Spider-Man, Marvel's Avengers and the role of Sony

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Spider-Man and Sony, where it all began Recent history The future Spider-Man will be available in Marvel's Avengers as an exclusive to PlayStation platforms, arriving in the form of a free update for owners in 2021 of PS4 and PS5.

The news, revealed a few days ago by Square Enix, has caused a lot of discussion, as often happens when agreements come into play that somehow exclude a part of the user, in this specific case PC and Xbox users.

But what's the truth behind this partnership? And what role does Sony play in the context of the exploitation rights of the famous Marvel character? Let's take stock of the situation, imagining possible future scenarios.

Spider-Man and Sony, where it all began

The historic agreement between Marvel and Sony for the film rights of Spider-Man dates back to 1999, but things didn't turn out as you might imagine. The license of the character was in fact in the hands of MGM, which however wanted to make a remake of Agent 007 - Thunderball (Operation Thunder), the film based on the eighth novel in the series created by Ian Fleming. However, the license of the film was in the hands of Sony, and so the two production companies completed a complicated negotiation that ended in a real exchange.

At that point the Japanese company, through its subsidiary Columbia Pictures, he put together the film trilogy directed by Sam Raimi, starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker. The first episode, released in theaters in 2002, changed the face of the so-called cinecomics forever, offering both Spider-Man fans and everyone else a compelling and well-told story, supported by special effects that live up to expectations.

After the third chapter is very controversial, published in 2007, plans to continue the saga with Raimi and Maguire have sadly failed, but Sony has retained the exploitation rights of the character, and after three years began the production of a reboot with Andrew Garfield , constituted in total by two episodes: the first released in theaters in 2012, the second in 2014. There were plans for a third and final chapter, but they, too, are shipwrecked, together with the idea of creating a spin-off dedicated to the Sinister Six.

While Sony continued its fruitless attempts to give life to a Spiderverse, Marvel Studios had had better luck with Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, bringing on the big screen, the Avengers, and consolidating a brand that in later years would have established absolute records collection . So at the end of 2014, only a few months after the closing of the cycle, with Andrew Garfield, the two companies have returned to the negotiating table to sign a historic agreement: to enter Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe .

recent history

The most recent film franchise with Tom Holland has been a great success, but more importantly has seen Spider-Man act for the first time inside of a supergroup, one of the Avengers in fact. This new dimension added depth to the character, which is represented for the first time on the big screen as a fifteen-year-old and characterized in a manner different than the movies with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, without a real origin story, and with figures of reference alternatives, on all that of Tony Stark .

The contract of the Holland provides a total of six films, three as the protagonist, and three as a "guest", therefore, the appeal lacks only the third chapter solo after Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home . In the middle there was the famous controversy of last year between Sony and Disney , which resolved within a month and has probably put the japanese in a position of further advantage in the context of the exploitation of the character.

it Is important to emphasize, because it is almost certainly the outcome of such negotiations to have weighed in a particular way in the matter of the exclusivity of Spider-Man on the PlayStation with regard to his appearance in Marvel's Avengers. If, in fact, the launch of Marvel's Spider-Man as an exclusive PS4 in 2018 heralded a new beginning for the tie-in dedicated to the Arrampicamuri, it is also true that that particular project did not involve any of the criteria of exclusivity and privacy. The hero, for example, appeared without any problems or specific directions of the copyright in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order , published on the Nintendo Switch the following year.

thus, there Exists the real possibility that with the renegotiation of the agreements between Sony and Disney last year also, the status of Spider-Man in the video has changed, and is now tied to double thread to the decisions of the japanese company. Unfortunately, the terms of the contract were not disclosed, but recent events allow us to imagine a situation in which the PlayStation has, as a minimum, a right of pre-emption on the character.

The future

Marvel's Spider-Man has changed things, and has done so in many ways. Let's talk about the first tie-in dedicated to the famous hero was developed by a team of experienced, such as Insomniac Games , a product that has a great thickness and quality, technical and artistic, as well as an important exclusive for the PlayStation. Not only that: exclusive the PS4 the most sold ever in the USA , in front of games like God of War , Horizon Zero Dawn and The Last of Us Part II .

It was without a doubt the extraordinary success of this project to convince Sony that it was possible to create an exclusive great reminder with which to accompany the launch of PS5, taking advantage of the assets and characters already ready to give life in a short time the expansion stand alone Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales , that we find precisely in the shops to coincide with the release of the new console.

therefore, If in the future the videogame Peter Parker is tied to double thread to the creative decisions, Sony is saying that the exclusive Spider-Man in Marvel's Avengers is a move of all understand that will sell many more copies of the title Square Enix on PS4, and PS5 on the basis precisely of the promise that in 2021, the owners of the game will be able to get free Arrampicamuri .

On how exactly it is carried out the operation, well, for the moment, all we can do is give for good the words of the head of Crystal Dynamics, Scot Amos, according to which Spider-Man would not have been present without the permission of Sony , and that the thing is successful only thanks to the special relationship between PlayStation and Marvel. What is the exact meaning of these statements and what it means in concrete terms, with respect to rights games, of Spider-Man? The discover certainly in the coming months.