With Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 Confirmed to Be Skipping Story DLC, Fans Are Waving Goodbye and Wondering What’s Next

Insomniac Games made the shock announcement last week that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 won’t get any additional story content, putting to bed fan hopes for DLC.

The announcement came in the same breath that Sony announced a PC version of Spider-Man 2 launches in January — one of the quickest turnarounds from single-player PS5 exclusive to PC from the company so far.

Since Spider-Man 2 came out in September 2023, Insomniac has released a number of updates for the game, adding New Game+, mission replay, new suits, and more. But fans had hoped that story DLC would give them more of a reason to return to Insomniac's wonderful recreation of New York that the addition of new features. Now, those hopes have been dashed.

But fans hadn’t just hoped for Spider-Man 2 story DLC, they expected it after the game itself left a number of threads that Insomniac might have pulled on for additional content, including the introduction of Carnage.

Beyond that, though, the devastating Insomniac data breach of December 2023, which revealed the studio’s upcoming slate of releases, and the accidental release of Spider-Man 2’s development game menu earlier this year, all pointed to planned DLC. Indeed, the development game menu included what looked like the entire arc of a DLC called the ‘Beetle Villain Arc.’

Throughout the turbulence caused by the Insomniac data breach, Sony made a significant round of layoffs affecting around 900 staff, or about 8% of its global PlayStation workforce. Insomniac was one of a number of PlayStation studios hit by the cuts. Alongside the layoffs, a number of in-development games were canceled, Sony said at the time.

Now, a year after Spider-Man 2’s release and over 11 million sales, fans are waving goodbye to the game, issuing their verdict now they know there’s no more story content to come. IGN’s Spider-Man 2 review returned an 8/10. We said: “Marvel's Spider-Man 2 delivers Insomniac's best tale yet, and despite its open world falling short, is a reliably fun superhero power trip.”

The forced hate for this game is coming back now that the DLC got "canceled" even tho they have never officially announced it

No matter what anyone says Spider Man 2 will always be a Outstanding game. pic.twitter.com/l2Z058LakA— James ⚡️ (@YoshinoLover08) October 19, 2024

Today, one year ago, we join Peter and Miles on their journey to be greater together. Happy one year to Marvel's Spider-Man 2!

My personal GOTY 2023. Congrats @insomniacgames and thank you very much for this series ❤️????????️????️!

Screenshots I took in the game: pic.twitter.com/zyNTobIqLN— Ali Talibov (@Ali20011908) October 20, 2024

Insomniac was reportedly planning to release Marvel's Venom in 2025, Marvel's Wolverine in 2026, Marvel's Spider-Man 3 in 2028, a new Ratchet & Clank in 2029, Marvel's X-Men in 2030, and an untitled new IP in 2031/2032, but those plans may have changed significantly.

So, what’s next? While Insomniac has a Wolverine game in the works, fans are hoping the developer will also release a Marvel’s Spider-Man spinoff similar in scope to the hugely successful Miles Morales standalone, with Venom the potential focus. To find out how Insomniac has set up its next sequel, check out IGN’s Spider-Man 2 ending explained.

In the meantime, the PC release of Spider-Man 2 will inevitably spark a modding scene that may see fan creations extend the life of the game beyond its first year. Perhaps PC modders will get Venom fully playable, as PS5 players found a way to do last year before Insomniac patched the exploit out.

Let us know in the comments what you thought of Spider-Man 2, now we know there’s no more story DLC, and tell us what you hope to see from the potential Venom standalone game and Spider-Man 3 next.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.