Out of all the topics to start off on for this site, I didn’t think I would be starting off on a “Console War” article so soon… Keep in mind as we go through this: my thought on the whole “console wars” is something I could care less about. If you play on PlayStation, you’re going to stick with PlayStation and vice versa about Xbox One. You’re not going to convince one side to go to the other. Nor will you do that if you’re calling the person you’re trying to convince an idiot in the process. But here we are, so let’s talk about Spider-Man.
For those who might not be aware, it was recently announced that Spider-Man will be coming to Avengers in Early 2021 as extra content.
That’s all fine and good, but there is a slight issue with this. Spider-Man is going to come to the PlayStation 4. If you are someone who is planning on picking up Avengers on Xbox One or PC, you’re out of luck.
Who owns Spider-Man?
Now, my feelings on this are a touch mixed for a variety of reasons. On one hand, kind of seems obvious why Spider-Man would be exclusive to the PlayStation version. It is another though that people seem to be getting upset or excited for all the wrong reasons. To start off let’s get the obvious main issue out of the way: Who owns Spider-Man? It would be easy to point to Sony because they did buy the rights to Spider-Man back in 1999, but that in itself was the film rights. Meanwhile, if Spider-Man appears in comics, that is still Marvel (and by extension, Disney).
But then… What about Video Games. Truly Spider-Man belongs to Sony too, and thus we will never see Spider-Man on other platforms, right? WRONG!
Again, did you catch that number I tossed out a moment ago? 1999? Call me crazy, but what platforms did Spider-man game based on the first movie come out on? Yeah, it was on the PlayStation 2, but it was also on GameCube and Xbox.
If Sony were really the bad guys here, that would be looking at about ten Spider-Man games between 2002 to now that shouldn’t have been multiplatform. And that’s not even taking into account all the other titles containing Spider-Man’s likeness. The various Lego games, the Marvel vs Capcom games, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and so forth.
Even the PS4 exclusive Spider-Man (2019) was a game that had to get approval by Marvel Games to happen and Insomniac Games got the green light to proceed. And the game we got was hands down the best Spider-Man game ever.
Why should we care then?
So here’s where I do have to draw the line in the sand. The idea of “exclusive content” on a platform isn’t anything new. I can point towards the various examples over the years of games that happened to have “a special exclusive fighter only on this platform!” and no one batted an eye. Link in Soul Calibur 2, Kratos in Mortal Kombat, Cole in Street Fighter x Tekken, you name it. But Spider-Man? Yeah, much like how Batman is the face of DC, Spider-Man is the face of Marvel. So much so that you can say there was a specific reason why Sony wanted the rights to Spider-Man on film even back at the turn of the millennium. Why take such an iconic character and turn around and say “Well, sucks to be on PC or Xbox One…” in one fell swoop?
Well… From how I see it, the better question to ask is this: Why should you even care about Spider-Man? Don’t get me wrong, the idea of Spider-Man being exclusive to one platform is dumb and shouldn’t be happening like this. Yet, my complaints are about how it goes much further than on the surface. Back when we saw Avengers coming to PS4 and Xbox One, we were being sold on the game to play as heroes like Ironman, Hulk, Black Widow, and so forth. Who was not apart of that lineup? Hell, the better point to make is how even Antman and Hawkeye got confirmed to be in Avengers before Spider-Man. And you know what? I was on board with the game.
Do you really mean to say that if you weren’t planning on getting Avengers next month, Spider-Man was going to be the character to finally sell you on it? And keep in mind too this isn’t “Sony’s Spider-Man,” or “Insomniac’s Spider-Man,” this is “Crystal Dynamic’s Spider-Man.” And chances are that the character will be as fun to play like the others. But, if people are expecting Spider-Man to play exactly like he did in the 2018 game, they are going to be in for a very rude awakening.
In conclusion…
The fact that this is being used as some tactic to say “SONY WINS! PAY RESPECTS TO XBOX LOSERS! LuLz,” is as stupid as I made that sentence out to be. If you were already sold on getting Avengers next month, Spider-Man isn’t going to do much. Either he will be just another character to play as or extra content that you won’t get to touch. Not to mention if Avengers fails to grab people’s attention, they will get rid of their copy before Spider-Man actually drops. Meanwhile, those who are trying to make this about “Console Wars” are likely those who aren’t even going to throw money to buy this game in the first place. And who could blame them? Why wait for Early 2021 to play as Spider-Man if you can buy the game right now and then Miles Morales later on the PlayStation 5?
If I decide to start doing personal reviews on this site (which I would consider doing), I would likely judge the game for what content it has in the version I play rather than feel like I lost out because I didn’t get the full experience as others on the supposed “superior” version. Let’s just hope Avengers itself is worthwhile because if it isn’t, Spider-Man being only on the PlayStation 4 will be the least of their concerns.
But what do you think? Should Spider-Man be multiplatform? Did Sony cut a deal with Crystal Dynamics to have Spider-Man appear solely on PlayStation? Leave your thoughts and be sure to follow me here at Mad MAS Gaming as I will likely be following up on Avengers when it comes out on September 4.
As a quick side note, feel free to also leave your thoughts on the layout of my article. I know there is still a lot of cleaning up the site needs, so I’m open to any ideas or suggestions. I definitely know I have to clean the page up if I want to make this work, but heck knows I’m hitting the ground running here… Take care everyone and stay safe. ^__^
Mad MAS Gaming 