Highlights
- First-party PlayStation studios have a tradition of including Easter eggs and references to other games within their own titles, celebrating each other under the PlayStation family banner.
- Marvel's Spider-Man 2 introduces an exclusive deluxe edition suit designed by concept artists from Bend Studio, distinguishing it from other exclusive suits in the game.
- The idea of having developer-designed suits or skins in future PlayStation games, similar to Marvel's Spider-Man 2, would be an exciting and creative way to showcase the talent of different first-party studios.
Recent first-party PlayStation studios have had fun with collaborative Easter eggs for one another, and their bluntness has often outweighed their attempts at remaining immersive positively. There are many examples of these tributes paid between games, such as Ghost of Tsushima featuring artifacts and actual gear resembling other first-party games, God of War Ragnarok featuring poems referencing other first-party games, and Horizon Forbidden West featuring a Kratos-inspired face paint for Aloy. This way, they all celebrate each other under their family banner of PlayStation.
But while it’s nothing novel for mascot PlayStation franchises to reference one another in creative ways, the way that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has debuted exclusive deluxe edition suits should become a new tradition akin to what PlayStation has already been doing. It wouldn’t be a surprise now to see Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 include Easter eggs for games like The Last of Us or Death Stranding, for example, though there is a much more involved and interesting idea Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 proposes with the Tactical suit that future PlayStation games could adopt, and that’s developer-designed suits or skins.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Features an Exclusive Suit Designed by Bend
The people behind the deluxe edition-exclusive Tactical suit are actually concept artists Joel Mandish and Darren Quach from Bend Studio, best known for its divisive post-apocalyptic drama Days Gone. This is of particular note due to how eclectic the suit designers are for the other exclusive suits and how the Tactical suit is the only one that hails from another studio.
Indeed, God of War’s Raf Grassetti designed the exclusive Aurantia suit for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, but he did so independently as he is no longer at Santa Monica. No other suits are labeled as being designed by a particular studio, and that gives Bend’s suit a lot of significance in that regard. It doesn’t mean the suit is qualitatively better than any of the other suits, but it is curious that no other developer was tasked with whipping up a Spidey suit to add to the deluxe edition’s catalog of exclusives.
Maybe Bend’s concept artists have a lot more time on their hands than concept artists at Naughty Dog or Guerrilla Games, and an explanation as to why other developers weren’t on this list will probably remain unanswered. Either way, with first-party PlayStation games throwing Easter eggs and cosmetic references around to each other so often lately, it seems like a missed opportunity not to make the contents of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s deluxe edition a new trend in future games.
Future First-Party PlayStation Games Should Include Their Own Developer-Designed Skins
Having an entire catalog of Spider-Man suits designed by high-profile developers at first-party studios would be extraordinary, even if it was only to see how each developer would approach its own Spider-Man costume. This goes far beyond the obligatory gaming reference with an explicit logo or character cosmetic slapped onto something and instead allows the developer to flex its creative muscles for a game unrelated to what it’s working on.
It’s exciting to see Raf Grassetti’s approach to a Spider-Man suit design now, for instance, since that’s technically a Santa Monica design by proxy, and it would be equally exciting to see a Kojima Productions or Housemarque Spider-Man suit as well. Then, if PlayStation made this a new tradition across all its first-party studios and games, it would be great to see Insomniac design armor for Kratos in a God of War sequel or Aloy face paint and gear in a Horizon sequel.
Unfortunately, depending on the game this idea wouldn’t necessarily be plausible—the closest The Last of Us could get to resembling this premise is having studios design a set of clothes for its characters to wear, though seeing what ordinary clothing developers pair together would be understandably underwhelming compared to an intricate Spider-Man costume. That said, there’s an intriguing opportunity there somewhere that PlayStation should consider after Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is out on October 20, exclusively for PS5.
