This is such a weird place to be in. Not long ago, we were talking about the upcoming release of Marvel’s Wolverine, released by Insomniac Studios. The same developer that released the exceptional Spider-Man games.
Were we as excited at the prospect of a Wolverine game? Probably not, but the expectation that Insomniac would do something special, was there for sure. So whilst we couldn’t fathom how it would work, we had faith that Insomniac would know what makes Wolverine, Wolverine, and we know that they know how to make great games.
But, it’s not looking great. As a site that loves the written word, and creates reviews for the sentiment to be read, not a score. We’ve read a lot of reviews from sources that we generally align with. Topped-up with video essays and podcasts. Wolverine hasn’t come out to the fireworks and furore that we may have anticipated. Whilst that’s disappointing for players and for the development team. It’s arguably another mark against the Sony/PlayStation brands, too.
Marvel’s Wolverine
Wolverine himself is a character, rich with story and history. To put together a narrative, is likely not the issue. From what we can tell, is the gameplay is repetitive, cutscenes fly in the face of you being the killing machine in combat, only moment before.
There are whiffs of the Spider-Man games, collectibles, outfits, claw skins. But tonally it seems to miss the mark, and moreover, the moment to moment gameplay appears dull and lacking in any real depth.
Truth be told, we still want to play it. But it feels like a game you pick up on sale for for £20 and enjoy it for what it is. A good Steam sale would do wonders.
But that’s the problem that Sony have started to create for themselves…….an issue that only want us to play Wolverine even less.
Sony
New games aren’t cheap to buy, $70 for Wolverine is a lot to ask, and when the general sentiment is that it isn’t good value. We lose interest quickly. That’s why sites like this are valuable.
There was a time, though, where you would just pick it up from a retailer a few months down the line on offer, or second-hand. With Sony working to not only remove physical versions of games by 2028, but also maintain exclusivity to only PlayStation. They’re about to start seeing a pattern that they won’t like.
Firstly, if you can only buy games from the PlayStation Store online, most people will baulk at the prices. Even sales on there are crap, let’s be honest. So you’ve removed any other potential avenues for revenue, and tried too hard to squeeze your customers for all they’re worth.
Then, no discs, means folk are concerned about their ownership (rightfully so). Particularly now that Sony are arguing in court that we’ve never actually owned our games…..
So now they’ve limited their audience by platform, sales avenues and availability by different media. If the games aren’t as good as they should be (Wolverine is a great example), then, how are Sony expecting to shift units?
Power to the masses
Now, the real issue here is of course, once options are removed and customers are funnelled into a single channel. Sony are banking on most people just accepting it, paying a higher price, only buying from their walled garden, and that’s that.
Being honest, this is likely to be the case. But….they can’t keep releasing Wolverine’s because they’ll soon lose faithful fans. Moreover, the amount of games they’re cutting and the teams they’re cutting, they’re not going to be left with too much.
Granted, this is all speculative, and they make plenty of money. But there may very well come a time where PlayStation just isn’t a viable platform to play games at home. Becoming more of a luxury that only has games that people might not actually want to play anymore.
Time will tell
Wolverine might be a one-off. That’s fine, it doesn’t mean the rest of the issues coming from PlayStation are to be ignored, but it might mean some exclusive (premium?) experiences are locked-in to a single, expensive platform.
It feels like bad business sense to us, but what do we know? It used to be “for the gamers” but it feels very much against them at the moment.
Best-case scenario is that we get games on disc still, and that market continues. As well as games being published on other platforms.
Worst-case is no discs, not means of getting a good sale for a game that doesn’t feel like a good proposition value, and being locked to a platform that doesn’t have good, exclusive games anymore.
Xbox has plenty of issues, let’s be honest, but right now, they are being given a golden opportunity to fill some gaps and make it publicly known that they want to work for the gamer, for the customer. Not just, seemingly, for the bottom line, like Sony.
We’ll review Wolverine one day, but it’s going to be a long time away based on the state of things, currently.
