After Spider-Man was announced as a PlayStation-exclusive playable character in the upcoming title, Marvel's Avengers, fans were not happy about the web slinger's exclusivity. A developer of Marvel's Avengers has since responded to the criticism seemingly unphased by the backlash and stating that players should not fixate on Spider-Man because more content is to come.
Spider-Man's inclusion in Marvel's Avengers was announced via a PlayStation Blog post written by one of the game's developers. Crystal Dynamics would produce its own sensational take on the spider-themed hero, who will be wall-crawling onto PlayStation copies of Marvel's Avengers exclusively. He would be making his appearance in early 2021 at no additional cost to PlayStation owners, but the announcement that he would be a free hero was not enough to appease Marvel fans.
Related: Marvel's Avengers Will Add Hawkeye & Other Heroes After Launch
According to a Newsweek interview with the head of Crystal Dynamics, Scot Amos, Spider-Man's PlayStation exclusivity is due to Sony's relationship with Marvel. Amos was pointedly asked for his thoughts on the outcry of disgust from gamers on other platforms. Amos' response was a jumble of non-statements that boiled down to him attempting to explain that Sony owning the movie rights to Spider-Man has something to do with his exclusive appearance in Marvel's Avengers. This was followed up by Amos telling fans they should not be angry because there is more content to be announced in the future, stating:
"Dude, we just announced Hawkeye less than a week ago, we have two characters announced within a matter of five days, the future is bright. People will get fixated on one thing as opposed to, 'You're going to have hundreds of hours of content in years of storylines coming ahead of us and new worlds and regions and new heroes and more stuff we haven't even announced yet.' But I really do think people look at this and say, 'Yeah, okay, we get that, we understand the business behind that,' but in general, we're making this game for everybody. We want this to be the place you get to play those superhero fantasies out with [your] Avengers team that'll continue growing with new characters - characters you haven't you even guessed yet that are gonna come to this roster down the road - and new regions, as well, so I am very excited for what the future holds for everybody on all platforms."
Amos' response to the anger of fans was, simply, that they should not feel angry. While it's not hard to see the reason for fans' anger, it is also pretty obvious that money played a big role in Spider-Man's PlayStation exclusivity. It also makes sense that Spider-Man would be exclusive to Sony consoles, as it does have closer legal ties to Spider-Man than Microsoft or Google. However, Amos did say that he is interested in making Marvel's Avengers cross-platform, but that no announcements or promises could be made.
Spider-Man being exclusive to Sony is undoubtedly a money-making move on Crystal Dynamics' part, but it's unjustified for Amos to state that players should not be angry because one of Marvel's most beloved characters will be shut behind a rather large paywall for non-PlayStation owners. Sure, there are plenty of characters that will be announced in the future, but will any of them be Xbox exclusive? If so, will the Xbox exclusive hero hold a candle to Spider-Man? At the end of the day, being angry with Crystal Dynamics is not going to change the decisions that have been made. Amos has made it pretty clear that he does not care about the feelings of potential Marvel's Avengers players.
Marvel's Avengers will be available on PS4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia on September 4, 2020, and will launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X in 2021.
Source: Newsweek