The news that Spider-Man would be added to Marvel’s Avengers roster of playable heroes only on PlayStation platforms made quite the splash last week, even leading us to record a podcast episode almost entirely dedicated to the topic.
When we got the chance to interview Creative Director Shaun Escayg and Combat Director Vince Napoli, we couldn’t avoid posing some questions to the developers. Immediately, they made it clear that the rules of the relationship between Marvel and Sony meant the Spider-Man exclusivity was completely out of the hands of Crystal Dynamics (and probably Square Enix too, for that matter).
Eventually, the developers added that we should think of Spider-Man as a sort of ‘cherry on top’ who’ll have his own self-contained story arc in the overall narrative.
Wccftech: Many of those angry fans have also pointed out that you won’t be able to meaningfully include Spider-Man in the ongoing story since he cannot appear at all on PC, Xbox, or Stadia. Can you comment on that?
Shaun Escayg: Without obviously giving any spoilers, the window where you will see our version of Spider-Man will fit into our story. Again, I have to obviously dance around it because I can’t speak to it. But just know that this is our Spider-Man, he will be in our story and will fit in that world, sort of in that gap what happened A-Day and between then and now, even the villains that support that will kind of speak to how he belongs in this world and how long he lives in this world.
Vince Napoli: Spider-Man is in addition to the arc and progression of the main story as well. There was no swapping or anything else in that line. We’ve got our plan, we’ve got our heroes that are coming out and the stories and the challenges and the gameplay escalation that we’ve planned out. That’s all continuing as planned. And then just on top of all that stuff, we’ve also got Spider-Man now and you know, he’s weaving into that, that is the key. There is no swapping or changing anything to kind of accommodate that. He’s got to fit within the massive plan and all of that stuff we’ve already got. It’s like, Sony went ‘Hey, can you add this on top of it, as a sort of a cherry on top of that?’ But he doesn’t affect or change that in any way. That plan is still moving forward as originally planned and conceived with all the original expansion stuff in mind.
Wccftech: Is it fair to say that it will be kind of a self-contained story arc for him in Marvel’s Avengers?
Shaun Escayg: Absolutely, yeah.
This makes sense, as the friendly neighborhood ‘Scarlet Spider’ was never quite a central member of the Avengers even in the comics as well as the hugely popular Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Spider-Man is expected to launch early next year as a free DLC in Marvel’s Avengers on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Of course, there’s also the new standalone game Spider-Man: Miles Morales, due on the PlayStation 5 as a launch title.
