Games Inbox: How the Insomniac leak damages PlayStation, Wolverine leaks, and Asgard’s Wrath 2

Marvel’s Wolverine is part of the biggest gaming hack ever (Picture: YouTube)

The Wednesday letters page feels bad for Insomniac Games after the hack of their servers, as a reader wishes he could afford a Meta Quest 3.

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PLEASE NOTE: We are currently preparing content to run over the Christmas and New Year break and, as usual, we’d like this to include Reader’s Features. So, if you’ve had an idea for a feature, that you’ve never got around to writing, then sending it in now would be the perfect time. In can be on any subject, but anything taking a long-term view of recent trends or games would be particularly apt.

Insider infoThis hacking attack with Insomniac Games is crazy stuff. I realise you can’t go too much into the details, since it is stolen information and all that, but even the top level info like all the games they’re working on is crazy. We now know what Insomniac is working on until 2032! Talk about long term planning.

I looked into it a bit myself – all of this is on Reddit – and there’s some business stuff on there about Sony being worried about Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard, although it’s not clear if that’s before or after they actually did. But there’s also lots of legal and accounting stuff about the percentages Marvel are asking for to use their licences, which I’m sure Microsoft will take great in, now that they’re making Blade.

So my question is whether this is going to hurt Sony? It’s been a question all year really: does it matter whether we know about games in advance or not and why do they think it’s so important to keep it secret. Well, there’s no secrets now for Insomniac, but I don’t think there’s any real harm done. I’m looking forward to those new games, which is a good thing, right?Grackle

The worst is yet to comeI had a look at some of the leaked footage for the Wolverine game and… it’s kind of exactly what you’d expect? I realise you can’t show it here but it’s a third person game where Wolvie has his senses powers and can follow scent trails and figure out where people have been and that sort of thing. Kind of like detective vision, basically.

It looks pretty good even though it was alpha footage, so I imagine the final thing will look amazing. Crazy thing is though that the game files themselves also leaked. They don’t seem to have got them working yet but they seem pretty confident that they can play the whole game from it eventually, and pirate it long before it’s ever released. That has got to be a major blow for Sony and Insomniac, especially if the source code is in there too.

This is, what, the second or third time this has happened to Sony? And the fifth or sixth time to a games, publisher in general? Whatever kind of online security they’ve got it’s clearly not cutting it and this is a major blow that I’m sure will have lots of other really bad repercussions. I mean these are little companies that can’t afford good security, it’s Sony and Rockstar!Focus

The long arm of the lawI can imagine how gutted the Insomniac developers must be over the hacks. I’ve never heard of anything this big before. The GTA 6 one didn’t really seem to get away with much of interest but this basically downloaded the whole company, almost literally if you consider all the personal data that got stolen as well.

And for what? Internet kudos points? The hackers didn’t seem to get any money out of it and now they’ve basically invoked a blood curse from Sony, who will be trying to make sure they all go to jail for a very long time. Which I bet they do, as these people always seem to get caught – and turn out to be some cliched teenager living in his mum’s basement.

Personally speaking I’m not much interested in Marvel and have never liked Ratchet & Clank so ironically there’s not much of personal interest to me. Although I would be curious to know what the IP is when it comes out *checks notes* in the next decade.Korey

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No more secretsSo, Sony even had Insomniac working on live service games, eh? Shouldn’t be a surprise at this point, but the fact that they’re not any more, I think, just shows that the whole idea has been shelved. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these hacked files show some proof of the arguments going back and forth at Sony, there’s got to be the minutes from minutes and that sort of thing, I would’ve thought.

If there’s more than a million files that is going to mean a lot of dirty secrets and all it needs is for some superfan to go through them all and find all the juicy details, which I’m sure they will.

It’s not good though, especially considering how often this sort of thing keeps happening. Leaks and rumours are bad enough but hacks completely spoiling all the surprises and reveals is even more disappointing. Even if E3 was still a thing they’ve have nothing more to announce anymore!Tacle

A moment of interestWhat a terrible day for Sony and Insomniac. Now everyone, including Microsoft, knows everything they’d doing for eight years or more. And god knows what else will be found when people have gone through everything properly.

