The head of Marvel Games revealed that back in 2014 he approached both Sony and Microsoft to release Marvel games on consoles, although Microsoft turned down the offer.
Recently, it became known that Marvel discussed a possible partnership on publishing its IPs with both Microsoft and Sony. Executive VP and head of Marvel Games Jay Ong revealed it in the History of Video Games book volume 2 which was published back in 2021, but quotes from it began to spread online only at the end of May 2022.
The book reads that after the hire as Marvel's vice president of games in May 2014, Jay Ong was tasked with translating Marvel's box office success to games. He had to find reliable and talented partners capable of creating successful games for existing franchises and "who hadn't adopted the 'crappy licensed games' mentality."
According to Ong, only three companies fit the description he wanted: Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. However, Nintendo was developing the games based on its own IPs, so Ong approached the other two companies with an offer.
Although prior to the Sony deal, Marvel cooperated with Activision which, with the exception of 2003, released at least one Spider-Man game a year, so Marvel had to approach the company to terminate the contract early. Ong noted that the negotiations went through saying it was a "mutually beneficial deal".
"When we shook hands on it, they asked, 'So what are you going to do with this IP after you get it back?' I said, 'I'm going to find a better home for it.' They replied, 'Good luck finding your unicorn.'," Ong said.
Insomniac was a great choice for developing Spider-Man games, especially taking into account that the studio's most recent game at the time was Sunset Overdrive which was a fast-paced game that featured an acrobatic style of combat that could be adapted for a Spider-Man game.
Sony acquired Insomniac Games after the successful Marvel's Spider-Man. Later, the developer released a Miles Morales spin-off, and currently it is working on two new projects: a Spider-Man sequel and a separate game about Wolverine.
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