Everything You Need to Know About Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Pre-Orders

With the official release date for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 set for Friday, October 20th, 2023, the countdown has already begun—and we've got everything you need to know for those sweet PRE-ORDER BONUSES!

Global Pre-Orders open today for the year's most hotly anticipated game, arriving only on PlayStation 5. Pre-Orders will go live at 10:00 AM local time on June 16, 2023 at all participating retailers, PlayStation Store, and PlayStation Direct. Get your early unlock options NOW and read on for what's in store with each bundle.

And not to worry! Fans who pre-order any version of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will receive an early unlock Arachknight Suit for Peter Parker with 3 additional color variants, an early unlock Shadow Spider Suit for Miles Morales with 3 additional color variants, an early unlock Web Grabber gadget, and 3 skill points to get you started!

Place your Pre-Order now, and get your Pre-Order Bonuses included in your Standard Edition of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for $69.99 (US) MSRP.

The Digital Deluxe edition of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (US $79.99 MSRP) will include the game, all the pre-order incentives, as well as 10 unique suits (5 for Peter, 5 for Miles), additional Photo Mode frames and stickers, and 2 additional skill points. And talk about across the Spider-Verse—these 10 suits were designed by guest artists across comics, films, and PlayStation Studios! The featured artists are Kris Anka, Julia Blattman, Sweeney Boo, Anthony Francisco, Raf Grassetti, Jerad Maantz, Joel Mandish, Darren Quach, and Victoria Ying!

The Collector’s Edition (US $229.99/UK/EU MSRP, while supplies last) includes a voucher for the Digital Deluxe Edition, as well as a Steelbook® case, and an extraordinary, high-quality 19-inch statue featuring the two Spider-Men battling fan-favorite Venom. Fans can order the Collector’s Edition on PlayStation Direct* in those select markets (United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Austria, Spain, Portugal) starting at 10AM local time on June 16th, 2023.

*For those countries that do not have PlayStation Direct, be on the lookout for more information on how you can secure a Collector’s Edition in your region!

So what else can we expect? At This Week in Marvel, we sat down with Bryan Intihar, Creative Director at Insomniac Games to ask all our burning questions about Marvel's Spider-Man 2!

Marvel: The big news this week is that Pre-Orders are here! They're live. What does it mean for you to not only have a release date, October 20th, 2023, but to know that millions of folks are eager to give up their hard-earned money for the game that y'all have been working on for literally years now?

Bryan Intihar: I think it's two feelings. You're both excited and stressed because you know that people have been waiting a long time for the game. They've been wondering when it's coming out. So there's definitely a sense of excitement, or relief, that we can say what the date is and say it with confidence. At the same time you're like, okay, well, this game, you know, there's high expectations. You want to deliver on those. So you're nervous, but it's like exciting nervousness, I guess.

Marvel: People seem pretty hyped. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 was announced September of 2021, and we have gameplay that was released last month. How does it feel to now finally share gameplay with the world?

Bryan Intihar: One thing that we talk a lot about is—we work on these games, kind of in secret. We're working, we're not talking about them. We're not even talking to our friends and family about what we're working on. So we're kind of like insulated. For the team, and I know for myself, like when finally we can reveal some of it and show, "Here's where the game is!" It fills us up with this energy, like that excitement that you need to make that final push.

So it's kind of like an adrenaline shot to get going. Like, you know, "Here! Here it is!" And seeing the reactions, and seeing how excited people get. And just like the moments that you know they're going to react—like you know Peter's going to jump out and see the black suit. And then when Pete says, "I can't make it to Harlem—" and do the switch to Miles. Or even when that first cinematics starts, people think that the first character's Kraven, not realizing that the next character they see is actually Kraven. So it's just watching those reactions and being kind of like, "Is it going to hit?"

Marvel: Almost like living in a bubble with the game. Do you remember your first thoughts or ideas for the game? You know, was it while you were making Marvel's Spider-Man? Was it the day after release where you just went, "Oh, wait, I want to do this?" Or was it like, you know, years before all of this, you were just like plotting and thinking about it all?

Bryan Intihar: That's a great question. I think in a way, you always are kind of thinking about how things can go. Before, when I used to work full time at the office, I would have a lot. I live in California, so I have a long drive home and traffic, and you would think about like, okay, we're working on Spider-Man 1. If we were to continue making these games, where can we go? So you kind of go into that, almost like fanboy kind of thing. Like, "Okay, what do I do?"

And obviously the game ended with a scene that kind of paved the way for what we were thinking about with the tease of the symbiote. So we kind of knew before we finished Spider-Man 1 what the overall direction would be on Spider-Man 2, and then kind of from there after Spider-Man 1 shipped. We worked on some DLC with The City Never Sleeps. And then as that was going on, kind of starting to get those, "What are those big story points that we want to get in? What are characters we want to feature?"

And then I would say the following year, really just still kind of in that big picture thinking, while that's going on at the studio, we're also making Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and seeing that. So like, how can we set up Miles and the first game to get bitten by a spider? We knew we were going to go, but to then kind of build off that momentum of the Miles game was just really exciting. So I think as we're making the game, making this, thinking about story, working on Miles: "How do we all want to bring it together?"

