Venom Still in Development—Could It Be a PS6 Launch Game?

The long-rumored Venom game from Insomniac Games is apparently still in development, although there is still no clear indication of when Sony plans to reveal it officially. A recent insider comment has once again brought the project into the spotlight. At the same time, the game's unusually quiet development has also led to speculation that it could be positioned as a launch title for the PlayStation 6.

The latest discussion started with a Reddit post that appeared to reveal details about the Venom game, including claims that players would control three different characters. The post quickly began circulating online before seemingly being removed. The information already looked questionable to many people, and its disappearance only added to the uncertainty.

Still, fake-looking leaks do occasionally turn out to contain real information, so the post was enough to get people talking about the project again. That eventually led to questions about whether Venom was still in development and whether it could be announced at The Game Awards or sometime in spring or summer next year.

Venom was "very much still in development" the last time we checked. However, we did not know when the game would actually be announced. That distinction matters because while it suggests the project hasn't been canceled, it doesn't say when Sony or Insomniac will be ready to show it.

The idea that Venom is still in development shouldn't come as a huge surprise, given how long the project has been associated with Insomniac.

Information about the game has been circulating for years, and previous leaks have suggested different release windows depending on when they surfaced. At various points, Venom was rumored to arrive before Wolverine, while other reports suggested that the two games could launch around the same time or that Venom would follow Wolverine.

That long development period also makes a broader Insomniac release schedule possible. If everything goes according to plan, you could potentially see Wolverine, Venom, and Spider-Man 3 arrive in relatively quick succession. Wolverine is expected to be the next major Insomniac Marvel project, followed by Venom and eventually Spider-Man 3.

A yearly schedule would obviously put a lot of pressure on the studio, though.

One possible timeline could have Wolverine arrive this year, Venom follow in 2027, and Spider-Man 3 come in 2028. However, pushing Spider-Man 3 to 2029 would arguably be more realistic and would give Insomniac more time between releases.

Where Venom gets particularly interesting is with the PlayStation 6. Speculation suggests the game could be a cross-generation release, meaning it would launch on both PS5 and PS6, while potentially serving as one of the PS6's launch titles.

That idea has some logic. Insomniac has been remarkably consistent with its output, and if Venom really is targeting next year, its timing could line up with the arrival of Sony's next console. The bigger question is whether Sony would actually make a game as significant as Venom exclusive to new hardware.

There is a strong argument for having PS6-exclusive games at launch.

If every major release is also available on PS5, existing PlayStation owners have less reason to move to the new console immediately. A new generation needs software that gives people a reason to upgrade, and a major Marvel game from Insomniac could certainly fill that role.

At the same time, making Venom exclusive to PS6 would come with a major risk. The PS6 would initially have a much smaller audience than the PS5, meaning Insomniac could cut off millions of players who could otherwise buy the game.

The difference could be significant. If you assume roughly 95 million PS5 owners and perhaps five million PS6 owners around the game's launch, a cross-generation Venom could theoretically be available to around 100 million people. Even if only a fraction of that audience purchased the game, Insomniac could still have a very large potential market.

A PS6-exclusive release would obviously shrink that audience considerably. Selling one or two million copies on a new console could still be a strong attachment rate, especially if the PS6 had only a few million owners at that point. However, the bigger question would be whether those sales are enough to justify the development costs of an expensive Insomniac game.

That is why a cross-gen release arguably makes more business sense.

You could leverage the PS5's huge install base while still giving PS6 owners a version that takes advantage of the newer hardware. Sony could then gradually transition toward PS6 exclusives as more players move to the new system.

The PS6's early adoption rate will matter a lot here. Even if the console launches successfully, it would take years to reach the kind of audience the PS5 already has. A slow start would make a PS6-only game even riskier.

If the PS6 struggled badly and sold only around a million units in its first several months, for example, an exclusive Venom game would immediately have a much smaller potential audience. That would not just hurt Sony; it could also hurt Insomniac and the game's commercial prospects.

There is also another reason why Venom's continued silence may not be as unusual as it looks. Next-generation projects tend to stay hidden longer than games targeting established hardware. Sony has not even officially revealed the PS6 yet, so plenty remains unknown about the company's next console. That makes it harder to talk openly about games that could be connected to it.

If Venom is being developed with the PS6 in mind, Sony may simply be waiting until it is ready to introduce the hardware before showing the game.

You can already see how different the information landscape becomes when you look at games that are expected to release sooner. Plenty of titles are known for the coming months, including games planned for early next year, but much less is known about what will happen toward the end of next year.

Games such as Judas and the next Assassin's Creed project could eventually fill that space, but many titles that may be released during that period remain relatively quiet. Part of the reason is that some are cross-generation projects, while others are tied more closely to the next generation.

The same reasoning could apply to other unannounced PlayStation projects. The next Astro Bot, for example, could potentially be one of the games Sony is keeping quiet because of its relationship with the next console generation. Other studios, including Media Molecule and Bend Studio, also have projects that remain largely unknown to the public.

Some of that secrecy could simply reflect the current state of those studios and their projects, but another possibility is that Sony is holding back information about games intended for PS6.

Intergalactic is an example of how Sony could approach the transition differently. The game could potentially launch on PS5 and then receive a PS6 version a few months later with an upgrade. That would make it easier for Sony to move players toward the new hardware without immediately abandoning the massive PS5 audience.

Until Dawn 2 and the next God of War project are also expected to be more visible because of their reported release windows, with one arriving in January and the other in February. That leaves games such as the next Astro Bot and other unannounced projects in a different position.

For Venom, that secrecy could be intentional. If the game were still targeting a PS5 release in the console's early years, it would be easier to imagine Sony revealing it much sooner. But with the PS5 further into its life cycle and the PS6 approaching, the timing is different.

There is also the unresolved issue of Tony Todd. Todd, who voiced Venom in Marvel's Spider-Man 2, passed away in 2024. If the Venom game is still moving forward, Insomniac will eventually need to explain how it will handle the character's voice.

There are several ways the situation could have been handled.

The studio may have recorded enough of Todd's lines before his death; it may have brought in another actor, or it could potentially use existing recordings in some way. Whatever the solution, it will likely need to be addressed once the game is officially revealed.

Beyond that, Venom's continued development isn't particularly surprising. The project has been rumored for years, and there has already been at least one major wave of speculation claiming that the game had been canceled. That rumor was quickly challenged by reports suggesting the last information available was that Venom had not been canceled.

The bigger mystery remains when Sony intends to show it. The Game Awards would be one option, but a dedicated PlayStation event could make even more sense, especially if Sony uses a future State of Play to introduce the PS6 officially.

If Sony holds a PS6-focused showcase around its usual June window next year, Venom would fit naturally into that presentation if the game is indeed intended as a launch title. In that scenario, the game's long period of silence would suddenly make much more sense, as Sony could be keeping both the game and its connection to the next generation under wraps until the right moment.

For now, the only solid takeaway from the latest rumor cycle is that Venom is reportedly still in development. Everything beyond that, including its release date, announcement timing, PS5 availability, and potential PS6 launch status, remains unconfirmed.

Still, the idea of Venom arriving alongside the PS6 is becoming an interesting possibility when you consider the game's long development, Insomniac's release schedule, and the amount of secrecy surrounding it. If Sony is preparing the game for its next generation, keeping it out of the spotlight until the PS6 is ready could explain why you have heard so little about one of Insomniac's most anticipated projects.