Never get comfortable: Takeaways from Sony's Spider-Man 2 Reveal

Sony's PlayStation Showcase on May 24th finally gave fans what they wanted - an extended look at Marvel's Spider-Man 2, the upcoming PS5 exclusive game releasing this fall (no release date yet). I am a huge fan of Spider-Man and the PlayStation games from Insomniac but what can we all learn from the trailer and gameplay showcase?

Give your customers what they want

The Marvel's Spider-Man game series has sold more than 33 million copies globally. That's a LOT. I absolutely loved it and I wanted even more. Clearly so did the other fans. The original Spider-Man game was hugely popular on PS4 and was followed with a smaller but also excellent spin-off game following the Miles Morales version of Spider-Man. A superb PS5 release day game, Miles Morales took what made the original game successful and doubled down - excellent gameplay, an interesting character arc and story and beautiful visuals. This is an area where people fail constantly across all forms of media. Spectacle and visuals need to be balanced with a strong story. If customers love something you should listen to them and double down on it. Insomniac's game formula worked once, it worked twice, why not again?

Give your customers something new

So for both the spin-off and the next "full" game just copy, paste, tweak, swap the characters and tweak the story a bit right? Wrong. Insomniac explored the details of the Spider-Man world across both previous games. They included easter eggs, fan favourite characters, collectibles and more throughout the experience to add a level of richness and authenticity. Plus it's just FUN!

For the Miles Morales game they ensured the character play style is noticeably different from the original Spider-Man, from his suit to his powers and the way he swings around the city. This lifts inspiration from the comics but also helps the character feel unique. The game was smaller in scope and size yet still a reasonable length to keep you busy for hours and want to replay it. They didn't fill the game out for the sake of hitting a certain gameplay time. It was a huge success and gamers around the world fell in love with the character and welcomed his addition to the Spider-Man game universe.

The PlayStation Showcase last week confirmed that you will be able to experience playing as both the Peter Parker Spider-Man and the Miles Morales Spider-Man in the game at different points. It showed new areas of New York not in previous games, excellent new powers for Miles and for Peter lots of exciting abilities from his Venom suit. We have a new villain in the form of Kraven the Hunter who clearly will be the primary antagonist but I am sure there will be other villains in the game too - it's good not everything is being spoiled! In fact the extended gameplay showed us a level where you have to try and save the Lizard from Kraven's goons but didn't actually spoil what happens or give much else away about the story. Ensuring there are still fresh and exciting experiences in store for customers is important to avoid franchise fatigue. It also gives existing and new customers more reasons to engage and check out the new game at release.

Never get comfortable, keep inventing and simplifying

Replicate key selling points of the first games? Check.

Add new things to freshen up the formula and excite people? Check.

So far so good. What Insomniac have also been mindful of is the need to continuously improve on what has worked before by listening to customer feedback. A great example of this is a segment of gameplay which showed Miles Morales using "wings" on his suit to travel quickly through the air to get to his target location. Fans, including myself, love swinging around the city as Spider-Man but sometimes it can be too slow and take a long time to get from A to B. There are "fast travel" locations to quickly teleport between key map areas but it's a common approach in most games these days (although the animations of Spider-Man on a subway are quite funny). By adding what looks like a super-fast new way to travel Insomniac have combined a feature from the comic book characters (winged suit), adding something new, improved the travel experience in-game AND made it look really fun. It seems they can do no wrong and I am pumped for the game release.

When developing any new entertainment experience following an approach similar to the teams behind the Spider-Man games could serve you very well and set you up for success.

Note: This article represents my personals views and does not reflect those of my employer or any of the parties mentioned.