Fresh off its first beta weekend, most of the talk surrounding Marvel's Avengers seem to be squarely on the continued PlayStation 4 exclusive content coming to the game. In addition to exclusive rewards and thirty day exclusivity to DLC cosmetic content, the headliner to all this remains Spider-Man. Without Xbox and PC players getting access to the highly popular character, fans have been wondering how he factors in to the narrative and his impact on it.
In a recent interview, Marvel's Avengers creative director Shaun Escayg shed a bit more light on that topic. Surprisingly, Crystal Dynamics isn't shying away from the webhead and his role in the game's narrative. Instead of limiting his portrayal, Escayg doubled down by saying that not only will their version of Spider-Man be in the story and what happened to everyone during the A-Day incident, but PlayStation fans will see his own story arc and villains that may occupy that space as well.
Vince Napoli, who serves as the lead combat designer went a bit further and clarified that Spider-Man serves in addition to the main story arc and progression. The team didn't have to swap anyone out to fit him into the story or change anything in order to make him work. So regardless of the platform, all players will experience the same story, though PlayStation players will get a bit more than the others with the inclusion of Spider-Man's content. It's this DLC that will ultimately tie Spider-Man into the events of the main story and likely expand upon it in new ways from his perspective.
Escayg did go on to say that Crystal Dynamics doesn't have much say in the matter as it's a decision that's being made above the studio between Marvel and Sony. They understand that it is a delicate situation, but overall, the studio is just happy to have the opportunity to work on the character for the game.
There was no swapping or anything else – we've got our plan, we've got our heroes that are coming out, the stories, the challenges, and the gameplay escalation that we've planned out – that's all continuing. And then on top of all that stuff, we've also got Spider-Man now, and weaving him into [the story] is the key.
While Xbox and PC players will likely find a little solace in the fact that their main story hasn't been altered, it doesn't do much to ease the knowledge that their versions are somehow inferior to the PlayStation version. Even though Crystal Dynamics isn't responsible for the decision, the developer will no doubt continue to be the target of fan outrage and memes from social media communities like the Marvel's Avengers subReddit. With no more exclusive characters coming to any platform, the situation likely won't be resolved anytime soon, if ever.
Marvel's Avengers releases on September 4th for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, and later on PS5 and Xbox Series X.
Source: PlayStation Trophies