In the wake of the Insomniac hack in December 2023, we learned that the developer was working on a multiplayer Spider-Man game called Spider-Man: The Great Web. Then, a bit later, images surfaced from the game. Now, a full-on trailer that makes the game look like close to a finished product. As in, you could have convinced me this was a genuine reveal trailer for a game that was about to come out within the year. But it was ultimately canceled, and not because of the hack.
I’m not going to embed the Great Web trailer here or even share screenshots, but it’s being uploaded all over social media and over at Streamable, so it’s out there now.
The trailer shows off co-op play that appears to be up to five players at a time. Given that each Spider-Man game comes with roughly 70 alternate suits, you can imagine it was not hard to find costumes for player’s multi-Spider-Men, but also Spider-Women, this time, as we can see Spider-Gwen as playable in the trailer. There’s also Spider-Man 2099, Ben Riley and even what appears to be a playable Venom (which as we know ultimately landed in Spider-Man 2).
The concept here is that Scarlet Witch opens up the multiverse and out come pouring threats, including the grand villain group, the Sinister Six. Now, Spider-Man from all worlds have to band together to fight it and you have probably heard some of this before in the form of the Into the Spider-Verse animated movies. This isn’t that stylized, it’s very much still Insomniac Spider-Man, including Peter voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, but it’s something many players are now mourning they’ll never play. Here’s the voiceover from the trailer via Insider-Gaming:
‘New York City. Nothing in the whole world I wouldn’t do for this big, beautiful apple. One moment you’re scarfing down a slice from Vinnie’s, the next – you’re stopping a super-villain prison break. Sometimes you can swing it as a lone wolf, but you’re way better off with some friends. I’ve seen the Sinister Six before… But never so methodical – so savage. I don’t think I’m going to be enough this time, guys. But together, we just might be.’
I am at least somewhat skeptical of the idea this would have for sure been some amazing thing that everyone loved. While it’s not clear that this would definitely have been a full live service, given Sony’s recent “everyone do a live service” mandate, it stands to reason the idea here would be recurrent revenue and ongoing content in some form or another. And does a live-service superhero game sound familiar to you? We of course had Marvel’s Avengers fail for Square Enix to the point where it’s not even for sale anymore and now Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League this year, which currently has *checks tab* 377 concurrent players on Steam a month and a half after launch.
I do agree that a multiplayer Spider-Man game, especially with fun additions like Spider-Gwen could have been enjoyable. But I think we would have needed to understand more about exactly what type of game it was before lamenting that it was definitely a terrible idea to cancel it. The fact that it was cancelled means that’s two of Sony’s major studios cancelling multiplayer spin-offs of their main games, which now also includes Naughty Dog ditching The Last of Us Factions.
So, this isn’t happening. Maybe it could have been good, and it’s a fun trailer. But maybe not. Probably not, if you ask me.
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