With the E3 2016 slowly coming to an end, the entertainment world is coming to terms with the news of the PS4 exclusive Spider-Man being developed by the prestigious Insomniac Studios.
According to Jay Ong, Marvel's vice president of games, "Spider-Man" is just the beginning for Marvel's ambitious plan to bring her superheroes to the video game world.
"When I joined Marvel two years ago, I came in with a mandate to usher in a new era for Marvel Games," Ong told Polygon in an interview. "We have a treasure trove of the best superhero characters on earth. What can we do with this to create truly epic games?
"Is [Spider-Man] a signal of things to come? Oh, yes. Absolutely. And we can’t wait to tell the world about it."
Despite Marvel Games' focus being the mobile (Contest of Champions, Future Fight etc.) and PC (Marvel Heroes), Marvel still had not reached to the point of prestige the Batman: Arkham series had, but a lot is being done to remedy that.
While Ong says that there are a lot of things he couldn't talk about for Marvel Games' plans, there are existing partnerships with Telltale Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Warner Bros.' TT Games to make video games based on Marvel's IPs, with a lot more to be heard from in the coming year. The VP also states that Marvel right now works with only the best game developers in the business, the ones that share the passion for the House of Ideas' Heroes and Villains, despite being very choosy about the teams.
"One of the things we really focus on in terms of our new strategy is that we all believe that great games drive the brand and great games are what our fans really deserve," Ong said. "The question is, 'How we can get there?' The thing we landed on is to be really selective with who we partner with. Extremely selective. Right now I would say that out of every 10 opportunities we look at, we maybe do one."
"What we look at first and foremost is the talent level of partner," he said. "Are they world class in building the games we're talking about? They have to have world-class talent. They have to be able to invest the resources to make that talent sing. Equally important is, do they have passion for the IP they're working on? Do they share the same ambition? Do they love the character? We look for passion, that comes through in the first 30 seconds.
"One of our mantras is authenticity; it's easy to make a game with Spider-Man on the label, but it's much harder to make it truly authentic in a way that reflects Peter Parker, the character." Insomniac Games and Spider-Man creative director Bryan Intihar, Ong said, has that quality..
What do you think? Is there a Marvel Video Game Universe being started with the launch of Spider-Man? Knowing Marvel's dedicated approach, it would not be out of realm.
To read more about Marvel's past ventures into video games such as the old Spider-Man titles, the attraction of Spider-Man:Homecoming (unrelated to the Title) and more, hit the jump at Polygon.com!