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Insomniac Games has crushed fans' hopes for a port of Sunset Overdrive coming to PlayStation platforms (anytime soon, at least), as the storied studio has its hands full with Marvel's Wolverine. Originally published by Microsoft and developed while Insomniac was still independent, SIE now owns the IP.
Unprompted, Insomniac shared a clip on Twitter of some of Sunset's excellent respawn animations, which, in turn, prompted questions about a PlayStation port. Asked why they don't simply get it done, the studio explained that: "We're busy with Marvel's Wolverine." Elsewhere in the thread, the developer was asked if a remaster might be in the works. Again, the developer shot down this suggestion: "Nope! Just posting as part of our 30th anniversary retrospective."
Would you be up for Insomniac taking another stab at Sunset Overdrive and bringing the over-the-top action game to PlayStation platforms? Or does it have bigger fish to fry, up to its ears in various Marvel endeavours? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source x.com]
Comments 57
I just played this for the first time on Game Pass a few months ago. It was one that I always wanted to get to, but I did not have an Xbox when it was released. It was fun! I finished it fully and am glad I finally played it.
But, for those disappointed about lack of a port, please know that Insomniac has made much better games since Sunset Overdrive. The best part of the game is the motion as you grind across the city. That sense of motion and freedom of movement has been perfected by the Spider-Man games. So, while SO is absolutely a good game, I don't think folks are missing out on too much if they don't play it. The focus on the game is absolutely on gameplay and not story, and if you played any of the Spider-Man games you have already played a better, more modern version of what SO has to offer in that department.
Some of the weapons are really fun though! But again, Ratchet and Clank exists...........
Never played it and was never interested in playing it until I played Hi-Fi Rush. Honestly though I’d still rather have the Resistance games remade or remastered over this any day. Heck, I’d even take remakes of the Ratchet and Clank games first too. Maybe Somy could hire a different team to bring Insomniac’s games to PS4/PS5.
I'm sure it will happen sooner than later.
Just because Insomniac isn't able to port it themselves, doesn't mean it can't ever be done. They could ask another studio to do the porting...
Couldn't say I mind
I’d play it… eventually
Bummer to hear as that’s one of the very few Xbox proprietary games I’ve really wanted to play. But MARVEL’S Wolverine is more than enough of a ‘consolation’ prize 😉
I love Insomniac, and their Spider-Man games are either pretty good or incredible, but I really hope that Wolverine is their last Marvel title for at least a few years. I want to see more of their original IPs like Ratchet and Clank or, of course, Sunset Overdrive.
I still think that the Wolverine game will be good stuff and so will their other upcoming games, but I feel like audiences and Insomniac themselves will be tired of all the Marvel games.
Too busy making hundreds of Marvel games 😐just like the public stopped caring about Super hero movies the same will happen to games at this rate. As for Sunset Overdrive I want to play it, it looks fun and colorful maybe someone else can port it.
Why does Insominac need to do it? Sony holds the cards, they can get another team to remaster it.
@Westernwolf4 nah, you just can't really compare the two.
One is an over the top shooter with a focus on bonkers weapons set in a cartoon world, the other is a "mature"/"realistic" take on a superhero.
The only common thread is fluid traversal, but even that works differently between the two games.
So no, Spiderman isn't a better version of SO, and personally, going by my taste I'll take a fresh, bold new IP rather than the latest generic superhero game.
Why not contact it out to another company?
Aren’t their developers who just do ports for a living? Doesn’t Sony have a studio that just ports PlayStation games to PC maybe they can try porting an Xbox game to PlayStation, naughty dog loves to do ports maybe they can do it!
Making a wolverine game shouldn’t be an excuse. Anyways, sunset overdrive >>>>>> marvel
I owned an Xbox for a few months and played this and I really enjoyed it, wish it had come to a Sony console instead b/c I think the fan base would have appreciated it a whole lot more. It was a fun colorful Infamous type game w/ a wacky story.
I don't think I'd buy it again but I would play it again just to see what it was like on newer hardware.
@Victor_Meldrew
It would likely be profitable, but the opportunity costs still remain. Time spent by anyone porting or remastering Sunset Overdrive is time not spent on other projects that could be even more profitable.
I love what insomniac has been doing these last few years and im not surprised they are too busy - wolverine will mark their 4th PS5 game.. (im not counting remaster but MM easily deserves to be counted).
Some studios havent even put out 1 game in this time.
Well that's a shame. The game is a lot of fun. In many ways its similar to Saints Row IV but better in most aspects.