Marvel: I think that's part of the fun thing about doing something creative that you genuinely love and feel for.

Bryan Intihar: It's funny, I've never really talked about this. I kind of think in moments like, "I would like to see this happen. I would like to see that happen. I would like to see..." and I kind of start there. And then, you know, obviously you think about character arcs and themes, but you kind of just go back to like, I'm a kid playing with my action figures and I want to set up a scenario. You start very basic. You go back to your childhood a little bit and go, "What do I want to see happen?"

And that's why, you know, when we talked very early on in Spider-Man 1 about the suits that we were choosing, I mean, we definitely talked about featuring the black suit. We talked about it like, "Oh, yeah, it'll be one of the suits you unlock." You know, I think it was me and Bill Rosemann and Eric Monacelli, and we're all kind of sitting around, and others at Insomniac, I think it was Gavin Goulden, our lead character artist, and we were like, "Well, we can do it." And we kind of all sat and go, "If we're going to do the black suit, that has to be a major part of the story." Because I think the other thing we talk a lot about is, we just don't want to do something for the sake of doing it. We want to, always as much as possible, wrap it in in a story. And that's what makes Marvel. Marvel is the story.

Marvel: Obviously you guys are planning out your skill trees and their items and the costumes and all this stuff. How do you start to say, okay, this is what we want to give to the Pre-Order people. This is what we want to make sure we don't even show until people are like 10 hours in the game, and they've unlocked and they go, "What the hell is that?"

Bryan Intihar: Well, the good news is that from Spider-Man 1 and the Miles game, we knew people really like suits. So it's like, you know, you have a lot of opinions on suits. Then it was, "Okay, we know we want to give some early unlocks to the suits." And then we were like, "Well, which ones are they?" And actually, we made this decision pretty quickly. I was like, "Well, we have two suits that at least have capes. Like, you know, that's something we didn't do in both Spider-Man 1 and Miles. Let's do it."

So we actually have those those two suits, one for Pete, one for Miles. But what's really cool is not only being able to have those suits feature a cape and really seeing, especially when you're wingsuiting, it looks really cool. The web-wings! Being able to actually have color variants for each. And that's for the majority of our suits, we have these color variants now, which is new to customization. So you actually get to unlock a suit, but then you also get the variants that we offer. So it's definitely to make sure we go into things like Photo Mode and stuff like that. People are going to really have a lot of uniqueness too when they post stuff online.

Marvel: Yeah, I immediately started thinking of Photo Mode as you were talking about that. So that's going to be super fun and seeing that when we get into it in October. And then we've got the Digital Deluxe Edition which has the game, all those Pre-Order incentives and then the 10 suits, 5 for Peter, 5 for Miles, the Photo Mode frames and stickers, additional skill points. But I was looking at them, the Apunkalyptic suit for Peter, I was like, “Give that to me right now!” And then Miles has the Tokusatsu suit. I’m a huge fan of Tokusatsu, so seeing those, I was like, “Y’all get it. This is good.”

Bryan Intihar: Yeah, we kind of took the momentum of the suit. People want to see it and we're like, "What can we do different?" And one thing was like, "Why don't we just make new suits, like stuff you've never seen before, and team up with really awesome artists outside the studio and really see what we can do." And obviously the finished products are great, like the Apunkalyptic, like that one's really cool. I love the Encoded suit for Miles. Like it's super, really cool, but it was really awesome to see their creative process of how they go into concept-ing multiple ideas. And then we kind of pick and refine and you finally get the final version. You're like, "That's super cool." But then see the finished pretty picture and then you load it in the game. You're like, "Wow, that's really cool." So it's 10 unique suits that the first time you'll ever see them or experience them are in the game. And it's really been awesome just to team up with so many awesome artists.

Marvel: And then we've got the Collector's Edition, which has the voucher for the Digital Deluxe Edition and then a Steelbook case. We're going to get into that in a little bit. A 19-inch statue featuring Spider-Man battling Venom. Fans can start to order the Collector's Edition on PlayStation Direct in select markets. So best of luck to everyone who wants one. I'm assuming that that puppy's going to sell real quick. Those look real cool.

Bryan Intihar: The statue of the Spider Heroes and Venom is pretty, pretty cool. I know they're going to go fast. I hope everybody who wants one gets one. I know they're going to be in demand. But it is really pretty epic in terms of for a Collector's Edition. So you get all the stuff we talked about with all the stuff in the Pre-Order, all the stuff from the Digital Deluxe. But then you get obviously the Steelbook case and then the pretty amazing statue. It's pretty dope.

Marvel: It looks awesome. Venom through the Steelbook case and the statue for the Collector's Edition, we're getting our first looks at Venom. I love how he's classic yet feels like he's a distinct version of Venom for the Marvel's Spider-Man universe. I got to ask, how many teeth does Venom have?

