You’d think it impossible, given that he’s one of the most popular superheroes of all time, but Spider-Man almost didn’t make the cut for Marvel’s Avengers.
For Xbox and PC gamers, of course, the web-slinger may as well not have been announced earlier this week. According to Crystal Dynamics head Scot Amos, Sony’s supposedly close relationship with the character’s creator means that Spidey will only show up in PlayStation versions of Marvel’s Avengers, with there being little likelihood of him making the jump to different platforms in the future, considering that his only other recent appearance in the medium (Spider-Man PS4) remains a first-party exclusive.
Disappointing news for anyone without a PS4, then, but according to Vince Napoli, Peter Parker’s alter ego almost never made it into any version of the game. Speaking to GamesRadar in a recent interview, Napoli said:
We had a full roster already in progress of all the heroes we were going to release, plans for years in advance, and certainly all the ones we’ve currently got underway […] And then we added Spider-Man as well. I remember the first time it was discussed, it was like ‘Hey, what if we just did Spider-Man also?’ And I was like, ‘Is that a joke? Are you guys kidding? Is that for fun? Are we actually serious?”
Further on in the article, Napoli discusses how deciding to add Spider-Man so late into Marvel’s Avengers‘ development was a difficult task and that, despite him only being available on one family of consoles, it required just as much time to get right as any of the other existing cast members. “There’s no savings there,” he says, matter-of-factly.
The outcome is bittersweet for many, no doubt, but even those who intend to pick up Marvel’s Avengers on September 4th won’t be able to use the wall-crawler for some time, as he isn’t scheduled to be released until 2021. Hawkeye, on the other hand, will be available to everyone, regardless of platform, when he arrives post-launch.