As some of you may be aware, Beenox has more or less been the studio responsible for the Spider-Man video games for the past several years. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Spider-Man: Edge of Time, and both of The Amazing Spider-Man games all came from this studio, which is a rather impressive feat given how quickly these were pumped out. While it may be the opinion of many that none of these were great games, they were still above average and offered up numerous fun ways to swing about as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
It appears that Beenox's reign has reached its end now, as the studio recently announced that its interests now lie with other franchises. Beenox recently had a hand in the development of Skylanders SuperChargers and is apparently working on Call of Duty at the moment. Tom Wilson – Beenox's Creative Director – recently broke the news when speaking to Develop:
Eventually, as you might see in the industry, the projects, they get bigger and bigger. That was right along the time where there was a slate of projects that were what we could call mid-tier projects, a project that sits in the middle with an acceptable budget. And at the time we could almost pick and choose projects.
But now you look at the projects, you look at the size of them, and you're looking at the focus Activision's putting on things like Destiny, Call of Duty, and Skylanders, and now they're going to re-launch Guitar Hero. And these projects require a lot of people.
So eventually, as we proved our ability as a development studio, we started working on these important franchises. Because, let's face it, there's a lot of content to develop. We supported Vicarious' vision and Toys for Bob on Skylanders, and now we're working on Call of Duty, the biggest franchise for Activision. So I'm pretty happy with how it evolved.
What do you think? Will you miss Beenox's fingerprints on Spider-Man games? What studio would you like to see develop the next one? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[source nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 39
Call of Duty? Didn't see that one coming.
Considering their last game ended up on more "Worst Games of 2014" lists than I expected, this doesn't surprise me too much.
Almost every time I watched or read a review of it, somewhere reference made to Spiderman 2 the game and wondered why the studio that did that game wasn't tapped for another go.
Then I learnt it was Treyarch; this unless this is a franchise swap between studios I doubt we'll see them make another one any time soon.
Activision sure likes moving their studios off interesting IP's and to Call Of Duty sequels...
Platnium but only if they want too. I recently tried their take on transformers because I pretty much play anything they make. I really didn't think anyone could make a good one but they did. It's a shame it didn't get and arkam knight size budget. It could have really been something.
Hooray? Their Spider Man games have gotten worse and worse. In fact the only Spider Man game that matters is still Spider Man 2. Just do a remake of that and call it a day, god! It's not that hard figure out.
I thought the reason they stopped was because Activision lost the license to produce Spiderman games.
I know Activision has a lot tied up in Call of Duty because it's their cash cow but sooner or later they're gonna need to start looking at producing more franchises in house as this won't last forever. And neither will Destiny or Guitar Hero for that matter.
Awful news. Speaking as a Spidey fan, it's a shame to see this change considering how well Beenox was doing Spider-Man some justice.
I had no idea Shattered Dimensions and Edge of Time were considered bad. I thought they were great, to me they're the best Spidey games since the old SEGA Genesis/SEGA CD games.
Now Amazing Spider-Man… I don't think it's all their fault. It was a bad source material to begin with.
A little off-topic but how on earth can that blue spiderman see with no eyes!?
I haven't played any of the games personally but I'm glad the people within the studio get to keep working rather than being made redundant from no longer making spiderman games.
Its been 11 years since a great Spider-Man game and movie came out. I really hope marvel gets their games to where they got their movies and tv at. I just want the awesomeness Spider-Man 2 brought but made better for these times. Is it that much to ask.
I actually think Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions is one of my favorite Spiderman games released. I absolutely LOVED the Noir Spiderman bits. I've been a fan of this super hero for many years, and I feel like this game accurately depicted how fun a Spiderman game could be. I also conventiently managed to get it digitally right before Activision pulled it permanently for the Xbox Live Marketplace, and for a steal of a price too.
@mjc0961 Bayonetta, Wonderful 101, Vanquish, MGR-Revengence, Infinite Space, Mad World....all bad games ?
You have a rather...peculiar taste....
