Details of Sony's video game roadmap, budgets, and corporate strategy are among the 1.3 million files leaked by hackers in the latest data breach to plague the Japanese technology giant and, in this case, its Insomniac Games unit.
The hack was first announced by the Rhysida ransomware gang on December 12, at which time they said they would auction the huge cache of over 1TB worth of Sony files for $2 million paid in Bitcoin.
Now, the group has dumped the entire haul online – including details of a number of its upcoming Marvel titles from Insomniac Game – after failing to strong arm Sony or entice a third-party to buy the data. Here are all the details of the Insomniac Games leak and latest 2023 Sony hack in general.
Insomniac Games Leak Gives Gamers a Crystal Ball
For many people, specifically gamers, the headline of this December's Sony data breach is the leaking of juicy details regarding its upcoming video game roadmap.
Sony's Insomniac Games, which is under the company's PlayStation Studios arm, is responsible not only for some of the console's biggest AAA games like Ratchet & Clank, but also boasts a licensing agreement with Marvel to develop titles inspired by its franchises.
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As first reported by CyberDaily.au, this means that the Insomniac Games leak is a treasure trove of upcoming Marvel game details – specifically, the apparent release windows for its first X-Men inspired titles. Three games have been agreed with a budget of approximately $120m a pop, with the first one taking on the Wolverine story.
- Wolverine (“no later” than September 1, 2025)
- X-Men game two (“before” December 31, 2029)
- X-Men game three (“before” December 31, 2033)
That's not all, though. In addition to these claimed dates and the presumably once confidential budget figures for the games, the Sony Insomniac Games leak gives us even more details about what's next for some of the studio's biggest titles.
It's not just tiles and release dates that have been leaked. Concept art, footage, and even playable early builds of some of these titles have also been included in the leaked data, meaning that there's very little the studio is working on that isn't now already out there for all to see.
Sony's Insomniac Games Breach Reveals New Spider-man, Ratchet & Clank Titles
The amount of information now floating around online regarding Sony's future gaming roadmap is vast. Over 1TB, in turns out, is a whole lot of leakage.
The highlights will be obvious to many gamers, however, and as well as the above Marvel titles include a new Spider-man game on the horizon that will be a follow-up to 2023's Spider-man 2 and presumably complete the trilogy.
This one hasn't got a timeline attached to it, but what it does have is the tantalizing prospect of being able to control Venom in the game. It's also suggested that this might end up being drawn out into a “Part I” and “Part II,” making for four Marvel Spidey games in total.
What does have a purported release date is the next Ratchet & Clank game, which is said to be pegged for 2029 and be a direct follow-up to the last title in the series, Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart.
Sony Hack Also Lays Corporate Fears Bare
While it's difficult to deny that a Wolverine game and new Spider-man titles are what we really want to read about as we wind down for the holidays, the Rhysida ransomware dump has also given a fascinating insight into some of Sony's corporate strategy and thinking.
Specifically, the data breach has leaked slides that show Sony's response to Microsoft's recently approved acquisition of Activision.
It's scared, in a word, especially when it comes to the impact of Microsoft essentially buying the wildly popular Call of Duty franchise as part of the blockbuster deal. As part of this acquisition, Â Microsoft will likely be adding major games to its GamePass subscription service on the day of release in the future, and that's something that Sony acknowledges it will struggle to compete with.
In other words, having a steady pipeline of new Marvel games is great, it's just maybe not as great as owning probably the world's best loved franchise.
