million on each title.
For those interested in a new Ratchet and Clank game you’re going to be entirely disappointed, as you’re going to be waiting until at least 2029 before Insomniac Games get off their Marvel high horse, but before that we’ve got a third installment of Spider-Man to enjoy, with Miles Morales now cosplaying as everyone’s favorite web slinging menace moving forward.
Insomniac Games will finally be unleashing a brand new IP sometime in the year 2031/2032, so essentially almost a decade away before we stop getting a slurry of Marvel slop.
Looking over the leaked footage from Marvel’s Wolverine, despite being in a very obvious early developmental state it does not look all that enticing and enjoyable to play from the perspective of someone who doesn’t particularly want to watch a Marvel movie on their PlayStation home console system.
As once again we’re going to be enjoying a third-person over the shoulder “cinematic” experience where the only form of gameplay mechanic is to simple move the thumbstick in either direction, mashing the same buttons over and over as the actual gameplay is interrupted by frequent dialogue and cinematic cutscenes.
Especially considering the fact that their release of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was merely political propaganda disguised as a sequel, given how the game was made in collaboration with Sweet Baby Inc. but the game as a whole was a narrative focused failure, treating fans of the original title like morons, defeminizing characters such as Mary Jane as the game effectively portrays Spider-Man (Peter Parker) as an incompetent fool.
There’s a reason why it didn’t win shit at the ESG awards.
Wolverine will likely be no different, given how Insomniac Games are ramping up the “woke” factor with Spider-Man 2 featuring an abundance of LGBTQ+ side-missions, objectives and themes within, because Insomniac Games are creatively bankrupt.
Marvel’s Wolverine certainly does look and feel like a Sony game, despite being relatively early in its development, regardless, Sony are paying hand over fist for its development with the game now set to feature a cast of big-name actors to be the voice of its characters.
Such as Liam McIntyre playing the role of Wolverine himself alongside progressive actors such as Noga Wind, Pragathi Guruprasad, Kelly Hu and the infamous Debra Wilson all slated to be represented with their likenesses captured.
And obviously, it wouldn’t be a real video game without Troy Baker weaseling his way into some role of significance, with one of the world’s most prominent voice actors set to play the role of Nathaniel Essex.
Honestly speaking I couldn’t really care less about these upcoming rinse and repeat Marvel titles, they require very little brainpower to actually play through as they’re more or less play as a cinematic snooze fest for upwards of twenty hours, with a simplistic combat system that gets immensely repetitive after the first handful of hours their gameplay is as deep as a puddle.
I’m more concerned about the confidential documentation and employee personal information that was captured from this data breach than I am excited for these string of progressive Marvel titles from Insomniac Games set to last us for the next six years.
