PlayStation Ruined Marvel's Spider-Man 2 PC Release

When Marvel's Spider-Man 2 was released on the PlayStation 5 in October 2023, it received high praise from everyone for its narrative, characterization, and the game itself. The game further received several nominations in most of the end-year awards and picked up six wins at the 27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, including the Action Game of the Year award. Within 24 hours, it sold more than 2.5 million units, over five million in 11 days, and became the fastest-selling PlayStation first-party title.

So, the news of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 being released on PC was much eagerly awaited by the fans, as Marvel's Spider-Man did remarkably well when it was released on PC after the PlayStation 4 launch. The wait ended for the fans as Marvel's Spider-Man 2's port for PC, developed by Nixxes Software, was released on 30 January 2025. But it's not all too joyful for PlayStation to watch how the game is doing compared to the previous installment.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 was the quickest from PS5 to PC debut we've seen thus far, only 15 months since its PS5 release. This obviously indicates that PlayStation wanted the game to be on PC as soon as it's ready. But ever since Marvel's Spider-Man 2 was released on PC, it only hit a peak concurrent of 18,907 players, which is highly disappointing given that Marvel's Spider-Man peaked at 66,000 concurrent players when it first launched on PC. So, there is a significant disparity here, and it appears that there is far less interest in Spider-Man 2 on PC.

If we presume Sony's expectations were far higher than this, what makes things even stranger is how PlayStation decided whether or not to sell Spider-Man 2 for PC. Furthermore, they did not announce anything until precisely the day prior to its launch; there was no preload, no pre-orders, no promotion, and the PC spec requirements were not released, let alone informing how much the game would cost. Sony accomplished nothing. It felt as if they just sort of got done with the release at the last minute.

What's worse, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is receiving mixed reviews on Steam. There have been reports of numerous flaws, including performance issues and crashes, which have left many users wondering how Nixxes messed up such a highly anticipated release. Nixxes ported this since they are the best when it comes to porting games to PC.

While some might point to the $59.99 price tag, which clearly isn't the issue here, it's how the game still requires a good number of patches, too. Others are pointing towards the announcement that there is no PSN requirement to play some PlayStation titles on PC. So perhaps PlayStation was aware of technical issues and predicted Spider-Man 2's dismal performance on PC.

It appears that many are starting to conclude that something unusual is going on behind the scenes at Sony. The PC release could be a possible pivot. Some believe this is an indication that Sony will begin to move away from PCs, while others may believe the opposite at this moment. At least, that's what we knew earlier: PlayStation wanted to target PC users due to their large numbers. However, rumors surfaced yesterday that Sony canceled the Gran Turismo 7 PC port, and Demon's Souls is no longer coming to PC. This surely suggests a shift in Sony's PC strategy.