Spider-Man was the first 3D attempt at Spidey, and at the time, it was awesome. Although Neversoft’s attempt hasn’t aged well, many gamers today still have fond memories of it, Chad Findley included. In a recent interview with GamingBible, the game’s Lead Designer revealed that he would “absolutely do it,” while talking about a potential remaster of Spider-Man. However, he did say that he is aware of the “nightmarish licensing and approval processes that are around these days.” So, while Findley would love to remaster the 2000 game, it’s highly unlikely that his desire will ever come to fruition. But, if Marvel ever lets someone else do a Spider-Man game, whether it’s a remaster or not, Findley is certainly the right guy. The reason why we say that “it’s on Marvel” is because the company owns the rights to Spider-Man video games. Basically, Sony only owns the exclusive rights to Spider-Man characters in movies. This explains why Disney has to work out favorable terms with Sony to use Tom Holland’s character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and why Sony has its own Sony’s Spider-Man universe. The only reason why we can think of why most seem to think that Sony owns all of Spider-Man exclusively is that Marvel’s Spider-Man, as well as Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and the upcoming sequel, are all exclusive to the PS4 and the PS5. However, Spider-Man has since appeared in non-PS-exclusive games, so it’s still Marvel who has to greenlight a Spider-Man video game. Then again, we’re pretty sure that this train of thought involves Microsoft as Activision published Spider-Man, which the tech giant now owns. TLDR; Findley wants to remaster PS1’s Spider-Man, but don’t expect it to happen. If it’s any consolation, Spider-Man is very much well-represented in all modern media. If anything, the games that deserve a proper remaster are Beenox’s Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and its sequel, Spider-Man: Edge of Time. Both games served as the inspiration for the Spider-Verse storyline, which, in turn, led to 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and 2023’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. With Dakota Johnson’s Madame Web getting a feature film scheduled for June 2023, a PS5 and Xbox Series S/X remaster of both Beenox Spider-Man titles would be ideal albeit one that requires Microsoft and Sony to work together.
