X-Men Games Will Be Sony Exclusives For More Than A Decade, Leak Reveals

Kotaku writes: "From the looks of it, Insomniac and Sony have secured exclusive rights to the X-Men heroes in starring roles as far as video games go, and the deal includes some stipulations that keep Marvel from using those characters in a way that could undermine them."

[maniacmayhem]

Oh boy! Sony is a monopoly and also taking the games out of the hands of gamers and narrowing the market/competition.

C'mon, we know the standard drill when something like this happens.

On a serious note, this could be cool that Sony and Insomniac are creating their own Marvel Universe. The same way the Arkham series did. I'm curious to see how their take on X-Men will be.

[-Foxtrot]

"Oh boy! Sony is a monopoly and also taking the games out of the hands of gamers and narrowing the market/competition"

Marvel went to Xbox for a deal before Spiderman, they weren't interested in licenced games so they went to Sony next.

https://www.videogameschron...

Microsoft had a chance, they didn't take it

[maniacmayhem]

Okay, so Sony is still taking the games out of the hands of gamers with these deals as I said before.

What changed?

[-Foxtrot]

You can't take something from someone which was never a thing to begin with, it's a new line of X-Men games, not continuing an old line of established games.

I love the spin though

Microsoft: Buys 2 massive publishers making games like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, The Evil Within, Doom, Wolfenstein, Quake, Dishonored, Prey, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout etc exclusives.

You: Nothing but silence

Sony: Has some exclusive deals going of franchises that nobody was giving any love to, especially when those franchises last games were years ago and pretty terrible. Basically Sony doing things as a reaction to Microsoft buying up stuff in the industry.

You: COME ON SONY. JEEEEEEZ. WHAT THE HELL.

What do you want them to do? Lie down and die.

[maniacmayhem]

Lmao, there's always an excuse and made up rules as to why it's okay that Sony does it and not MS.

Sony is keeping X-Men and Spider Man games on their own platform. Doesn't matter if there wasn't any before or they weren't getting "the love" they were supposed to.

You can't change a narrative all of a sudden just so you can excuse your favorite company.

Sony: makes exclusive deals with IPs they don't own and keeps them on their system.

You: It's okay, they weren't going to be anywhere anyways! The developers were close with Sony and Sony has a special relationship blah blah blah

MS: Actually buys a developer, keeps their doors open, puts their games on GP that is basically playable on everything and a toaster.

You: OMG MS IS A MONOPOLY AND BUYING EVERY DEVELOPER AND TAKING THE GAMES OUT BLAH BLAH BLAH

**What do you want them to do? Lie down and die.**

Pretty sure that was the same exact sentiment that Xbox fans were saying when YOU ALL were yelling that Xbox has no games or first party developers, but then once again changed the rules saying MS has to grow their developers from scratch because it's unfair any other way.

[CrashMania]

Anyone with half a brain and a tiny bit of logical thinking knows a licensing deal to fund and develop marvel games as a first party is not in any way the same as spending 80 billion on publishers to sweep up a dozen or more IPs that have been on playstation for decades in some cases, but this falls on deaf ears of the most brainless fanbase on the internet.

[Neonridr]

@Foxtrot - I believe his remarks were tongue in cheek.. If you are outraged at what MS did but not what Sony did, then what type of hypocrite are you?

[shinoff2183]

Still isn't on the level of buying two major publishers. If you can't see that , sorry for ya. I'd rather ms had made a couple bethesada games exclusive rather then buying the whole fking company. Sony ain't buying marvel(couldn't afford anyway) they just got some exclusives lined up. Mind you games being developed by Sony studios.

[Cacabunga]

Sony knows what it takes to stay on top of the game.. xbox bought finished games from studios and publishers during 360 era but Sony secured licenses and makes the best games out of them themselves!! I talked about 360 era because it’s the best one xbox has and will ever get.

[RNTody]

Maniacmayhem, you're just embarassing yourself with your thoughtless comments.

