Summer Game Fest gave us a new look at Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and revealed the release date for the game, as well as our first looks at Venom in-game and the box art.
After the lack of a release date at the PlayStation Showcase a couple of weeks ago, Insomniac Games Creative director Bryan Intihar appeared alongside Geoff Keighley during the Summer Games Fest Showcase, and revealed that the Marvel's Spider-Man 2 release date is officially October 20, 2023. October has become even more of a nemesis to our free time (and our wallets) as the October 20, 2023 release date places Marvel's Spider-Man 2 right alongside Alan Wake 2 and Assassin's Creed Mirage.
While there wasn't any new gameplay shown from the game, the box art for the game was revealed, looking very similar to the original game's art, but now featuring Miles Morales alongside a Symbiote infested Peter Parker. We also got our first look at Venom in-game with Inithar confirming that the version of Venom appearing in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 won't be the typical host of the Symbiote Eddie Brock, but neglected to mention the identity of this new Venom (It's probably Harry Osborn though).
Inithar also reiterated that the game would be significantly larger allowing our favourite Spider-Men to explore even more areas of New York. Insomniac Games took to Twitter to let everyone who wasn't watching know the good news, and included a look at the games pre-order bonus including new suits for Peter and Miles: the Arachknight suit and Shadow-Spider Suit respectively.
What's up danger
I mentioned Marvel's Spider-Man 2 launching so close to other games as a problem, but this is going to be the game of October. Even as someone with first-party PlayStation fatigue Spider-Man eclipses any of that. Even as someone who personally doesn't care for Venom all that much, I trust Insomniac Games, especially since Inithar specifically went out of the way to mention they wanted a new take on the character.
Inithar went into a bit more detail about Kraven the Hunter, specifically mentioning how Kraven is a unique character for the studio as he's got no magic or hi-tech abilities, he's just an amazing hunter. Kraven is one of the very best Spider-Man villains (even if he's sadly never made a film adaption), and if Insomniac Games is looking to adapt the Kraven's Last Hunt storyline from the comics, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 could be something extremely special.
