Marvel's Spider-Man is a series of action-adventure video games developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation consoles and Microsoft Windows. Based on characters appearing in Marvel Comics publications, the games are inspired by the long-running comic book lore, while additionally deriving from various adaptations in other media. The series principally follows protagonists Peter Parker and Miles Morales, who fight crime in New York City as Spider-Men while dealing with the complications of their civilian lives.
Marvel Games entered negotiations with SIE regarding developing third party games based on their characters, leading to frequent collaborative studio Insomniac Games being selected to acquire the license for the Spider-Man character from Activision in 2014. The series began with Marvel's Spider-Man and its subsequent downloadable content (DLC) expansion The City That Never Sleeps, which was released on the PlayStation 4 in late 2018; the game and its DLC were later collected together and released as a remastered version for the PlayStation 5 in November 2020 and Windows in August 2022. A direct spin-off title, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, was released on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in November 2020 alongside Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, with a Windows port released in November 2022. A sequel to the original game and the Miles Morales spin-off, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, was released for the PlayStation 5 in October 2023,
The series is also supported by other standalone titles which share the same continuity with the Spider-Man games. Marvel's Wolverine, developed by Insomniac Games and focused on the titular character, is currently in development for the PlayStation 5.
The currently released main entries in the Marvel's Spider-Man series have been met with positive commercial success and critical acclaim, with praise for their narratives, characters, voice acting, graphics, and gameplay. Various tie-in novels by Titan Books and comic books published by Marvel Comics have been released, expanding the games' universe. Insomniac's version of Peter Parker also appears in the comic book event Spider-Geddon (2018), which designated the series as taking place on "Earth-1048" in the larger Marvel Comics multiverse. Parker also appears in the animated film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) in a cameo role, with Yuri Lowenthal briefly reprising his role.
Conception and development
Video games featuring Marvel Comics characters were primarily developed and published by Activision since 1998, with the character Spider-Man appearing in multiple titles both as the primary playable character and as a supporting character since 2000. However, as Marvel Games vice president Jay Ong would come to reflect on in 2016, the terms of Marvel and Activision's deal necessitated quicker development periods on games in order to tie such products into upcoming films based around Marvel properties. Ong would reminisce about how it was "difficult to succeed" under those circumstances as a result of instances where "there wasn't enough time to come out with something truly terrific". Dissatisfied with the eventual output of the publisher, Marvel Games would elect to terminate their partnership with Activision in 2014 just prior to the release of the movie tie-in game, The Amazing Spider-Man 2. During a meeting with executives from the publishing firm, Ong would be asked by Activision, "What are you going to do with this IP after you get it back?". Ong would cite a need to "find a better home for it" in response, with the publisher's representative taunting him in return, "Good luck finding your unicorn".