There is nothing wrong with an exclusive if you invest in the studio, allocate your game engines, resources and tech to the game and have an actual involvement in the development. You know, how actual good games are made. Look how far Insomniac has come since Sony invested in them. Why the hell should Sony invest in a game and studio, take on publishing costs and provide the resources of PlayStation studios and then publish it on Xbox, or Vice Versa?

You can't cry about losing a game that Microsoft had NOTHING to do with. Sony actively made Marvel's Spider-Man happen. You're just deliberately being stupid to maintain your false opinion.

You know what happened when Insomniac teamed up with Xbox once upon a time? They made a game that made $500 profit apparently. Now they're making multi million dollar franchises that are universally acclaimed and moving consoles.

Investing in new games and growing studios is good for the Industry. Buying up publishers is not.

If you can't see that, then you're not worth responding to further.

[ravens52]

I don't think xbots are stupid. But boy do they play the part sometimes. Like 🤯

[TheKingKratos]

@Maniac

Such a nice name for you indeed

I have seen such a stupid takes on this hell hole but you take the prize for the most dumb one

[darthv72]

......and people were worried about the CoD 10y deal.

SMH

[Tacoboto]

Microsoft took the Spider-Man games out of the hands of Xbox-exclusive gamers by declining the deal. Their reasoning was a slap to their players' faces, too - "We don't want others' IP" but then spent $77bn buying exactly that.

Sony, like MS too for the IP they have, isn't stopping anyone from buying the hardware necessary to play the games they make.

So... Blame the owner of the IP for making deals that you don't like, maniac.

[badz149]

@maniacmayhem

Nothing changes. So what games are Eony taking away from non-PS gamers? Care to make a list?

[GamerRN]

The goal posts changed....

[Christopher]

If I make a lot of ridiculous claims, maybe someone will believe one of them!

[maniacmayhem]

You definitely let a lot of them slide on this site already, why start commenting against them now?

[Christopher]

Yeah, I get downvotes from everyone because I don't tell people when they're being hypocritical on any side of the spectrum!

Nice attempt at that gaslight.

[maniacmayhem]

No, you seem to actually target certain people on one side with your remarks than you do the other.

But cool attempt at being the victim.

[Lexreborn2]

@maniac if you see him attacking one side over the other more. Maybe that’s because you’ve positioned yourself on that side so firmly it’s rare for you to see the other?

[Christopher]

***No, you seem to actually target certain people on one side with your remarks than you do the other. ***

The gall to follow this up with....

*** But cool attempt at being the victim. ***

I've never gotten downvotes for criticizing 'the other side' for a complete lack of news, wasting time on MP elements that went nowhere, keeping the generation on PS4, trying to compete with GaaS companies, etc. Never.

But am I a victim? No. I'm a person who realizes people, like yourself, like to put up walls on arguments rather than actually discuss them openly and honestly.

[InUrFoxHole]

I agree with that. He does tend to target. I r think he's a cop in the real world... lol

[isarai]

Can't take games out of people's hands if they were never in people's hands. Like what existing X-Men games are they talking away from you? Is there some multiplatform X-Men series no one knows about ?. Having exclusive rights to make new games based on a license is not the same as Buying an existing franchise/series everyone is currently consuming and making it exclusive. Big difference between license and ownership, Also not what "Monopoly" means at all, maybe learn what the word means before throwing it around.

[Markusb33]

xb gamers wont play these games anyway, just take a look at how many got to level 10 in starfield

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

"Oh boy! Sony is a monopoly and also taking the games out of the hands of gamers and narrowing the market/competition."

When Sony buys the equivalent of Zenimax and Activision in the span of a few years then you can sarcastically makes this this statement. Until then continue to make obvious false equivalencies!

[maniacmayhem]

Why, Sony is still keeping games off of other platforms?

Why does it have to be on some type of equivalence scale?

It's always fun to see how lopsided views are here and then the spin when a favorite company is now doing exactly what was these people accused another of.

