This is a massive, massive breach. Insomniac Games has been hit with a massive ransomware leak that they refused to pay…and so the next decade worth of games the great studio has planned was released to the public.
What a mess this is.
In what is becoming a very unfortunate trend in gaming these days, Insomniac Games, the proud developers of Marvels’ Spider-Man gaming series and Ratchet and Clank series, was hacked and hit with a massive ransomware demand. And, when the studio refused to pay, the hackers released millions of files into the public and spoiled a lot of confidential gaming information.
This really is a disaster for Insomniac Games…and Sony.
But, before I really get into the nitty-gritty of this leak, let me just quickly bring everyone up to speed who may not have known about this development by saying that around a week ago (Dec. 12), the Ryshida ransomware hackers announced that they had hacked 1.67 TETRABYTES (yeah, I said tetrabytes) of data and over 1.7M files from the Insomniac Games hard drives and were auctioning them off for $2M.
And they gave until yesterday for Insomniac to pay (and, actually, anyone willing to pay given the data was up for auction). Yet, as we stand here today eight days removed from the hack and with the millions of Insomniac Game files on Twitter, it should be clear that Insomniac refused to pay up.
Thus, true to their word, the hackers released the millions of files onto Twitter and revealed MASSIVE, SECRET projects and partnerships Insomniac Games had in the wings. Projects like a brand-new X-Men gaming trilogy, a Wolverine-centered game (the first in the X-Men trilogy) and tons of concept art, models, level designs etc. already crafted for the title, a 3rd Spider-Man game to cap off the trilogy, and another entry into the Ratchet and Clank series.
Oh, and perhaps the biggest news of all: Insomniac Games and Sony have tentatively and secretly agreed to a partnership on some unannounced games. Like I said, this was a massive, massive leak.
Now, I obviously think these hackers should be caught, tried, put in jail, and then banned from ever using the internet again given how damaging this is for studios and developers as Rockstar and now Insomniac Games can attest to; but if we’re just going to focus on the details of the leaks, then this is fantastic news for fans of the Marvels’ Spider-Man series.
Having a full trilogy of games centered around the X-Men and at least one game solely focused on Wolverine sounds like an amazing concept. And seeing Insomniac being the ones to develop this game, rather than some crap studio like EA or Activision, gives me a lot of hope this new series will be one of the best superhero-based games of all-time.
Plus, I’m also really excited for this new partnership between Insomniac and Sony (if it still goes through after these leaks) as even though Sony’s business practices are very, very questionable, there can be no debate as to the quality of their games and developers. And when you see them partnering up with Insomniac, another highly accredited developer, on brand new titles, you can’t help but get excited for the prospects of what these new games could be.
Still, this great news really is bittersweet as I hate how all of this was released due to a malicious hack, and the grand reveal Insomniac and Sony most definitely had planned for these games is now ruined.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Insomniac Games/Sony) (Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – Launch Trailer I PS5 Games (youtube.com))
