Including Spider-Man on Xbox was ‘no problem’, says Midnight Suns developer

Including Spider-Man as part of Marvel’s Midnight Suns was “no problem”, even on the Xbox version, according to the game’s creative director.

In an upcoming interview with VGC, Firaxis’ Jake Solomon claimed that despite third-party title Marvel’s Avengers only featuring Spider-Man on PlayStation consoles, his inclusion in the Xbox version of the upcoming strategy RPG wasn’t an issue.

“He’ll be on Xbox, there’s no problem with that,” Solomon said. “It’s fun being the first game that’s doing that for a while. Spidey was always a character on the roster and we never got any pushback in any form from Marvel.”

Solomon went on to explain that the game’s initial setting also had a huge influence on the need to include Spider-Man, as well as his trademark humour.

“We’re a New York story, our early game is a New York story,” he said. “I’m also a big believer in the idea that the darker the overall story, the lighter you have to be when you tell jokes. You can’t take yourself so seriously.

“I love dark storylines, but you’ve got to add jokes, so Spidey was on the very first list of characters and Marvel was like ‘great’, I never had any inkling that Spidey would be a problem.”

Spider-Man’s last appearance on Xbox was in LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2. A Spider-Man was released for Fortnite on all platforms, but playing as the character himself has been something that Xbox fans have been missing out on for some time.

Following the news that Spider-Man would be exclusive to PlayStation as a downloadable character in Marvel’s Avengers, it was speculated that the terms of Sony‘s agreement to use the character in video games may have precluded his inclusion on Xbox. He has previously appeared on Nintendo Switch in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3.

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PlayStation’s Spider-Man actor reprises his role in Marvel’s Midnight Suns

However, it's not the same version of the character, claims the creative director

Yuri Lowenthal, the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Insomniac‘s pair of superhero games, will also voice the character in Marvel’s Midnight Suns, it’s been confirmed.

Solomon confirmed to VGC that Lowenthal will take up the mantle of Peter Parker once again for the new tactical deck-building game, despite the game taking part in a separate universe from Insomniac’s games.

“It’s not meant to be that Spidey, but we heard that Spidey and said ‘that sounds like Peter Parker to me’, but it’s not the exact same character,” Solomon explained.