[Shane Kim]

maniac

Besides, in 10 years you can play them on the xbox. We wont be playing any ActiBlizz or Zeni games on PS again.

[derek]

@maniac lol, the difference is these future xmen games are being made for an audience who buys games so marvel knows the deal with contribute to the overall growth of the ip. New games that both parties will benefit from, look at Spiderman. Microsoft/xbox is the place ip goes to die so everyone should be concerned when Microsoft tries to buy their way to relevance. We've seen it already with Bethesda and we'll see it with abk. $100 billion spent while xbox continues to fade away into irrelevance. Lol

[BeHunted]

From the recent leaks, I think it's because Disney demands 20% in Royalties from Sony for each copy sold. That's why Microsoft refused the Offer.

[ziggyzinfirion]

No. It was already revealed in previous articles that Microsoft refused the offer because they would rather want to focus instead on their first party titles (Halo, Gears of War, Forza etc.). It has nothing to do with royalties. Disney actually made a better choice in opting to Sony after being declined by Microsoft because their studios more than capable to handle Marvel franchises. Just look at Insomniacs Spider-man compared to when it was developed by Activision.

[S2Killinit]

Lol you sound upset.

[Redgrave]

Bro, it is well documented that MS said no to a Marvel offer. It's not taking games away when one guy says no, and the other yes.

It is also not the same as buying out developers, saying games will be available everywhere until the deal closes, then making the games exclusive that were said to be "made available for more gamers on more platforms".

It's a dirty business and nobody plays cleanly at the end of the day, but in this instance it's only because Sony said yes where Microsoft said no.

[Asplundh]

People with this "Microsoft doesnt want a Marvel deal" argument know that they literally just revealed one at the Game Awards right?

[1Victor]

@maniac comments

I’m sorry but I think we all missed the news where Sony purchased Disney and lied about keeping their content on Xbox.
Till then your fake rage and equalization of everything Sony get as a (timed) exclusive to Microsoft purchasing a legacy 3rd party publisher is just offensive read without 🤦🏿🤣

[OptimusDK]

SONY had a chance of buying ABK but didn't not so different at all

[itsmebryan]

Have you read the leak? Insomniac is now only making Marvel's games til at least 2031/32.
And did you see the schedule? It's like a game every other year and how much for development. They are going to run insomniac into the ground.

I bet they didn't know this would happen before they sold themselves to Sony. They can't be happy being forced to make Marvel games instead of their own games.

Sony made an awful deal with marvel.

[RedDevils]

The more you talk, the more fools you make of yourself.

[MrBeatdown]

Ironically, Microsoft now owns Activision and their trash Spider-Man and X-Men games.

So I guess if you really want your Marvel fix on Xbox, you can bug Microsoft to remaster Spider-Man 3 or X-Men Destiny.

[Crows90]

I'm sorry...what? You do know insomniac is a PlayStation 1st party right? They're not taking any games away. Insomniac games wouldn't come to Xbox.

Blade isn't being taken away from PlayStation for instance. The devs who are now making the game who traditionally made multiplatform games were taken away but not the game itself. L

Starfield was taken away because as we've heard...Xbox came in and said no more playstation versions. And we all know they were originally planning a PlayStation release ... It's their biggest console base.

Geez ..just read more of your comments...your name suits you. You make no sense

[recoctimocassirnff]

To everyone trying to explain to xbox fanboys very easy to grasp differences between what ms is doing and what sony is doing, you're wasting your time.

Their "sOnY dOEs iT tOooOO huUUuUrRR" has been debunked 100s of times, but they just want to remain deliberately stupid.

[VivaChe]

is there not an ethical issue with reporting information obtained illegally through a ransomware hack??

[purple101]

I’m going out on a limb and say yes

However
Freedom of internet act blah blah

Once it’s in the public domain its free game for anyone to use

[Christopher]

Gaming sites aren't based on ethics. Haven't been for 20 years or so.

[Hofstaderman]

Fact.

[InUrFoxHole]

Does this include n4g?

