Earlier this week there was a trailer for what was supposed to be a pre-built multiplayer Spider-Man Title of Sleepless games leaked online. Called Spider-Man: The Big Web, the multiplayer spin-off would have allowed for a number of iterations of the character to work together against crime and ultimately the Sinister Six. Insomniac’s Peter Parker (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal) was the trailer’s narrator and appeared to be the game’s central Spider-Man, but was joined in the action by others such as Scarlet Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099 and Spider -Gwen. Now another trailer – or rather a different version of the first trailer – has gone online, which explains the concept of the “Great Web” in more detail.
Although the first leak gave us a glimpse of the core concept – seemingly Insomniac’s take on the Spider-Verse popularized by the recent Sony animated films – all we really got were glimpses of alternate realities, like Spider-Man Noir’s dimension. This second trailer, which largely follows the same script, deviates significantly as it attempts to explain the Great Web and lay out its role in the story. Lowenthal’s narrative encapsulates the now familiar multiverse idea, saying, “You know the Great Web? The interdimensional connection of life and fate that connects all of us spider lovers? A few of us here tried to protect it…but we couldn’t.”
The “collapse” of the Great Web appears to have been caused by the activities of the Sinister Six and would have set the game’s narrative in motion. Speaking of which, the Sinister Six are shown with a slightly different lineup in the second trailer, suggesting that Insomniac may have been wavering between ideas for the final group as they finalized the concept. For example, although the first trailer features Vulture among the villains, the lineup at the end of the second trailer suggests that he has been replaced by Miles Morales’ uncle and villain, the Prowler, or vice versa. As Insomniac worked on the game and considered where in the series’ chronology it could take place, the lineup was likely in flux.
This last point about Prowler and the timeline brings me to another thing the second trailer seems to be landing on: it doesn’t look like the Sinister Six The big web are exactly the same as what players faced at the end of 2018 Marvel’s Spider-Man. Instead, it seems far more likely that some of the villains emerged from the Great Web, much like the “Spider friends” who join Peter from Insomniac in his reality. Their presence appears to be the cause of the instability that threatens the Big Net and that players would try to contain throughout the game. We are doing a Spider-Man: No Way Homeher!
Now that the title appears to have been discontinued, we’re left to speculate about what might happen with many of the developments The big web. For example, the portals we see in both trailers appear to be almost a copy of the ones we saw in Spider Man 2is huge Black Cat sequenceas well as technology seen in another Insomniac game, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. We know that the games don’t shy away from addressing the multiverse Spider Man 2‘S miniature In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse last year, and a side quest in the game even explicitly references the films. Given the colliding visions of the multiverse, that’s entirely possible The big webThe concept of Insomniac was incorporated into the existing Spider-Verse for cohesion and is later revisited in one of Insomniac’s SequelsSpin-offs and upcoming titles detailed in a Hack last year.
In addition, the fact that a cooperative Spider-Man The title has ever been in operation, suggesting that its multiplayer functionality could be integrated into a potential Spider Man 3 instead of starting as a standalone game. Technology is often developed for games that never see the light of day, but it seems like a waste The big web as a proof of concept that is never pursued further. Especially given the number of multiplayer games that the Insomniac hack has revealed, there is reason to believe that it is an idea or game that Insomniac will return to at some point in the future.
In any case, both trailers indicate a thoroughly developed concept that is unlikely to see the light of day. Although the trailers have leaked, neither Insomniac nor Sony have said anything about the game, meaning it’s difficult to figure out why it was supposedly canceled. It could be that the recent layoffs across Sony’s portfolio of the studios impacted the team working on the title, forcing it to close. It could be that the project was greenlit, prototyped, and worked on until the developers made it happen didn’t quite fit together. It could be that Sony has seen the live service bubble burst in recent years and pulled the plug to avoid potential losses. Think about how expensive Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Was needs to be developed and marketed and has still not broken even despite huge sales, it could be that the publisher is simply reluctant to saturate the market with another title only to end up in a similar place.
The reasons for this The big web‘s cancellations are extensive and, annoyingly, unknown for now. Now we can only hope that part of the project continues and that the closure does not affect the well-being of the developers working on it.
