Earlier today, Insomniac Games showed off footage from the remastered version of Spider-Man on the PS5, and many fans were irritated by the fact that Peter Parker's face was changed from the previous version of Spider-Man. However, it seems Insomniac Games has a pretty good reason for the redesign and recasting.
The recent trailer for the remastered Spider-Man drew a lot of criticism from fans of the series, given the fact that Peter Parker's face had been completely redesigned. Many fans commented saying that the character was redesigned to look more like Tom Holland, the most recent actor to play Spider-Man in live-action. However, Insomniac Games actually has grounds for redesigning the character.
According to Insomniac, the studio needed somebody else to do facial capture that better matched the performance of the voice actor. Presumably, the facial structure of the actual voice actor didn't match with the new facial capture technology featured in a next-gen platform like the PS5. The bone structure of the previous motion capture and facial capture for whatever reason could not translate over to the subsequent version. That was ultimately why Peter Parker's face needed to be changed.
The voice actor who played both Spider-Man and Peter Park in the previous version of the game, Yuri Lowenthal, responded over Twitter and was very reasonable and understanding about the whole situation. Lowenthal is still the one playing the character in the remastered version, it's just somebody else doing the facial capture.
Motion and facial capture can be done differently depending on the project in particular. Often times the voice actor for whichever character will do both the motion and facial capture of the character in question, like with God of War (2018) to name one example. However, this isn't always the case. Sometimes the facial and motion capture is done by a completely different person, leaving the voice actor to just having to record lines for the character, which appears to be the case for the remastered Spider-Man.
Hopefully, this shouldn't be as big of a problem as some fans are making it out to be. Lowenthal is still the one voicing the character, giving plenty of new people the opportunity to experience his excellent portrayal of both Spider-Man and Peter Parker. With the release of Spider-Man: Miles Morales a little over a month away, Spider-Man fans certainly have a lot to look forward to.
Spider-Man will release on November 12th, 2020 for the PS5 and is currently available for the PS4.