[Christopher]

@InUrFoxHole: We're an aggregate. It's hard to call us ethical when we are what people put out there. I mean, look, the leaked Insomniac stuff is all over here because it's out there and the community wants it. So, really, the question is "is the community ethical?"

[derek]

Nah there is no ethical issue unless a reporting outfit choses to make a stand against these losers who do these things, the information is out there. The problem with gaming "journalists" is their persistent lies and half truths along with a distortion of facts for clicks.

[gold_drake]

yes

but the internet is gonna internet does it make it right tho.

[Mr Logic]

No. It's unethical to withhold the information from the public.
If someone from the Pentagon illegally leaks information to a journalist and they publish it, then the journalist has done nothing wrong.

[ChasterMies]

You mean public information? Usually no issue but there are various data privacy protections depending upon the type of data, jurisdiction, and victim of the data breach. There is also an ethical and legal issue of using data, even public data, to harass someone. Remember that one website that was sued for harassing Hulk Hogan? I don’t.

[Felix_Argyle_Catbro]

Coming simultaneously to PC according to the leak though.

[Zeke68]

Jim Ryan is soon gone so that is probably going to change Playstation to less PC-focused.

[DarXyde]

Doubt it.

PC gamers are generally pretty warm on Playstation Studios titles (except the Last of Us, but that's just because it was a bad port).

Why would they leave them out to dry like that? I actually think this was one of Ryan's better strategies.

[Zeke68]

"Why would they leave them out to dry like that? I actually think this was one of Ryan's better strategies."

Well, maybe because they need to spend more time on their Playstation offerings now when their little GaaS experiment seems dead in the water and with all the trouble Insomniac is in after their hacker situation.
I assume Jim Ryan's bosses are eager to get Playstation games to be their main priority again after blowing alot of cash on PC and other nongame related things surrounding the PS brand.
But we'll see soon enough. Jim is gone in about 4 months so it will be clear with a new leadership how they are planning for the future. We just have to wait and see.
And ofc you think it's a great strategy, I guess you got to play these games for the first time now on your PC ?
Or am I wrong? ;)

[Shiore2u]

Oh yea, they're just gonna decide to not want to make easy money anymore after purchasing a studio to port games, all because Jim is gone. Corporations are certainly known for their humility toward the sensitivities of brand worshipping troglodytes over money. Lmao.

Sarcasm aside, the whole reason Sony even got involved in porting games was because game spending is down, they're trying to maximize their profit as much as possible to make up for that, which makes exclusivity a hinderance. That's not going to change any time soon.

[DarXyde]

Zeke68,

"Well, maybe because they need to spend more time on their Playstation offerings now when their little GaaS experiment seems dead in the water."

You forget they have Nixxes? That is, quite literally, their only function.

"I assume Jim Ryan's bosses are eager to get Playstation games to be their main priority again after blowing alot of cash on PC and other nongame related things surrounding the PS brand."

Sony is clearly managing both just fine. They stagger releases, too and the ports are handle by other studios. It's not a bad deal at all.

"And ofc you think it's a great strategy, I guess you got to play these games for the first time now on your PC ?
Or am I wrong? ;)"

Very wrong. I have a MacBook Pro that can run Dark Souls I flawlessly and Dark Souls II with difficulty on a good day (both through virtualization, and done as a test). I'm not a PC gamer—I don't have a PC. Occasionally, I'll pick up native games to see how they fair (Lies of P, Resident Evil Village) and they run very well.

But PlayStation games? No. None.

[Zeke68]

@DarXyde,Shiore2u
It wasn't long ago Jim Ryan himself said they didn't make much on PC Ports, it was a disappointment for them.
And Nixxes doesn't mainly do PC Ports, that's just a media guess. They are supporting Sony/PS in PC related tech like PS Store, infranet structure and stuff like that too.... Backend stuff.
"You forget they have Nixxes? That is, quite literally, their only function." - No it's not!

[DarXyde]

Zeke68,

"It wasn't long ago Jim Ryan himself said they didn't make much on PC Ports, it was a disappointment for them."

