Summary

• Insomniac Games is a highly respected first-party studio for Sony, known for producing acclaimed titles such as Marvel's Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank.
• Marvel's Wolverine will have a darker tone compared to the Spider-Man games and will target a mature audience, so fans have been eager to learn more about the game.
• Leaks in the gaming industry are a growing problem, with recent examples including leaks of GTA 6 and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, fueled by impatient fans waiting for official news.

Major information from Insomniac Games has been leaked, including the full synopsis, cast list, early test footage, and concept art for Marvel's Wolverine alongside the studio's roap for yet-to-be-announced titles. The leak also revealed personal information about some of the cast and crew working at the studio.

Earlier this week, a hacker group, Rhysida held Sony's first-party studio, Insomniac Games to ransom, threatening to release over a terabyte of internal company data that had been stolen on December 12th. At the time, the group announced an auction price for the data starting at 50 bitcoins - which is the equivalent of roughly $2 million - and a seven-day deadline to pay. As Insomniac and Sony didn't bow to the hackers' demands, the footage was released on the morning of December 19, 2023.

Due to the sensitive nature of the leaked documents that target of Insomniac Games' staff directly, this story will not be sharing specific information about the leaked files or where to find them.

Insomniac Games Is One Of Sony's Top First-Party Studios

Titles Like Marvel's Wolverine Are Highly Anticipated

Insomniac Games is one of Sony's top first-party studios, producing acclaimed titles such as the Marvel's Spider-Man, and Ratchet & Clank series. Therefore, many have been eagerly awaiting news surrounding their next confirmed title Marvel's Wolverine, which was announced alongside Marvel's Spider-Man 2 at the September 2021 PlayStation Showcase, but has had no further trailers.

It's long been confirmed that the title will be darker than the Marvel's Spider-Man games, which already had some darker moments, especially with the actions taken by their main villains. The game will be targeting a M-for-Mature rating, and the hiring of Spec Ops: The Line writer Walt D. Williams as the game's lead writer further gave an idea of what to expect from the studio's more adult take on the fan-favorite mutant.

Therefore, many were keen to see how exactly Insomniac would approach the material, and how it would tie into the studio's shared Marvel Universe if it's so different from the titles that came before. This was likely one of the reasons Rhysida targeted the studio specifically and threatened to share this early, and one of the reasons the group likely felt they could hold it to such a high ransom.

Leaks Are A Growing Problem In The Games Industry

GTA 6 And Suicide Squad: KTJL Have Been Recent Targets

The gaming industry is arguably larger than ever before, and therefore, leaks have become a growing problem. Last year, a UK-based, 17-year-old member of Lapsus$, teapotuberhacker was arrested for sharing 90 development videos of GTA 6 that had been taken from the studio's workplace chat app, Slack. While many rumors had been spreading surrounding the title, these videos revealed the game's location, new gameplay mechanics, and its protagonists over a year before Rockstar Games' official reveal.

Even the first trailer for GTA 6 was leaked prior to its planned launch, prompting Rockstar to eschew its plans and release the proper version a day early. While the trailer still broke records and became the most-watched non-music video on YouTube within under 24 hours and beat the GTA 5 reveal trailer's total lifetime views in that time, it was disappointing for many who wanted to react to it live and had scheduled this accordingly or the developers who stated they wanted to experience the launch together.

More recently, major story details have been leaked for Rocksteady Games' Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League following the game's closed Alpha playtest. Dataminers such as Miller Ross had previously used the playtest's files to reveal some of the playable characters and weapons coming to the game as part of its live-service model, but steered clear of sharing story details or anything that could largely impact players' enjoyment of the title.

Unfortunately, others have opted not to follow this example and have shared what appear to be major death scenes and a synopsis based on audio files. Miller Ross has stated that these may not be entirely accurate as the characters are known to be purposefully misleading in their dialogue throughout the game, but the whole ordeal prompted Rocksteady to issue a statement on X warning players about the potential spoilers being leaked anyway.

Longer Development Windows Are Making Gamers Impatient

And This Is Creating A Market For Leakers

As technology has evolved over the years, audiences have grown to demand much higher levels of fidelity or larger, more cinematic gameplay experiences from gaming. This has, understandably, led to longer development windows between titles as studios put more time and effort into meeting such expectations.

While Insomniac Games has been producing a steady flow of releases over the years, providing several first-party console exclusives for Sony on PS5 since the console's launch, studios such as Rockstar Games have taken over a decade between entries in its acclaimed Grand Theft Auto series, with the studio's other major release, Red Dead Redemption 2 being released 5 years after GTA 5, and 7 years before GTA 6's confirmed 2025 launch.

Because of this, fans were growing impatient waiting for news on the next Grand Theft Auto title, which was further exacerbated by several re-releases of older games during that time. This included further re-releases of GTA 5 on the PS4 and Xbox One console generation, and the current PS5 and Xbox Series S/X generation before any official news surfaced regarding GTA 6. Because of players voicing their frustration over such waits, this shows hacker groups such as Rhysida and Lapsus$ that there is a hungry audience waiting for such leaks, and provides them with the incentive they need to blackmail these studios for large sums of money.

However, when official news from these titles gets revealed - as was the case with GTA 6's record-breaking first trailer - audiences are often hyped all the same regardless of the leaks, and hopefully, titles such as Marvel's Wolverine won't be impacted in the same way by the Insomniac Games leaks. Ultimately, as with any kind of art form, it's best to just wait and see these reveals when their creators feel they're ready to get the best experience.