- Marvel's Wolverine footage draws backlash over familiar AAA tropes, an unoriginal boss fight, and more.
- Insomniac Games marketing director James Stevenson addressed the backlash in an official X post.
- He describes the online backlash for Wolverine as a "relentless onslaught" not good for "anyone's mental health."
Marvel’s Wolverine is Sony’s biggest first-party release this year, and like any other PlayStation release recently, it’s receiving a stream of online backlash.
Naturally, Insomniac Games marketing director James Stevenson spoke out against backlash for Marvel’s Wolverine on X, saying that “it’s a relentless onslaught that I cannot believe is good for anyone’s mental health nor representative.”
“I think the wild way this algorithm amplifies and forces negativity upon you has me reconsidering my philosophy on telling devs to look or post here,” added Stevenson in his X post.
The worst part is that Insomniac is one of the few first-party studios with consistently high-quality output for PlayStation. They’re almost carrying the PS5 console on their backs.
Select members of the press recently received 3 hours of early access to Marvel’s Wolverine and released new gameplay footage, fueling the wave of online backlash against the action-adventure title.
Posts on X have criticized the game for relying on familiar AAA tropes, including a massive Sentinel Prototype boss fight where Wolverine targets its arms to deal damage, a mechanic some players say feels straight out of the early 2000s.
Some are even saying the 2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie tie-in game is better than the upcoming title.
Others are slamming Marvel’s Wolverine for being linear, rather than sticking to Insomniac’s open-world formula with the Spider-Man series. However, the game’s online backlash doesn’t necessarily reflect its quality, with early press reviews remaining positive across the board.
Of course, many players are rightfully criticizing Sony for ending physical disc production. However, Insomniac has been caught in the crossfire even though Marvel’s Wolverine release still comes with a physical disc. So, some of the online backlash is completely unjustified.
On a brighter note, Insomniac has confirmed that Marvel’s Wolverine will feature New Game+ and mission replays at launch, eliminating all replayability concerns immediately. They have also stated that Marvel’s Wolverine will run at 60 FPS with ray tracing on the base PS5, so fans of the studio are in for a treat when it launches on September 15, 2026.
