The Insomniac data breach has revealed Sony signed a deal with Marvel to make exclusive X-Men games until the end of 2035.
One leaked slide detailed the X-Men licence terms, which include a note on exclusivity. According to the document, between now and December 31, 2035, Marvel cannot release or announce any X-Men games on console, PC, or streaming platforms, or use an X-Men character as a “competitive advantage” in a game. The document provides the example of playing as Wolverine in Ultimate Alliance exclusively on Xbox, which would not be allowed under the terms.
X-Men characters can appear in what are called multi-family Marvel games, however, so you might see Wolverine, for example, show up in an Avengers game. And Marvel retains the rights to children’s games and certain X-Men games from the 90s. But otherwise, this is a watertight exclusivity deal that gives Sony the rights to X-Men games for the next 12 years.
The document details development and marketing spend for each X-Men game, Marvel’s royalty, which varies depending on the nature of the sale (physical, digital, bundle), and the terms of a potential termination. Platforms are, as you’d expect, PlayStation and PC.
According to another slide, Marvel’s Wolverine is due out in 2026, and the first X-Men game is due out in 2030. An extended roadmap, possibly out of date, slates a third X-Men game for 2033, suggesting the Wolverine game is considered Insomniac’s first X-Men game. There’s also mention of Wolverine Online (2026) and X-Men Online (2028). There’s word of a provisional fourth X-Men game, too.
The video game industry has descended upon Marvel in recent years to snap up licenses to make games based on its intellectual property. Last year, Electronic Arts announced it had signed a long-term deal with Marvel to develop at least three new action adventure games for consoles and PC, the first being a single-player, third person, action-adventure Iron Man game from Star Wars: Squadrons and the Dead Space remake developer Motive Studios. EA is also making a single-player action-adventure game based on Marvel’s Black Panther at a new Seattle-based EA studio called Cliffhanger Games.
Elsewhere, Skydance Media is developing a Marvel World War 2-set narrative-driven adventure with Amy Hennig of Uncharted fame. It lets you play as Steve Rogers as an early Captain America, among other Marvel characters.
And let’s not forget Marvel’s Blade, just announced at The Game Awards 2023 as in-development at Dishonored and Deathloop studio Arkane Lyon. Arkane is owned by Bethesda, which in turn is owned by Microsoft. Platforms are yet to be announced, but we can of course count Xbox and PC among them.
As for the X-Men, Sony’s deal comes as Marvel prepares to properly unleash the X-Men within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with a significant tease at the end of the recently released The Marvels setting up the inevitable arrival of the popular mutant superhero team. Deadpool 3, which features mutants Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), is 2024’s only Disney MCU movie.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.