Bryan Intihar: A lot. A LOT. Someone asked me how many there are actually, I don't know. But I think Venom is a really good example. Whether it's Kraven, whether it's Pete and Miles, like almost anybody we ever feature. Our north star for this game, for this franchise, it has always been like, we want to respect the DNA of the character of the franchise. We want to respect what the creators have done such a good job of making, but also what the fans love. Like we don't want to go so out of left field that they can't identify anything other than the character.

But at the same time, we do want to mix things up and put our unique take on it. Like back in Spider-Man 1, it's great example, of right off the bat you look at that suit, you're like, "Oh, red, blue, the eyes, that's Spider-Man. That is a Spider-Man suit." But then you have the big spider, which was different for that color scheme. And you're like, "Oh, that's Insomniac's Spider-Man." And we kind of took that philosophy. From that moment all the way through, whether it's our character designs, whether it's our story, whether it's our gameplay. And I think Venom's a great example. I know there's Spider-Man fans, and there's Marvel fans, but there are BIG Venom fans and that is a character that you do not want to screw up.

Marvel: I'm also digging the new key art too, and thinking about that uniqueness that you have for the characters, you got Peter and Miles. Obviously you want to have them there together, but reflecting the aspects of their powers and their abilities, their differences, the black webbing. You know, Miles is a blast. How many iterations of that did you all go through to get it to to what it is now, which I think looks absolutely terrific?

Bryan Intihar: Any time you do one of those kind of—whether it's box art, whether it's key art, whether it's anything—we do a lot of iteration, I mean, down to like, "The finger is pointing this way. Can we move it just a little bit more..." Like I mean, we get really, really detailed. And the good news is we have a lot of way more talented people than me making those decisions and making those calls. Whether it's our Art Director Jacinda Chew, whether it's the Marvel Games team. Just kind of let them be the artists because they are tremendous artists, and let them be the experts there. But no, it's really cool. It kind of hints at some things. Obviously, with the symbiote, Miles' evolved Venom powers...and then it's kind of just a tease of a lot of big things to happen in the game, whether it's both in gameplay or in the story.

Marvel: Exciting. You know, we also have villains, so we know we'll see Lizard and Kraven in the game. Can you give us some info on our boy, Sergei Kravinoff, of who he is, what he's doing in the game's design, and particularly because we got new art. There's his crew that we see in the game and like there's the one dude in the back, like, I like him. The big weird dude.

Bryan Intihar: Yeah! First of all, even picking Kraven was—he originally wasn't in the gam. Like very early on, when you asked me, like back when we were talking, he actually wasn't in the game. And then we were thinking about the kind of the story we want to tell. How we wanted to push Peter and Miles in places they may not be as comfortable with. And not to mention—like, we knew we were going to do Lizard. We knew we were gonna do Venom. And we're like, "What's a character that kind of can push everybody, and push the story into a different direction?" And we were like, Kraven.

I'm a big Kraven fan. I just think he's such an interesting character because he doesn't have, like, magical powers. He's not like magic-based, he's not like, full of tech. He's a hunter. Obviously he's powerful and strong, but, you know, he's smart. Also, I thought his story could be probably like much more psychological than maybe some of our other characters we've done in the past. And, you know, that cinematic that we showed really kind of tells you what he's looking for. Kraven is looking for an equal. He's looking for somebody who's going to really challenge him. And you could tell he's frustrated with his crew. And his crew are basically hunters. He's recruited from all over the world the best of the best of the best. And he's asking for their help to find an equal.

Marvel: One last thing, just the switching of characters, and they have missions and different aspects that are specific to them, I think is really cool. It's going to make it a lot of fun as folks find their way to play the game.

Bryan Intihar: First off, there's a reason beyond just being a sequel. It's called Marvel's Spider-Man 2. It's a game featuring two Spider-heroes. It was really important that we have experience in a way, at least on the game side, of your playing as both Peter and Miles. Like really embracing. Not only do they have, you know, a big story they're sharing within the world, but they have their own individual journeys and we want people to experience them. Now, the way it's going to work is when you're playing the main story, that main story path, those missions are going to determine—based on where we want to go with the mission and the story—who you're playing. So sometimes we'll have missions where you just play as Peter. Sometimes you'll just play as Miles. Sometimes they'll be together, like in that gameplay reveal that we showed, that will be determine when you switch between the two characters.

So that's the main story in the open world. When you're exploring a city now, you're going to be able to switch instantly and a lot of that is because of the power of the PS5. You can really just kind of one button press. You're playing as Peter in Queens and all sudden you can say, I want to be Miles, and he'll just be right around the corner. And now you're swinging as Miles. It's instant. And what's great is that we'll have content in the open world that's designed specifically around Peter, because we always want to make sure what we're doing is, you know, whatever content we have has a great story around it. So sometimes we want to craft around a certain character. Same thing for Miles. We have content designed specifically for him, and then we have the shared content. Where you can play as either Peter or Miles.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 releases October 20th, 2023 only on PlayStation 5. Pre-Order the title now on PlayStation Store, PlayStation Direct or your friendly neighborhood retailer!

 

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