They're expecting $450M in revenue from PC by end of fiscal year. That is nothing to scoff at. Horizon sold over 3M on PC too, so there's that.

"And Nixxes doesn't mainly do PC Ports, that's just a media guess. They are supporting Sony/PS in PC related tech like PS Store, infranet structure and stuff like that too.... Backend stuff."

Link?

"You forget they have Nixxes? That is, quite literally, their only function." - No it's not!"

Okay, can you share some insights on this?

[Shiore2u]

@Zeke68

The ransomware leak shows that porting costs Sony less than 30 million, and they're expected to make, as DarXyde pointed out, almost half a billion by the end of the year. Nixxes has been porting games since the dreamcast. Quite literally 99% of their existence over the last two decades. No experience of which has anything to do with what you broadly and tech-illiterately stated.

PC ports aren't going anywhere any time soon. You're just going to have to accept that. Economies have ups and downs. Sony is a business and needs money to stay afloat like any other. If you didn't want this to happen then you and others should have forgone eating and paying rent to warrant Sony financially maintaining exclusivity.

[Zeke68]

"Link ?"
Alright, we are done. I will never ever need to discuss with you guys again, are you 3 years old and never heard of Google??!!
It took me LESS than 7 minutes to find both articles through Google.
You guys ain't serious at all.
Sorry guys, I'm out. :)

[mkis007]

Nah that is conjecture unless you can find those words.

[TheKingKratos]

No they would never do that ... You probably will never see it on pc after Jim leaving too as his strategy wasn't good enough.

[Ironmike]

Isn't this the same as what everyone was saying Microsoft was doing but it's okay now I own a ps5 and xbox and think it's wrong of both companies

[CrashMania]

How is a licensing deal to use a 1st party studio to build games from scratch the same as spending 80 billion to remove decades old multiplatform IPs and cancel PS5 versions of already in development games the same? Please explain.

[mkis007]

It's not and it never will be, that is an grade school hot take.

[InUrFoxHole]

It's exactly the same. These companies are takings games and compiling them so you have to use their product. Stop simping for these plastic boxes. But but they're only taking this and that... its all the same my man. These companies don't care about you. Only your $. They're all scum bags. The problem is gamers have taken the bait hook line and sinker. So now we're making excuses for them. What is better for the consumer? Play where you like or exclusives? Xbox is dead wrong and so are sony

[CrashMania]

@fox

'It's exactly the same'

No it's not. The rest of your post is just rambling while pretending to be nuetral, but you aren't fooling anyone.

[ChasterMies]

Paying for a license is not the same as buying up game publishers. Robber barons didn’t get rich by buying a license to put logos on their trains. They got rich buy buying up all the tracks.

[aaronaton]

Their roadmap looks pretty dull imo, no Resistance or new IP's for a decade then.

[Zeke68]

I would love a Resistance Reboot or something like that too, but dull, that roadmap is far from dull imho.

[shadowT]

Microsoft could buy Disney

[badz149]

Yeah good luck with that

[Markusb33]

if the 6 million sales exclusive claus is real, XB has zero chance of blade being exclusive as they only believe in GP numbers now, so trying a game for 2 mins is a win for them

[wolf581]

Sony and Nintendo are the best in the industry right now for making new great ips and develop great games based on existing characters....i cant wait for x men,venom and wolverine..spiderman 2 is the best superhero videogame for me ever created well done insomniac....

