"With great power comes great responsibility."

With the weight of expectation on game studio Insomniac Games ahead of their much-heralded launch of their new Spider-Man game, it's understandable why their community manager James Stevenson utters this infamous line from the comics and films during our chat.

The day after we meet for the interview, James will be thrown off Auckland's Sky Tower to celebrate the end of the press tour which has seen him visit seven countries in 20 days. It seems a fitting way to farewell the global grind, given the titular web-slinger spends much of his time vicariously vaulting from building-to-building, crawling and flying through the New York skyline while dispatching as many quips as he does baddies.

"I don't even know how to gauge it, this is the biggest thing we've ever worked on; it could well be the biggest game Insomniac's worked on, so it's kind of hard to focus. It just seems gigantic," he admits as release date nears, clearly the reality sinking in of what being part of such a big property conjures up to those behind beloved PlayStation icons, Ratchet and Clank and Spyro The Dragon.

"Marvel wanted to work with one of the big studios and specifically mentioned us. Sony said 'Hey are you guys interested in working with Marvel?' and we said 'Of course, but what character do they want us to do?' And they were like, 'Oh no, they want you to pick. You guys can have all the choice of which one you want.' It was like 'Oh wow. So huh, ok, that's an overwhelming decision,'" Stevenson recalls, laughing with the kind of childish glee someone has when they're given the keys to the candy store.

Spider-Man was the easy choice ("the one that matched up very well with Insomniac and made most sense with the DNA of the games we've made, the types of games we make, the kinds of stories we tell, the character we felt closest to") and work began in earnest, with the teams looking at all manner of games and mechanics past and present as inspiration and to see what worked, and what fell flat.

Stevenson won't be drawn on whether there'll be a sequel to this game ("we're just focussing on that extra DLC right now," he adds coyly) but says the studio's been stunned by the high level of pre-orders, insisting it's all "very flattering people would put their money and faith in us already."

More Here: https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/games/106205069/with-great-power-comes-great-responsibility--the-burden-of-making-a-spidey-video-game

Advertising is also ramping up. Who would have thought that fast travel would make for a good marketing campaign? Genius:

Going to be interesting to see how well this performs. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 sold just over 1 Million on all platforms according to VGChartz. Going back to Spider-Man: The Movie, VGC has it at almost 8.5 Million across all platforms.

Can Insomniac reach or exceed peek Spider-Man numbers?

Will Disney put all AAA Marvel titles Exclusively on PlayStation if this goes well?

I think seeing where this goes will be just as fun as the game itself.

Well liked studio, thats rideing a "high" (when was its last bad game?).
AAA levels of effort, into a big IP like Spiderman.

It was bound to do well, and have good preorders.

I don't think there has ever been so much hype around a Spider-Man game, this game is going to be huge. I would bet over 10 million

reall curious how it will do compared to god of war

I wonder how much does it advertising cost .

yea, I expect the marketing costs to eclipse the dev costs by quite a bit for this title, probably $150m+

I'm one of those preorders. The game looks really great. Can't wait.

That had to feel like Christmas to them. Mentioned by Marvel as one of their top choices, selected by Sony for such a high-profile game, and then given a choice of Marvel properties to work with? Wow. A lot of pressure, too, of course. I'm assuming the planned budget was massive.

I think it was smart of Marvel to allow Sony to handle this project. When it comes to high quality, cutting edge games, it's hard to think of a publisher with a better track record. I know I wouldn't want to hand my important IP to Activision or EA (heh). Ubisoft, maybe, but I wouldn't be crazy about it.

I do wonder if that means Marvel is looking to do the same with other characters. If Spider-man goes well, would that put Sony at the forefront for future projects? Would Marvel want to spread their IP around somewhat? Microsoft hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire as a developer and publisher lately but they have plenty of money and influence and I could see them making a pitch. Actually, a lot of this has probably already been decided and is under way as we speculate.

Wow didn't realize Marvel let them pick the character they wanted to do. Not sure I would have picked Spiderman because he has so many games already but the game still looks amazing.