It looks like we can expect Insomniac’s prodigious output on PlayStation 5 to continue.
According to YouTuber MAGGShow, the studio will release Marvel’s Venom in 2026, to be followed by Marvel’s Wolverine in 2027. The Wolverine game that was prematurely revealed as a result of the Insomniac leaks still isn’t quite ready to be released, but there’s another reason the Venom game is coming first.
According to MAGG’s sources, Marvel’s Venom will be bigger than Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales but smaller than Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Since Insomniac went with a completely new direction for their AU OC Venom, it stands to reason that they’re giving their vision of this character a spinoff game, and it may not necessarily be a full scale AAA. This would be an opportunity for Insomniac to tie up some loose ends from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, as well as set things up for Marvel’s Spider-Man 3, when Insomniac does get around to releasing that.
Small spoiler here: Fans who actually played Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 now that they got to briefly play as Venom there as well, so this project won’t be as expensive to make as starting a new game from scratch. This will be a particular relief to the people at Insomniac, because Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 famously went over budget at $ 315 million, making it so that even their record breaking launch sales records was not enough to meet Insomniac’s and Sony’s expectations.
Marvel’s Wolverine has also been conspicuous in negative ways, as we have seen reports of various high level staff leaving the project. In what is certainly an omen of poor providence, its original creative director left Insomniac to be the head of the now-cancelled Perfect Dark reboot. But that wasn’t the only staffer who voluntarily left Insomniac Games.
Unfortunately, Insomniac was also one of many Sony studios that were the subject of 900 layoffs from within PlayStation last year. Both these games may have taken a little longer in the oven than intended because of this drop in headcount, but at least this rumor is a positive sign that they are still capable of delivering games. Rumors of a Venom spinoff game date to 2023, so it’s credible that Insomniac was working on this expansion/side story in that amount of time, and they just need a few more months to get it to the finish line.
You can watch MAGG’s video below, where he also shares personal speculation about a potential Marvel’s Spider-Man 3.