Thank god, I mean the first one or two Spider-Man games were fun, but after it really got boring, although I really like Spider-Man
I thought Shattered Dimensions was great but the later Spider-Man games got progressively bad since Activision insist on making it an annual franchise.
"and now they're going to re-launch Guitar Hero." That already happened. Were you asleep, Tom?
I remember having Spider Man 3 on the PS2 and although it had nothing to do with the film (Thank god) it wasn't that bad.
Well, from what I've heard, their Spider-Man games were pretty bad, so this might be a good thing.
I think it's sad that development houses are losing identity, and you can't say 'this is a Beenox game' and you can't watch a developer change and evolve over time through it's games. Unless and until they are on the brink of bankruptcy and the company dissolves with the most talented and driven spinning up indie games that basically reset the clock.
@mjc0961 there is something so condescending about starting g a sentence that way.... Personally I've loved platinum since they went by clover studios. Viewdful joe and okami are the titles that earned my loyalty. I'm glad I don't have to depend on " people from the Internet " to tell me what I should like and what is good.
GOOD
@Einherjar pretty sure he's a grumpy Gus or a negative Nancy if you prefer. I just went as far back in his posts as I could and 95 percent and negative
@Einherjar Yes I don't think he knows what games Platinum develops.
Shattered Dimensions was one of the better comic book games and with more dev time could have been even better. The others clearly had to be rushed out.
@faint To be fair, his complaint about Super Metroid made me laugh pretty hard
And not because it was funny
Hes ranting because ranting is kewl on se interwebz.
And just watch Disney announce they're giving the Marvel Cinematic Universe Videogame and all Marvel videogame properties and licensing to EA, much like Star Wars...
I only played Shattered Dimensions and Amazing Spider-Man 2, but I really enjoyed both.
I think another studio should take over and try there hand at making a great Spider-man game not just a decent ones.
Amazing Spider Man would've been awesome if it didn't get rushed out the door for the movie tie-in release. But unfortunately, I think Activision pushed them to get it out.
They've made the last-gen versions of Black Ops 3.
Despite it looking awful I'd imagine they did the best they could in the time they had since Treyarch had to finish their maps before Beenox could start them.
@RaymanFan2 Actually it is pretty widely believed the reason for a lack luster looking and content filled last generation version of Call of Duty Black Ops 3 (remember it has no campaign and some maps like nuketown are missing), is to mainly to try and persuade people to purchase next generation consoles and copies of the games.
There is no reason the Xbox 360 or PS3 need to look so bad. Some of the changes in graphics just look real odd judging from one comparison video. And this is from someone who doesn't even like Call of Duty games.
Another dev bites the CoD dust
@mjc0961
This is objectively the worst post I've read here
I actually really enjoyed Shattered Dimensions, heck I think it was one of the best Spiderman games I have played in years. That being said there were quite a few duds produced by them so maybe this is for the best.
Slow news day huh?
If only Rocksteady wasn't owned by Warner Bros. I would love to see them make a Spidey game. Maybe Disney/Marvel can make a deal with Warner Bros/Rocksteady. I mean LEGO Marvel Superheroes was made by Traveller's Tale and published by Warner Bros.
Shattered Dimensions was a pretty solid game. I prefer the open world Spidey games, but for level based, it was pretty fun.
Best spider-man games where spider-man 1 & 2 on the PlayStation, N64, and Dreamcast. Made by Neversoft which who is also now making Call of Duty games sadly. Beenox did a crap job on the spiderman games, the only decent one was shattered dimensions.
Amazing Spider-Man 2 had its issues for sure but there was a really fun game under all that. Web-slinging through Manhattan was great. Wish these guys got a bigger budget and a little more time in the oven to bake a Spider-Man game and we'd be sitting pretty.
@mjc0961 The Bayonetta series and The Wonderful 101 aren't good in your opinion? Why in the world not?
I liked Shattered Dimensions, personally, but the other Spider-Man titles they made developed didn't really do anything for me.
Hopefully things work out for them.
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