[UPDATE: Despite the retailer denying the leak, Sony has confirmed Spider-Man is a PS4 exclusive post-launch hero for Marvel's Avengers. Original story follows.]
Despite recent reports claiming that Spider-Man would be exclusively making his way to Marvel's Avengers on the PlayStation 4, it seems the source of the rumor, UK digital retailer Base, has come forth and denied the legitimacy of the information. For those out of the loop on the now-debunked leak, a listing for the upcoming game on the site claimed that players could "play as Spider-man exclusively on PS4," leading many to believe that the iconic superhero would prominently feature in the game.
Speaking to IGN about the mishap, Base confirmed that "the information was removed from our product page as it was not correct." The site went on to explain a little more about the origin of the false advertisement, citing "it had been on the product since E3 June 2019 (11 June 2019)," however, it did not come from either a publisher or supplier.
The clarification will no doubt come as a major disappointment to fans of the web-slinging superhero and the upcoming Marvel's Avengers game, many of which had grown incredibly excited since the information was falsely leaked online. Of course, that's not to say that Spider-Man will never come to the game at all, especially as Square Enix has been very forthcoming about the fact Marvel's Avengers will be a live service game with new heroes added frequently throughout its life cycle. Naturally, it's worth remembering that it might be harder to feature the superhero than some would expect, with his licensing being tied to Sony rather than Marvel.
Of course, Marvel's Avengers does have a number of other major heroes allegedly coming to the game following the title's original release, with Square Enix already confirming Hawkeye. The beloved superhero actually got a fairly substantial showcase during the game's recent War Table stream, with a new trailer highlighting an action-heavy set-piece in which the notorious Avenger's member takes down several towering robots with his iconic bow-and-arrow-based combat style. Some fans are even theorizing that Marvel's Avengers' Hawkeye could even be honoring his comic book roots, with his design indicating he might be deaf.
Hopefully, Spider-Man will get to join Hawkeye following the game's release later this year, with fans clearly excited to see the famed web-slinger team up with The Avengers in their next big adventure. If not, at least fans can look forward to a new video game Spider-Man adventure this year, with Spider-Man: Miles Morales seeing a new web-slinger don the mantel exclusively on the PlayStation 5.
Marvel's Avengers is set to release on September 4th, for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with next-gen versions planned for PS5 and Xbox Series X.
Source: IGN