Brian Horton, the former Creative Director for Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Wolverine is no longer part of the project and has moved on to become the Creative Director for Xbox’s upcoming Perfect Dark game.
Brian Horton via GDC 2025 YouTube
According to Stephen Totilo at Game File, Horton left Marvel’s Wolverine over the summer after being with the project since 2021. With Horton out, Insomniac replaced him with Marcus Smith as the Creative Director. Mike Daly is the new Game Director.
Cameron Christian, who was previously serving as Game Director will remain at Insomniac but in a different role.
Totilo claims these moves “are the result of creative decisions around the game.”
A screenshot from Marvel’s Wolverine (TBA), Insomniac Games
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Interestingly enough the timing of these decisions also appears to match up when Sweet Baby Inc. defender Mary Kenney, who was an Associate Narrative Director working on Marvel’s Wolverine, announced she left the project and joined CD Projekt Red.
Kenney posted on LinkedIn back in early July, “Without further ado, it’s time to announce my new job! Today was my first day as a senior writer at CD Projekt Red (best known for The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077).”
She added, “I can’t wait to talk more about my project, I’m thrilled to be getting back into RPGs, and my team is talented, welcoming, and just flat-out cool. Here’s to a new adventure.”
Mary Kenney on LinkedIn
Before this announcement, Kenney had made it clear in an interview with Dual Shockers her main goal in the video game industry was to push pride themes in games.
Commenting on a GLAAD report bemoaning the lack of pride characters in video games, Kenney said, “The GLAAD report tells us something key – games are a way for LGBTQ people to socialize. But it also tells us something heartbreaking: that LGBTQ gamers don’t feel that developers are thinking of them when they design games.”
Kenney added, “There are so many LGBTQ developers, and we want what players want – to design experiences that tell the player we’re here, we’re important, and we belong.”
In order to obtain this, she declared, “We need to pull every lever we have. Characters, community support, mechanics, to make it so.”
Mary Keneny via The Genuine Chit-Chat Podcast YouTube
Furthermore, these changes come as Insomniac Games revealed that it would not be creating any additional story content for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 in the wake of the game’s sales being over 50% worse than Marvel’s Spider-Man.
In a blog post on Marvel.com, Insomniac Games and Marvel Games shared, “While we have no additional story content planned for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, we’re delighted to bring all of our previously released post-launch content to the PC version, including New Game+, new suits and color variants, Photo Mode features, and more!”
A screenshot from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (2023), Insomniac Games
As noted above, the announcement comes in the wake of Sony revealing that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 sold less than half of what Marvel’s Spider-Man did. In a recent Sony financial report for its Games & Network Services Segment a slide featuring Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 claims, “Great success for a major PlayStation Studios game series and category.”
It also revealed the game only sold over 11 million units.
A screenshot of Sony’s Game & Network Services Segment document
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While 11 million units might seem like a “great success,” one can only view it as a massive failure given Sony sales data that was leaked to ResetEra at the end of 2023 revealed that the 2018 game Marvel’s Spider-Man sold 22.685 million units and net sales totaled $827 million.
Even the 2020 Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales game sold 11.125 million copies and had net sales totaling $427 million.
Leaked Sony sales data
On top of all this, Sweet Baby Inc. revealed it was working on Marvel’s Wolverine back in 2021.
The company posted to X, “*THWIP!* (and also *SNIKT!*) SO excited and grateful to say we’re part of the teams bringing Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine to life with the amazing folks at Insomniac Games. It’s been a truly Marvel-ous experience.”
Sweet Baby Inc. on X
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While Horton is no longer on Marvel’s Wolverine, Totilo revealed he has become the new Creative Director for Perfect Dark, which is being developed by The Initiative.
An Xbox spokesman told Totilo that Horton is “bringing his wealth of experience to the upcoming reboot of the classic secret agent series.”
A screenshot of Joanna Dark from Perfect Dark (2024), The Initiative
What do you make of Horton exiting Marvel’s Wolverine around the same time as Kenney?
