Summary

• The cancelation of Spider-Man: The Great Web disappointed some fans, but Insomniac's decision may have been right.
• The leaked trailers show a multiversal storyline with the Sinister Six as main villains, and players taking on different Spider-personas.
• Insomniac's shift to live-service games could impact the studio's output and potentially oversaturate the Spider-Man series.

Following the leaks for Insomniac's canceled online petitions to bring it back, Insomniac and Sony's decision may have been the right call.

[WARNING: This article contains some story Insomniac was hacked by the group Rhysida in December 2023. Rhysida acquired over a terabyte of internal company data, covering all of the games the studio had in development, including the announced Marvel's Wolverine and several others that had yet to be revealed, along with personal information about some of the company's staff. Rhysida demanded 50 bitcoins - which is the equivalent of roughly $2 million - and gave the studio a seven-day deadline to pay, but released the files after Insomniac and Sony didn't bow to these demands.

Spider-Man: The Great Web Would Have Had 5-Player Co-Op

With The Sinister Six As Main Villains

In the two short trailers that were shared by okangel12345 and danoka29 on the insomniacleaks Subreddit, players got a greater idea of what Spider-Man: The Great Web's story would have been and which spider-people would have been involved. Yuri Lowenthal's Peter Parker narrates both trailers, explaining the main concept of the Great Web.

The roster of playable heroes shown in Spider-Man: The Great Web's trailers consisted of a symbiote-enhanced Peter Parker and Miles Morales' Spider-Man, Gwen Stacy (a.k.a. Ghost Spider), Ben Reilly (a.k.a. Scarlet Spider), and the Spider-Man from 2099, Miguel O'Hara. Cindy Moon's Silk - who was teased in the end-credits scene for Marvel's Spider-Man 2 - and other Spider-Women were shown in concept art along with Madame Web in a slideshow presentation for the title. While it's unlikely the latter would have been playable, she would have likely acted as a guide to the multiverse.

The trailers appeared to be a proof of concept rather than a look at the completed title, as it used current assets and animations from Marvel's Spider-Man 2 for most of the Spider-Men, with the notable addition of Gwen Stacy's Ghost Spider.

In the first trailer, this narration discusses assembling a group of heroes to stop a supervillain prison break, name-dropping a more "methodical" and "savage" version of the Sinister Six as the main villains of the game. The second trailer seemed to focus on the multiversal angle, with Peter saying "You know the Great Web? The inter-dimensional nexus of life and destiny that connects all us Spider-pals together? A few of us here tried to protect it…but we failed." which suggests that the heroes have explored the multiverse before this title.

The gameplay sequences showed the heroes moving between universes and areas of New York through a series of interdimensional portals. These portals resembled the design of Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, but functioned like the ones shown in Marvel's Spider-Man 2's Black Cat chase, which built upon the rift mechanic used in Insomniac's Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart that optimized the PlayStation 5's hardware (both titles were exclusive to the current-gen console) for instant switching of levels and environments.

How Would The Great Web Fit Into Insomniac's Established Storyline?

Several Elements Don't Match Up With Spider-Man 2's Story

It's unclear how Spider-Man: The Great Web would tie into Insomniac's established storyline, as Peter Parker is shown still wearing his black symbiote suit, but several villains who appear in the game's version of the Sinister Six would have been killed by Kraven by this point, and Harry Osborn wouldn't have become Venom until after Peter removes the symbiote.

The Sinister Six shown in The Great Web's first trailer was the same as the one in Marvel's Spider-Man, which consisted of Doc Ock, Mr. Negative, Vulture, Shocker, Scorpion, and Electro, but The Great Web swapped out Mr. Negative for Venom, which could have aligned with Martin Li's redemption arc at the end of Marvel's Spider-Man 2. In the second trailer, Prowler was also shown as a potential villain in the roster, which wouldn't match up with his arc across Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 where he gives up his life of crime after being inspired by his nephew's heroic actions.

Mysterio also appeared several times in trailers and the pitch, suggesting he would have played a larger role, potentially going against his arc in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 as well.

The concept of the multiverse was introduced in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 via the Spider-bot collectibles, which ended with players meeting Delilah, a character who was cut from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and mentioned the leader of the Spider-Society in that film, Miguel O'Hara by name. Anything is possible when exploring the multiverse, so Spider-Man: The Great Web may have taken inspiration from Spider-Man: No Way Home and decided to include different versions of the villains from the other heroes' universes, which would make this story slightly more standalone.

Insomniac Becoming A Live-Service Studio Could Have Impacted Its Output

The Studio Has Been Responsible For Many Of PlayStation's Exclusives In Recent Years

A full pitch presentation shared by danoka29 on the aforementioned Subreddit further revealed the kind of title Spider-Man: The Great Web would have been, describing it as a "AAA Multiplayer, Open-World Action Adventure" and "Marvel's Spider-Man meets GTA Online" with the intent to be the ultimate Spider-Man sandbox. Players would also have been able to customize their spider-persona to make it their own, as demonstrated by Miles wearing a gold mask with a biker jacket in one image.

The slideshow went on to show "Seasons" such as "Madness of Mysterio", showing that Insomniac was developing the title as a live-service game. While fans did seem to like the trailer, it's unclear how such a model would have been received by Spider-Man players when put into practice. Marvel's main rival, DC, recently attempted to convert its acclaimed single-player Batman: Arkham series into a live-service model with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which underperformed, potentially dooming that series if Warner Bros. Discovery opts to cancel future seasons before it could tell its story due to its lack of players.

The Marvel's Spider-Man games have been hugely profitable for Sony, but a live-service title could easily oversaturate the series with constant seasonal events, making a future mainline single-player title such as Marvel's Spider-Man 3 feel less of an event. Maintaining such a title would also consume a huge amount of Insomniac's resources, which could reduce its output elsewhere, especially with Marvel's Wolverine, which could tie into an X-Men series, and Ratchet and Clank.

Another of PlayStation's first-party studios, Naughty Dog, canceled its live-service The Last of Us game, which was intended as a much larger version of the first game's popular Factions multiplayer mode for a similar reason, stating that the company would rather tell more of its acclaimed single-player, story-driven games rather than becoming live service studio. Over the years, Insomniac has also proven its strengths lie in telling cinematic single-player narratives, so it would be a shame to see them forced to put this aside to focus on ing a live service title like Spider-Man: The Great Web.