8 Years Ago, Marvel’s New Era of Video Games Began With One of Its Greatest Releases Ever
Despite the success of its characters and worlds, Marvel had struggled to truly find its footing in the video game industry. Some projects succeeded, while others struggled to capture what made their characters special. Yet something changed in the late 2010s, as Marvel Games began putting greater emphasis on developers creating original stories around individual heroes rather than trying to build every character into the same experience. That opened the door for games that could treat Marvel’s biggest heroes with greater care, and eight years later, it is impossible to look at Marvel’s modern gaming lineup without seeing how important one game was.
On September 7th, 2018, Insomniac Games released Marvel’s Spider-Man on the PlayStation 4, heralding the rise of Marvel games. It was an original story featuring Peter Parker and his life, combining the talents of Marvel Games, PlayStation, and, of course, Insomniac. The result is easily one of the best superhero games of all time, even competing with the PlayStation 2 era Spider-Man games. Today, it is easy to see how Insomniac changed Marvel’s video game history based on the influx of fantastic superhero games we have received, culminating in the upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine, due to release on September 15th, 2026.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Proved Insomniac Could Build a Marvel Universe
What made Marvel’s Spider-Man stand apart was how completely Insomniac committed to the character. The game was not simply a collection of recognizable villains and costumes wrapped around an action game. It built an original New York, an original story, and a version of Peter Parker who had already been Spider-Man for years. That allowed the developers to explore Peter’s life beyond the origin story while still incorporating familiar elements from the comics. It even brought in comic writers like Dan Slott and Christos Gage to ensure the narrative felt true to Spider-Man.
And like any true Spider-Man game, Insomniac nailed the movement. Swinging through Manhattan was not simply a way to travel between missions, but the main appeal of playing as Peter Parker. I know I never used any form of fast travel in the game because the web-swinging was just that fun and satisfying. It was supported by combat, gadgets, abilities, side activities, and a large collection of Spider-Man suits. This combination helped solidify Marvel’s Spider-Man among the best superhero games of all time.
Insomniac understood the fantasy of embodying a superhero, especially one as iconic as Spider-Man, and delivered on that fantasy. A large part of this deals with the gameplay, but the narrative of Marvel’s Spider-Man brought the game to life. Between Peter, MJ, and the various villains in the game, fans were able to enjoy all aspects of the game. Insomniac combined these elements to create the perfect Spider-Man game, and it helped jumpstart more Marvel games.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Changed What Marvel Games Could Be
The game’s success also demonstrated that Marvel characters did not need to share one giant game to create a larger gaming identity like Square Enix attempted with Marvel’s Avengers. Instead, individual heroes could receive focused adventures built around their particular abilities and personalities. Insomniac followed Marvel’s Spider-Man with Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, expanding the same universe while giving Miles his own story and abilities. And of course, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 continued the series and saw it reach new heights.
But outside of Insomniac, fans saw other games like Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel’s Midnight Suns take off with different genres. More recently, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is continuing to show the lasting appeal of Marvel games thanks to Marvel’s Spider-Man. These games showed the different approaches developers could take to bring Marvel’s greatest characters to life, and we are still seeing more Marvel games on the way.
We have sadly seen many Marvel games get cancelled, such as the standalone games for Iron Man and Black Panther, but the successes have recently outweighed the losses. Insomniac has played a major role in this movement, and it continues to do so. Insomniac’s Spider-Man games established a strong model: choose a hero or team, build a complete single-player experience around them, and allow the developers to create an original interpretation rather than simply retelling a movie.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Paved the Way for Wolverine and Other Heroes
The clearest evidence of the game’s long-term influence is sitting in front of us now. Marvel’s Wolverine is being developed by Insomniac Games as a standalone single-player action-adventure for PlayStation 5. The studio has described it as an original take on Wolverine, just as its Spider-Man games were original takes on Peter Parker and Miles Morales. What we have seen of the project so far has instilled tremendous hype in fans as its September 15th release date approaches.
The connection goes beyond the developer’s name. Insomniac has said that Wolverine repeatedly came up when the studio, Marvel Games, and Sony discussed what could come after Marvel’s Spider-Man. While many hoped the rumored Venom game would be next, Logan is one of the most popular Marvel characters and Insomniac is the perfect studio to bring his story to life in new ways.
This is perhaps the biggest legacy of Marvel’s Spider-Man. Eight years ago, Marvel and Insomniac proved that a superhero could support a major standalone game without needing to be part of a movie tie-in or an enormous crossover project. Now, Wolverine is receiving that same treatment, while Marvel’s broader gaming future includes opportunities for other characters to receive focused adventures of their own. Whatever Marvel’s next decade of video games looks like, it is difficult to imagine it without the example established by Marvel’s Spider-Man in 2018.