A superhero is being called upon to help save Sony from failing to meet its ambitious sales forecasts for the PlayStation 5 this year.
Sony will be releasing Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which is one of the biggest PS5 titles of the year and one of PlayStation’s most profitable franchises.
Released in 2020, the PS5 has been riddled with challenges like Covid-related supply constraints among others, which to the console only selling a disappointing 40 million units, much less than its predecessor’s sales.
With the help of Spider-Man, Sony has predicted it will sell 25 million PS5s this fiscal year, and to do so, they also released new, slimmer models right before the holiday season buying frenzy begins.
We’ll have to wait and see how the economic slowdown effects these goals and consumer’s buying habits but with the release of Spider-Man 2, Sony is betting on the popularity of the older, previous two games, which already sold over 33 million copies.
Typically, PlayStation games can cost a pretty penny and upwards of $200 million to make, according to Lewis Ward, a research director at the International Data Corp. Ward.
He said that the new superhero sequel “may be in that same range” and with the cost in mind, “Spider-Man 2 has to be a system seller”.
The new game content has changed to include an alien parasite called a “symbiote”, which affects include giving Peter Parker more brawn but, on the flipside, also making him malicious and more aggressive.
As the game goes on, we learn the symbiote turns is part of a supervillain’s, named Venom, plan to take over New York City.
Spider-Man won’t go it alone, however, as a second Spider-Man called Miles Morales is introduced to tag team the city and surrounding areas with various new tools, such as a set of wings that enhance the traditional web-swinging mode of navigation.
Based on the reactions of reviewers, Sony may have a hit on their hands as many are saying it is up there with the best games the year has offered.
Behind the scenes, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan is retiring at the end of this fiscal year and Microsoft acquired gaming giant Activision Blizzard making the importance of this game doing well just going up a notch.
Despite the pressure for Sony to perform, it looks like their new game might just be a hit with fans this Christmas. Ward seems to think so.
“My spidey-sense tells me that this game will eventually sell tens of millions of copies,” Ward said.
