Marvel's Spider-Man 2 on PS5 Might Even Be Bigger Than the Next God of War
The current collective hype surrounding the PlayStation 5 and Sony first-party games is through the roof. Not only is the PlayStation 5 the fastest-selling gaming console in U.S. history, but people are eating up anything and everything coming to the console in terms of games. For good reason too, the PS5's current library is full of smash hits from studios that fans have been expecting hits from. As more and more first-party studios release games, however, PS5 owners are looking to the studios with things to come. That gaze usually ends up on both Insomniac Games and Santa Monica Studio.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and the sequel to 2018's God of War are two of Sony Interactive Entertainment's most anticipated games that the public knows virtually nothing about. It's been clear since Spider-Man and God of War released back in 2018 to critical and commercial success that fans wanted more and their respective studios were planning on giving that to them. Sony will eventually share more information on the games, but before it does, there's a good possibility that, despite the massive excitement surrounding the next God of War, Spider-Man 2 will be a bigger hit.
It's no secret that people love Spider-Man. Through comics, movies, TV shows and video games, he's become one of the most popular fictional characters ever made. This can be reflected in the gaming world by the fact that Insomniac's Spider-Man broke all sorts of records for Sony Interactive Entertainment when it launched. Just about any solid game featuring the web-head is almost guaranteed to be a hit. While not a full-length sequel, Spider-Man: Miles Morales was able to continue showing off the character's popularity, selling 4.1 million units in just two months of 2020.
God of War 2018's sales were nothing to scoff at and also broke records for Sony when it released; however, its sales records were the ones broken by Spider-Man later in the year. While its sales numbers were impressive and it was championed as another excellent addition to the PlayStation exclusive games club, Kratos just isn't as popular as Spider-Man. This isn't the fault of Santa Monica Studio or even Sony; it's just that Spider-Man has such a history across all forms of media that it would be challenging for any character to catch up.
In addition to the general widespread popularity of Spider-Man, Insomniac Games has much wider mainstream appeal than Santa Monica Studio and has been consistently putting out games every few years since the original PlayStation. While some of its games and series have 'M' ratings from the ESRB, it's recently been focusing on 'T' rated games that have more wide appeal. Santa Monica Studio, on the other hand, has mostly focused on the hyper-violent 'M' rated God of War series.
Since 2018's Spider-Man, Insomniac has released Spider-Man: Miles Morales to great critical and commercial success and is gearing up for the release of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart which is likely to be one of the PS5's largest summer blockbusters. It's still to be seen how successful critically and commercially Rift Apart will be, but if it's received as well as Miles Morales was, then the studio might be cemented as one of Sony's all-time greats. By continuing to put out quality titles at a more frequent rate than Santa Monica Studio, Insomniac is continuing to set up Spider-Man 2 for success over the untitled God of War sequel.
At the end of the day, both are set to be great games from great franchises by great studios, and sales numbers and popularity won't change that fact. Just because Spider-Man outsold God of War doesn't make God of War any less excellent. The follow-up to God of War will most likely outsell the 2018 series reboot and it may even outsell Insomniac's first Spider-Man game, but as with everything else, it seems like there's always a bigger dog. Spider-Man, in the current media frenzy, is that dog.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 has still yet to be announced.
Post a Comment