@Tecinthebrain No no no. Public stopped caring about BAD superhero movies filled up with es-j-way stuff. Meanwhile the good ones are still doing well like Spider-Verse, Joker, The Batman, or GotG vol 3. Don't misunderstood MCU failures or rotten Morbius & Madame Web with "public don't care 'bout superhero movies anymore".
Insomniac is too busy carrying the PS5 generation with actual new titles to be fooling around with a port of an old game....
Hire a 3rd party port? Wow! What an idea, huh?
I've loved Sony since before PS1. However, I truly think that they do not want to grow the market share and therefore more money. Does someone hold them handcuffed? Honestly.
@Doctor_BK remake or remaster ? because the R&C1 remake was bad. Insomniac should remaster resistance and the original R&Cs though
@nomither6 I wouldn’t mind either. I personally really enjoyed the remake
It's called get another studio to do it instead of Insomniac let alone they also can't VR because Sony doesn't want it (waste of their skills) and Marvel is all they are good for anymore apparently.
Why is giving it to another studio such hassle for Sony I don't get it. They didn't remaster the Ratchet games Idol Minds did or Mass Media for the Vita port. Or Idol Minds for Deadlocked port as well. Do they not do that anymore with other studios to make deals and hand over the source code/assets? Do they really want to do it themselves?
Cost makes total sense even besides finding a studio that can to it, but if they want to do it themselves why do that to themselves?
I get other studios are busy too but find one that can if possible. It's on Xbox One and PC as it is, is a PS5 port that difficult or other studios to ask to port are too busy/would take too long to find one at all?
I don't care either way I own it happily on Xbox One but for those that didn't experience it why is it that much trouble for them to port it is the cost too high that sounds more fair then 'were busy'.
Then again they made a garbage Ratchet 1 remake, Spiderman 2018 just wasn't my kind of open world anyway compared to Sunset Overdrive's design being more appealing and minigame playground fun in comparison besides all the similar Ratchet or Resistance 3 elements.
Rift Apart was the safest game they have ever made and was a disappointment to me at least.
To me besides Sunset Overdrive their last game I actually cared for beside Song of the Deep as an ok other project (and not played their VR titles) was Ratchet Crack in Time or Nexus. The last time they actually did anything dramatically different too then safe games and really eh ones since
(Sunset Overdrive does enough to make me WANT to play an open world because of the weapon leveling of Ratchet, tower defence then boring outposts of Spider-man (only cared for the lab puzzles and ground pound, radar and laser side missions, or task master ones, otherwise found the game incredibly boring and a fair story, but gameplay wise was very boring, up to last 3 villains fight, don't care to beat it)
and other games part of generic open world formats, and just better humour then I expected like Journey to the Savage Planet or others will fair humour as I first hated it for that then replayed it and loved it for the gameplay, while having actually fun environments and fun minigame like platforming side missions besides typical side missions).
Sunset Overdrive, ReCore and Rare Replay are the reasons I even keep an Xbox One around besides back compatibility, good media viewing menus for disks (apps for Soundcloud/CDs/Blu-rays to have as Sony has Spotify/DVD and Blu-ray but no CD or expansion app support which is fair) and the trashy Forza Motorsport 5-7. Most things on Xbox One for me are optional.
Even when I don't like a lot on PS4 either. Only a handful of games, may be my biggest library still don't like the PS4 games, but do the PS4 menu/folders over Xbox One oh that OS sucks.
@Doctor_BK yeah I keep seeing this from people online and on this site that Ratchet 2016 was bad. It was actually really fun for me. It was my first RnC game and it was a great time. It also sold well.
Shame as its a fantastic fun game.
@clvr I wrote that in my view the main virtue of the SO games is the traversal, not that the stories should be compared. I am aware that one is a shooter and one isn’t. Traversal is the main draw of the game, and it is done better in Spider-Man.
I think my point was plainly stated, and not that complicated.
It's been sitting on my Steam list for how long and I never got around to playing it.
Maybe someday.
Last few marvel games were duds. The trend seems to be a waste of time. Never gonna please all the fans, since everyone is connected nowadays, can’t wait to see the review bombings.
@nomither6 As someone who never played the original R&C for PS2 and only taste the 2016 remake as my 1st R&C experience, i thought the remake is a pretty solid action-platformer game. Graphic wise it looks gorgeous, gameplay pretty fun, and the story which is kinda standard and funny but i enjoyed the interaction between Ratchet & Clank.
The 2016 remake was the game that made me purchase some R&C games on PS3, although i missed out the trilogy HD collection.
@PuppetMaster it’s a good game , just a bad ratchet game imo. it’s not faithful to the original nor does it improve on it in its own way enough besides improved gameplay and graphics being a given, so i don’t really give that aspect much credit
A port seems like an easy win, someone like nixxes could do it surely.
