Sunset Overdrive may not have enjoyed the sort of universal, mainstream critical and commercial success that developer Insomniac Games would go on to enjoy with its Spider-Man games, but in spite of its relatively lower-profile nature, it had its own dedicated fanbase- one that has been holding out hope for a sequel for nearly a decade at this point. And as it turns out, a sequel was indeed in development at Insomniac once.
That’s as per alleged internal documents that have leaked following the ransomware hack recently suffered by the studio. One particular document from 2016 shared by Reddit user suggests that Sunset Overdrive 2 had been in development at the studio since as far back as October 2015, and the plan was seemingly to begin pre-production on Sunset Overdrive 3 by October 2016, while continuing development on the second instalment.
Presumably, those plans were scrapped in favour of Marvel’s Spider-Man, which would have been in development around this time as well. The superhero game is not, however, mentioned anywhere in this specific leaked slide.
Insomniac’s data breach has also revealed that Sunset Overdrive sold just 1.9 million copies, with the studio itself making just measly $567 off the title. With that in mind, it’s not difficult to understand why a sequel wasn’t exactly high on the list of priorities. Interestingly, it also looks like publishing rights for the next two potential sequels still lie with Microsoft.
On the other hand, the Spider-Man series has been ridiculously successful. The leaks have revealed that Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales has sold over 10.2 million units, while Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 sold 6.1 million units in little over three weeks. Earlier this year, it was officially confirmed that the Spider-Man series had collectively sold over 33 million units.
As per the leaks, Insomniac is currently also working on Marvel’s Venom and Marvel’s Spider-Man 3, along with Marvel’s Wolverine, which will be the first instalment in an X-Men series. There’s also mention of a new Ratchet and Clank game, as well as a new IP at some point after 2030.