[monkey602]

Aw man I'm kinda torn by this one. Absolutely loved the spiderman games and can't wait to see Wolverine. The idea of an X-Men game made to Insomniacs standards has me salivating... But I've two knock backs.
The X-Men IP is massive and a 10 year deal that gives us only 2 games from the property is a massive shame. More studios could take characters a d give us great games in that time too.
Also, with Insomniac tied down to Marvel, we don't get a new Resistance or New IP from them

[jznrpg]

The way things have gone lately I think more studios working on X-men games could be a bad thing. Look at Marvel game and Suicide Squad as examples

[monkey602]

Yeah I know but I've really liked Star Wars Jedi and Jedi Survivor. Dare I say I actually really like the look of Ubisofts new Star Wars game too. And I know all signs point to cancelled but we were also getting a night's of the old Republic remake.
Silent hill also has a few studios working on projects.
It is nice to have those options open too. Especially given the wealth of characters and stories within the X-Men

[purple101]

I kinda feel you. We had Spider-Man we had ratchet and I was looking forward to something totally new

[purple101]

2 xmen plus wolverine
So 3.

And noones gonna develop them faster than the team that doesn’t sleep

[Brazz]

Só, for like 2 or 3 games? Good for Playstation.

[RupeeHoarder]

This would be a big move if true.

[Hofstaderman]

Really want that XMEN game. I would go ape if its an Age of Apocalypse setting.

[anast]

This is good, because MS would just turn it in to a mobile-game pass fodder.

[Petebloodyonion]

Just curious about one thing regarding the logic of certain N4G members regarding this matter.
If it's okay for Sony to secure some Marvel IP because they are developing the game from scratch via a bought Studio

then why was it such a big issue when MS announced Indiana Jones Xbox exclusivity for an UNKNOWN and yet-to-be-developed game?

[Einhander1972]

No one cares about Indiana Jones, people object to Microsoft buying whole publishers.

And just for clarity, it wasn't unknown it was known before Microsoft bought them.

[Petebloodyonion]

The game was announced after MS intent into buying Bethesda and just before MS fully acquire the publisher so please tell me the huge difference with MS funding the game for an unknown game we have yet to see a screenshot and Sony funding a game we have yet to see a screenshot and if Nobody cared about Indiana then why would see tons of comments in story like this:
https://n4g.com/news/255660...

Again I undertand the frustration when a game is finished and canned due to studio purchase or exclusivity deal, but here both IP have a none existant game that we know nothing about and dev are currently working on.

[Einhander1972]

In you're original comment your trying to compare Indiana Jones to Sony having some Marvel games exclusive to their platform.

But you're doing the same false equivalency, the issue is that Microsoft bought the publisher making the game.

Again it was known that Zenimax had secured rights to an Indiana Jones game before it was officially announced by Microsoft.

[ChasterMies]

A Cyclops VR game would be amazing.

[FernDiggidy]

There's absolutely no reason to own an xbox. PC, PS5, Switch is the best combo.

[gold_drake]

didnt MS say no to a deal?

i mean, good for sony. if ms didnt want it, why should sony say no

[jambola]

maybe some day n4g will have some dignity and care enough to allow us to filter content so we don't see leaks
probably not, but I can hope

[InUrFoxHole]

Exclusives are good again boys!

[Profchaos]

Watching the leaked footage of wolverine I know it's super early build and there's more than 3 years left in development but I am a little bored by it.

I would prefer insomniac do something else as they have established massively popular IPs in the past like Spyro and ratchet having the team pigeonholed into making super hero games when the genre's popularity is falling off seems like a bad move.

I admit I've got Marvel fatigue and I'm not not looking forward to any future movies etc the only superhero thing that I'm excited for us the boys season 4.

I don't feel like I'm alone

[jwillj2k4]

Wolverine is a character that needs an m rated game. Grittier look and feel, extreme violence mixed in with emotional distress, love interest, blood and guts ala sin city mixed with max Payne. It felt like I was watching a boring play of spiderman and left me with the feeling of passing on the game.

[Profchaos]

Yeah agree big time I know a lot can and will change but it was just spider man 2 reskinned I know they have the more Marvel projects planned but there's also a termination clause that if the game fails to sell X million the two companies part ways and insomniac has to pay a penalty.

I feel superhero fatigue is real and will likely kill this partnership before we see all planned games

[Inverno]

Nightcrawler game pleaaaseee, thnx.

[Becuzisaid]

Don't want a new X-Men game. Just remaster X-Men Legends 2. That's all I need.