Sony is attempting to spin the Sweet Baby Inc. influenced Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 as a “great success” despite the game not even selling half of what the original game sold.
A screenshot of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (2023), Insomniac Games
In Sony’s latest 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 reveals the game only sold over 11 million units.
A screenshot of Sony’s Game & Network Services Segment document
While 11 million units might seem like a “great success,” 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
To provide some colour, not even Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania saw its revenues decline by over 50% compared to previous Ant-Man films. The film grossed $463.6 million worldwide. The original film grossed $518.8 million and the sequel did $623.1 million. That’s only a 10% decrease from the first film and a 25.% decrease from the sequel.
Even adjusting for inflation, the first film grossed $663.4 million and the sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp grossed $737.3 million. That’s a decrease of 30% from the first film and 37% from the sequel.
Screenshot of Ant-Man box office grosses adjusted for inflation via The-Numbers.com
So, again, 11 million units is clearly a significant number of sales. However, given the fact that the first game sold 22.685 million units and Spider-Man: Miles Morales sold 11.125 million copies, one would have expected the sequel to potentially have sold even more units than the first game or at least only have a marginal drop. Instead, units sold dropped by over 50%.
That is most definitely not a great success and is more like a big disappointment.
Venom in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (2023), Insomniac Games
In fact, PlayStation Studios head Herman Hulst detailed in February that the company was laying off a significant number of employees at Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 developer Insomniac Games.
He detailed in a blog post there will be reductions at “Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, as well as our Technology, Creative, and Support teams.”
Hulst explained the layoffs, “Delivering the immersive, narrative-driven stories that PlayStation Studios is known for, at the quality bar that we aspire to, requires a re-evaluation of how we operate. Delivering and sustaining social, online experiences – allowing PlayStation gamers to explore our worlds in different ways – as well as launching games on additional devices such as PC and Mobile, requires a different approach and different resources.”
Miles Morales and Spider-Man in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (2023), Insomniac Games
He later added, “We looked at our studios and our portfolio, evaluating projects in various stages of development, and have decided that some of those projects will not move forward. I want to be clear that the decision to stop work on these projects is not a reflection on the talent or passion of team members.”
“Our philosophy has always been to allow creative experimentation. Sometimes, great ideas don’t become great games,” he said. “Sometimes, a project is started with the best intentions before shifts within the market or industry result in a change of plan.”
A screenshot of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (2023), Insomniac Games
What do you make of Sony touting Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 as a “great success?
