Summary
- Marvel reportedly signed an exclusive deal with Sony to develop X-Men games until 2035, as leaked documents reveal Sony's plans for Insomniac and Marvel titles.
- The leaked documents indicate that Marvel's Wolverine may be the first game in the X-Men series, with a potential release date in 2026, followed by Insomniac's first X-Men game in 2030.
- The license terms require Insomniac Games to sell at least 6 million units of one major title within the first year of release on PlayStation and PC combined, with Marvel taking a royalty cut of 35% - 50% of hardware bundles and net sales.
According to a leaked document, Marvel may have signed a deal with Sony to exclusively develop X-Men games until 2035. The details came to light amid a ransomware attack on Insomniac Games, after the studio reportedly didn’t pay ransom money to the Rhysida group. Now, a trove of documents has surfaced online to reveal much of Sony’s plans for Insomniac and Marvel titles, particularly X-Men in the coming years.
Recent years have seen numerous gaming companies go all-in on Marvel licenses. For instance, EA and Marvel signed a three-game deal that includes an Iron Man game as well as a Black Panther title. Skydance Media also announced that it was working on a Marvel game that features Captain America and Black Panther. More recently, Bethesda unveiled that its Arkane Lyon studio is developing a Blade game.
Rumor: Insomniac Games May Be Working on Spider-Verse Content
Leaked documents suggest that Insomniac Games could be working on Spider-Verse content as part of its post-Spider-Man 2 plans.
As per leaked documents, Marvel signed a deal with Sony that gave the company exclusive rights to develop X-Men games until 2035. It says Marvel "cannot release or announce any X-Men games on console, PC, or streaming platforms" or "use an X-Men character as a competitive advantage in a game." The documents suggest that Marvel's Wolverine is set to release in 2026 with Insomniac's first X-Men game is slated for a 2030 release. Additionally, the documents hint at a possible third and fourth X-Men game to be out by 2035.
Incidentally, the license terms also specify that Insomniac Games is obligated to sell at least 6 million units on "PS5/PC combined of one of the three major titles in the first year" in the first year after its release on PlayStation. As part of the deal, Marvel reportedly takes a royalty cut of 35% - 50% of the wholesale price on hardware bundle sales, likely similar to the Spider-Man 2 PS5 bundle. Other Marvel royalty arrangements include 9% - 18% of net sales of digital games and 19% - 26% of net sales of both physical games and DLC.
While no official announcement on any X-Men game has been revealed yet, it's believed that Marvel's Wolverine is set as the first project in the series. So far, the Rhysida group has proceeded to leak a trove of content around the game, revealing Wolverine cast details, the plot, concept art, early footage, and an alleged playable alpha build of the game. The full dataset reportedly sits at 1.67 terabytes in size and over 1.3 million files, which not only includes plans for upcoming Marvel games, but also sensitive employee information.
As of now, neither Sony nor Insomniac has released a statement on the current situation. Regardless, several video game developers have already taken to social media to offer support to Insomniac Games. Developers ranging from Wushu Studios and Remedy Entertainment, to Santa Monica's Cory Balrog have called out the attack and expressed support for the Spider-Man maker.