Insomniac Games’ Mike Fitzgerald on Spider-Man 2, Collaborating With Marvel, and the Studio’s Ambitions

15.09.2023 - 17:45 / gadgets.ndtv.com / Peter Parker / Miles Morales / Mike Fitzgerald / Sony

Insomniac Games has had busy couple of decades. The American developer has been making beloved video games since 1994 — the hands and minds behind early PlayStation classics like Spyro the Dragon and Ratchet & Clank — but past few years have seen the studio take on a different beast altogether. It started with 2018's Marvel's Spider-Man, a Game of the Year nominee that brought back the iconic web-crawling superhero into the gaming spotlight. Outside of its legacy in comic books and films, Spider-Man is a video gaming icon in its own right, and Insomniac's take on Peter Parker's story re-established the franchise at its rightful place.

Since the release of the PlayStation 5 in late 2020, Insomniac — now part of PlayStation Studios — has been the most prolific high-profile developer pushing out quality exclusive titles on the platform. Spider-Man: Miles Morales, a spin-off/sequel to the 2018 game, was a launch title for the PS5, showcasing the strengths of Sony's current-gen console. The studio followed it up with 2021's Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, receiving acclaim for its technical leaps and graphical fidelity. Insomniac Games is in no mood of stopping. Marvel's Spider-Man 2, the developer's third release on the PS5 in as many years is almost at the doorstep, a little over a month away from its October 20 release.

Last week, Gadgets 360 got a chance to play a sizable early section of the game in a hands-on preview, and talk to Mike Fitzgerald, Director of Core Technology at Insomniac Games, about all things Spider-Man 2. In our chat, we covered a wide range of topics — from the new advancements in the upcoming game, to the personal journeys of both Peter Parker and Miles Morales. We also touched upon the collaboration between the studio and Marvel, and discussed just how Insomniac balances quality and prolific output for their releases. Our detailed impressions of the game based on the preview will be covered separately; what follows is a condensed and slightly edited excerpts from our chat.

Gadgets 360: Hi, Mike. Congratulations on the preview event. Spider-Man 2 is now about a month and a half away from release. When you look back at the development period, and then look forward to the day when fans will actually get to play this game, what are your first thoughts?

Mike Fitzgerald: Thank you. Well, working on this franchise has been sort of a huge privilege, you know, to be able to work on something that you know is going to resonate with so many people and mean so much to people. The feedback we've gotten on the first games in the series, what it's meant to so many players, so you know there's a burden of expectation — a little bit — to deliver something that is going to continue to mean that