Wonder if Venom is still going to be a thing or not?
@Vivisapprentice they have 3 teams so if it was meant to be it will.
So ... we don't remember anymore that the contract with MS for the publishing of this and two games more didn't have an expiration date and MS didn't pay for the sequel because the first one made no money (xbox and pc combined)?
This answer was a social media answer, they have almost a decade working in 3 projects at the same time.
@nomither6 In the beginning of the game, there's a scene where Captain Qwark is in jail and told his cellmate about the event of the 1st game but from his pov. Maybe that's the reason why the remake isn't that faithful because Qwark changing some story to make him looks good? I never played the first game though so i don't know how faithful the remake compare to the original game. But i understand your pov as a longtime R&C fans.
@PuppetMaster you could be right; i haven’t played the remake or original in years so, eh. I hope you can play the original one day if you can ignore its aging. it has a lot of charm and the writing/dialog, and story is much better imo, and it has all content that the remake cut.
@Westernwolf4 and my point is that, other than being different games, the traversal itself works differently and I don't think it's fair to say one is superior to the other since they rely on different movements.
I certainly don't want Insomniac to be known as the Marvel studio from now on, and hope they get back to their own IPs. I mean, they don't say it will ever happen with Sunset Overdrive, just not right now.
@Vivisapprentice Nixxes are a PC studio, porting stuff to PS5 is not their area of expertise.
Shame cuz this is pretty great. I’d say it’s my favorite modern insomniac game.
Considering Microsoft still owns publishing rights for first game, they can't make a PS version even if they wanted. Not unless Microsoft permits that.
Also, I doubt that it's high on their priority list. They are Marvel IP game factory after all.
Did play a little bit of it back in the day & the respawns were amusing. But if I had a wishlist of ports,it'd be the mainstream PS2 & PS3 Ratchet & Clank games,& the Resistance series.
Still surprises me that Sony bought Bluepoint who produced some great remasters & reboots but instead they're working on a "original IP"! Though time will tell what that is.🤔
@Robocod original title not original IP from what we know.
BeerIsAwesome wrote:
Not quite true. The leak also included Ratchet & Clank and a new IP in that timeframe. I'm not going to post them all here, as many don't want the spoilers but it's easy enough to look up if you do.
I'd be more impressed if they can get out 5-6 games in the next 10 years as the roadmap suggested, point me to another AAA studio attempting that.
I can't believe you used my response to Insomniac for the article, it's terribly surprising and makes me happy ❤️ but it's a shame we won't get anything from them about the brand
Word choice is very important and Insomniac didn't say it wouldn't happen, just that they are busy with Wolverine. But we know they are also working on other projects (Venom, Spider-Man 2 DLC, and Spider-Man 3). So Sunset Overdrive may still happen. Apparently though, there are still factors in play that could be preventing it regarding MS exclusivity as, despite Sony now owning the IP, MS seems to still have first right of refusal for the first 2 potential sequels.
I got the 100% (base game and all DLC stuff) on PC gamepass version. Amazing game!
It's very cheap on Steam, often on sale, and it's old enough that it should run on most PC hardware, even if you're not using a dedicated gaming rig. A port would be ideal, but it's very accessible.
Surely someone else can do it. I don't think it has to be insomniac. This game so deserves another chance
@Westernwolf4 kind of an odd comment. Sunsets traversal is similar to Spiderman but its still pretty different. Feels more platformy. Most of the time in Spiderman you can travel just by web swinging alone without the extra jumps or wall runs. They're pretty different movement systems.
A lot of us want something a little more different than the usual grounded and realistic Super hero game. A lot of us do care more for gameplay than story
I thought Microsoft own the publishing rights?
Aside from that, I really like this game. It was one of the first games I got when I bought an Xbox One and recently played through it again on Series X and had just as much fun as the first time round.
It's not for everyone but definitely deserves more recognition than it currently gets.
As others have said, I really want to see Insomniac free from the Marvel chains they're currently locked in.
@Pepsiman_100 You and clvr are completely not understanding what I am saying, or why I am saying it. That is fine-I’m sure it is my error since at least two people are confused. But I am not going to try to fix it. I think we can all agree that SO is a good game, so not much else matters.
@Westernwolf4 ok whatever
Sunset Overdrive is certainly one of many Xbox gems im glad I played.
Good for them do not get distracted and dragged into something else, using up resources.
Stick with Wolverine.
To many other studios spread themselves to thin arsing around with remasters etc.
Who owns the ip? Sony or MS? That's the main question
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