Spider-Man reboot the latest offering from American video game developer that celebrates the spirit of the underdog
Founded in 1994 by Ted Price, Insomniac Games is best known for early PlayStation favourites Spyro the Dragon, and Ratchet and Clank; this year’s Spider-Man game will be the company’s first Marvel production
About 25 years ago, long before Insomniac Games took part in bringing the hotter-than-ever Marvel Universe back to video game consoles, founder Ted Price had a vision for changing interactive entertainment. Sort of.
“We didn’t really know what we were doing,” Price, 49, says of the studio’s beginnings in his company’s Burbank headquarters. But at least Insomniac’s first game had a mission: “Think fast. Shoot fast. And kick a**.”
That was the phrase heard early in 1996’s Disruptor, Insomniac’s initial offering and an ambitious effort that tried, sometimes awkwardly, to capitalise on two trends – one that would remain dominant and another that would soon disappear – shooting and full-motion video.
Yet despite being generally well received for a debut game, the Doom-inspired Disruptor failed to revolutionise either the industry or the company. That is changed.
Though Price in the early 1990s was smitten with the hellish violence of the genre-defining first-person shooter Doom, Insomniac would keep challenging itself to develop beyond the “think fast” and “shoot first” mode of gameplay. The company rose to prominence thanks to the lively, cartoonish and colourful worlds of the lovable Spyro the Dragon and the buddy action series Ratchet & Clank.
This September, however, Insomniac will release its biggest game yet: Spider-Man for Sony’s PlayStation 4. The stakes are high.