It’s not on though and I hope the hackers get caught. For us fans it’s interesting for a few minutes and then you just get on with your day, but for the people that have already been working on these games for years, to see it all just thrown out there for people to pick over. Including even working versions of the Wolverine game? That’s wild.

Reminds me of the time everything leaked out about The Last Of Us Part 2 ahead of time. The hackers are to blame of course, but whoever’s in charge of Sony’s cyber security is not doing their job properly.Tuby

Meta realityI expected Asgard’s Wrath 2 to be good, but not that good! It’s currently 94 on Metacritic. GC saying it’s possibly the best VR game ever made is high praise indeed. I had a Meta Quest 2, but it was a touch uncomfortable for me. I have been considering a Meta Quest 3. Even more so now.

A friend has bought his son a Meta Quest 3 for Xmas, which comes with Asgard’s Wrath 2. I say his son, it’s one of those presents us dads love to buy. I wonder if my daughter would like one?

Meanwhile, Xbox are still searching for a killer app (I’m optimistic for 2024) and Sony have put PlayStation VR2 out to die. Yet it’s Facebook who come up with a killer app and are killing Sony in the VR space. PlayStation VR2 is a great headset but even if Sony do start making some games for it, there isn’t a hope it can catch the popularity of the Meta Quest.

The reasons are simple. You don’t need to purchase a console to use it. Being a self-contained system is a huge advantage, not to mention it is significantly cheaper as a result. Perhaps more significant, it’s wireless.

I will be very surprised if we see PlayStation VR3. Not unless it is a standalone unit like the Meta Quest. You can now play Xbox games on the Meta Quest also. I recall the big screen experience being very impressive on Meta Quest 2. I think I’m sold.Anon

Top twoNice review of Asgard’s Wrath 2, GC. I admit I’d never heard of it or the original until now but it definitely caught my interest. The problem is a Meta Quest 3 is not exactly an impulse purchase, so unless a friend turns out to be a lot richer than I realised I don’t think I’ll ever get to play it.

Out of interest, you mentioned it was probably one of the best VR games ever made. What would you say are the other main contenders?Hootness

GC: The other obvious one for us is Astro Bot: Robot Rescue. They’re very different games though, so while it’s hard to say which is better it’s kind of pointless too. Especially as most of the other runner-ups are VR versions of standard games, like Resident Evil Village.

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Over itThings in gaming I’ve found I care far less about now than I did a few years ago:

Virtual Reality. Resident Evil 7 on PlayStation VR was my first experience of VR and it blew me away. Thumper, Astro Bot, Statik, Moss, Wipeout and plenty of other games kept me well invested.

A PlayStation VR2 was bought and it’s great but the image in the headset wasn’t quite the jump I was hoping for. More so the novelty of being in the game has gone somewhat. It was sold last week after hardly being used for a while, but I will keep an eye on the tech as it has potential.

Subscription services. I got an Xbox Series X and Game Pass during Covid. Covid was rubbish but the other two were great to deal with lockdown.

I played the excellent Hi-Fi Rush on Game Pass in January and haven’t really touched it since, as the gen finally got going this year and the most compelling content is not on subscription services. I don’t ever see myself signing up for Game Pass or PS Plus Extra ever again.

Sony first party exclusives. My loss of interest here is less serve than the first two as Sony have some first party studios who’s output I’m frothing at the mouth to know about, like Housemarque and Bluepoint Games.

But my disinterest started with the last big PlayStation 4 exclusive, Ghost Of Tsunami and continued with Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7 and God Of War Ragnarök. All very good games, which I bought, but all felt very familiar and I have no appetite for more. I’ve zero interest in Spider-Man 2.

Digital Foundry. They do fine and important work, I feel. But watching their stuff has made me overly concerned with technical aspects that aren’t really important and I think probably spoiled my enjoyment of gaming a bit. I’ve made a conscious effort to not watch their stuff the last month or so.Simundo

Inbox also-ransA number of games feature a pay to win model these days and it’s a foolish idea that will only alienate competitive fans and old school players. Too much money is being wasted on the graphics of games, they lack substance which in turn makes them boring.Daniel Roach

Hello Imogen, I love games too.Mitchell

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