Spider-Man 2: release date window, trailers, gameplay, and more

Spider-Man 2 will arrive on PS5 on October 20, 2023.

It was confirmed via a PlayStation blog post that  Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will be a PS5 exclusive. This is the first major Sony first-party game that won’t also be coming to PS4. Insomniac’s Ryan Schneider, head of franchise strategy and studio relations, wrote, “We’re so thrilled to continue the journey of both Peter Parker and Miles Morales in their most epic single-player adventure yet, coming exclusively to PlayStation 5 consoles in 2023.” So, sorry PS4 folks, hopefully you can get your hands on the new console before this game launches in the fall.

PC is another platform that Sony has begun experimenting with bringing its first-party games to, including Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, and now, both Spider-Man games. However, these often take years to come over, if at all, so for now, just assume the PS5 is the only way to play Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.

We got a purely cinematic trailer during the PlayStation Showcase in September, which was our first true confirmation of the game’s existence. The trailer is quick but packed with details to dig into.

The trailer opens with narration playing from what Spidey fans strongly believe to be the villain Kraven the Hunter, a Russian villain who was introduced as trying to hunt and defeat Spider-Man to prove that he is the greater hunter. That lines up with many of the narration lines here that speak about finding a true foe worthy of his time. Still, with no visual to go with the voice, this is still speculative.

As the narration goes on, we see both Peter and Miles taking down thugs in the streets. Peter uses his gadgets, specifically the Iron Spider limbs, despite the suit not being the Iron Spider design, and Miles has his venom powers to shock enemies. They team up, webbing a thug together before the narration comes to a close as the camera pulls in on a dark alley. This is where we learn the narration may not be talking about Peter and Miles when the narrator says, “… one of you finally give me what I desire?” The real villain, Venom, replies in a gravelly voice, “Yes. We will.”

We only see a bit of a street and an alley, but we are left wondering if this game will expand the map to go beyond the main New York setting.

Speaking of voices, while we never hear Peter or Miles, both Yuri Lowenthal and Jadji Jeter will return to play their respective Spider-Men, while Venom will be played by Candyman actor Tony Todd.

The PlayStation Showcase 2023 highlighted Kraven the Hunter’s motivation for coming to New York to find a worthy hunting target. Of course, that means Spider-Man.

Queens is a new location added that will be explorable, and it’s where we meet up with Spider-Man donning the symbiote suit. As expected, he is far more aggressive in both attacks and how he communicates with friend and foe. He and Miles chase down The Lizard, trying to capture him before Kraven’s men can since they believe him to be the only one who can save Harry. While Lizard escapes at the end of the trailer, Miles does manage to get a tracker on him.

For as long as much as we’ve seen about Spider-Man 2, we technically didn’t get a story trailer until SDCC 2023. This trailer focuses heavily on Harry, who was only mentioned and very briefly teased in the original game. He’s back now and appears to be cured from whatever illness he had. While many think Harry may eventually bind with Venom, we do know that it at least won’t be at the start of the game since the gameplay trailer mentioned Harry needing The Lizard (Dr. Connors) to help cure him. Speaking of Connors, he appears to be one of the first on the scene of the Symbiote’s crash site, meaning its origins may be faithful to the comics.

Despite this, there is a lot hinting at Harry becoming Venom later on. The most notable example in the trailer is this line to Peter, “I need you with me, Pete. We’re going to heal the world.” The latter sentence is repeated by Venom near the end of the trailer.

Thanks to the gameplay trailer, we do know that both Peter and Miles will be playable in this sequel. At key moments, a button prompt will swap the player to the other character, although it is possible that you may be able to swap at will between missions since that aspect of the game hasn’t been shown off yet. What we saw was a linear mission, so the extent of the open world isn’t known yet, aside from the new region of Queens being included.

We didn’t see much in terms of dynamic team-up moves like the cinematic trailer showed, but the two definitely team up to pull off scripted, set piece moves.

It also touched on the gadgets and venom powers being shown off, and it looks like Peter has the ability to wear one suit while using the ability of a different suit’s power. The gameplay trailer only showed him wearing the symbiote suit, so that is based only on the cinematic trailer for now. Miles, on the other hand, does retain his venom powers, plus now has access to gadgets like Peter did in the original game.

The biggest change to gameplay is going to be related to the symbiote suit Spider-Man is wearing. This gives him a suite of new tendril powers we’ve seen, and likely plenty more. New enemies include Kraven’s hunters, as well as some robotic animals.

For traversal, both now have wingsuit-style gliding abilities and the normal web-swinging to make zipping across New York much more engaging and dynamic.

It is confirmed now that Spider-Man 2 will not have any co-op or multiplayer, and will instead let you switch between characters at specified story moments. You may be able to switch at will outside of missions, however, that is pure speculation.