The Critical Corner

Back in the fall of 2018, Insomniac Games released what many consider one of (if not THE) best comic book games ever made in “Marvel’s Spider-Man” . Taking the expertise they learned with open world traversal with the criminally underrated “Sunset Overdrive”, it turns out there was no developer more perfectly suited to tackle the beloved webslinger. But it wasn’t just nailing the fundamentals that made the successful 2018 game so good. Insomniac Games also crafted a tale that honored and respected the long tenured history of the character and his world, while still making the story their own. While not without its problems, the game came together to provide both one of the best adaptations of Spider-Man in any medium, one of the best exclusives available on the PlayStation 4, and the PlayStation brand’s most financially successful game ever.  So much has changed for Insomniac Games since the release of “Marvel’s Spider-Man”. Not only were they fully acquired by Sony after close to 20 y

More than a week ago, the gaming industry was shaken by the massive news of Microsoft entering an agreement to acquire beleaguered publisher Activision/Blizzard ( who for those who've been in the know, has been embroiled in a massive lawsuit over sexual harrassment and other horrid things happening within the company and at a top level ) in an all cash transaction of $68.7 billion dollars. Considering Activision Blizzard owns some of gaming IP's most lucrative franchises (mainly above all else, the "Call of Duty" franchise whose two most recent entries "Black Ops Cold War" and "Vanguard" where the top 2 best selling games of 2021), Microsoft buying this kind of publisher is the kind of thing that absolutely, definitively changes the gaming landscape forever. It absolutely removes a big third party vertical from the equation (in an even bigger way than when Microsoft acquired Zenimax and took with them Bethesda and all the studios they owned). When