Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales is one of the biggest games coming this fall, a spin-off sequel to the incredibly successful 2018 Marvel's Spider-Man from Insomniac. While Miles was a secondary character with some civilian-stealth segments in the previous game, this time he takes center-stage with his own set of Spidey powers, his own suits, and new villains to deal with.
Below you can find everything you need to know about Insomniac's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Be sure to check back often in the weeks ahead as the game's launch approaches, as we'll be updating this feature with all the latest details as they get announced.
Release Date and Versions
Spider-Man: Miles Morales will release for PS4 and PS5 on November 12, right alongside the launch of the PlayStation 5. While it's ostensibly being treated like a PS5 launch title, it's coming to PS4 as well. But don't worry, you can get the PS4 version and be secure in the knowledge that if you upgrade to a PS5 later, you can play that version for free and your save will transfer.
The standard edition of Spider-Man: Miles Morales will be $50 USD across PS4 and PS5. A separate "Ultimate Edition" is also available for $70. That version is only available for PS5 and includes a voucher code for Spider-Man Remastered, an improved next-gen version of the 2018 game.
Preorders and Bonuses
Across both PS4 and PS5, preordering Spider-Man: Miles Morales will get you some bonus items. Those include three extra skill points to start customizing Miles' abilities right away, and an early unlock for the Gravity Well gadget. You'll also get two alternate costumes: the TRACK Suit with an unlockable "Untrackable Suit Mod" and another suit, to be announced. You can find more details in our Spider-Man: Miles Morales preorder guide.
2018's Spider-Man: A Primer (Contains Spoilers)
Insomniac has primarily released PlayStation-exclusive games for years, but Marvel's Spider-Man was an unprecedented success. It was a huge financial boon for Sony and may have played a role in the company's decision to acquire the developer shortly after Spider-Man launched.
In creating the in-game world, Insomniac envisioned a whole new continuity for Spider-Man, allowing the developer to take some liberties with the Marvel property and its characters. This has been dubbed Earth-1048 in the Marvel multiverse and has gotten continuity-crossing references in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the Spider-geddon comic book arc. Each time, the Easter egg was clearly identifiable by Insomniac's iconic Spidey-suit design, which sports a white spider across the chest along with Peter Parker's usual red-and-blue coloring.
This Spider-Man game established a new Peter Parker--an experienced web-slinger and the scientific protege of the kindly Dr. Otto Octavius--as well as Miles Morales. It used Peter's already-established superheroics to introduce a new backstory for Miles. While some elements from the comics remained the same, like Miles' police officer father and biracial heritage, it made some significant changes. Peter and Miles befriended each other working together at a homeless shelter, whereas in the comics Miles was inspired by Spider-Man's death without having personally known Peter. Miles' father, Jefferson Davis, died protecting civilians, while in the comics Jefferson is still alive and well. Miles was ultimately bitten by a genetically-engineered spider that Mary Jane unwittingly carried back with her from Oscorp. A brief ending scene featured Miles showing his newfound Spider-powers to Peter, and Peter revealing to Miles that he's Spider-Man.
Meanwhile, several plot threads have either wrapped up or been left ambiguous for further exploration in a sequel. Peter and Mary Jane have rekindled their relationship. Aunt May passed away from a deadly virus, knowing that her heroic nephew would do the right thing and distribute the life-saving cure to the entire city. Dr. Octavius, who learned Spider-Man's secret identity and became the villainous Doc Ock, has been apprehended and sits in a cell without his mechanical arms. And Norman Osborne is watching over what may be his son, Harry, who was often referenced but never seen in the game.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales Story
Spider-Man: Miles Morales picks up one year after The City That Never Sleeps, the post-story DLC for the 2018 Spider-Man. Miles has been training under Peter to embrace his Spidey powers, and he's looking to be the hero that Harlem and NYC at large need, while also supporting his mother's campaign for City Council. But a gang war is brewing between Roxxon Energy and a high-tech gang of criminals called The Underground, led by the villain the Tinkerer.
Roxxon has been referenced or utilized by dozens of comics, largely as a stand-in for real-world petro conglomerates like BP or Exxon. It has also had ties to both SHIELD and Hydra, and it has been behind some large-scale infrastructure projects in the Marvel universe. It's unknown what its role will be in this game, but if it's being targeted by a band of criminals, chances are the conflict won't be so black-and-white.
In the comics, The Tinkerer is a brilliant inventor and usually portrayed as an elderly man. He isn't often a threat himself, but he creates some of the high-tech suits and weapons used by Spidey's most notorious foes. In this version, The Tinkerer is a woman who appears to be taking on Spider-Man herself in a superpowered suit. It's possible this iteration is a younger version of the Ultimate variation of the character (The Tinkerer who fights Miles in the comics), or perhaps her suit is just a feat of design that lets her act sprier than her actual age.
Days before Spider-Man: Miles Morales hits stores, a prequel novel is coming out that could shed more light on the story. Spider-Man: Miles Morales - Wings of Fury will pit Miles against The Vulture--who appeared in 2018's Spider-Man as a member of the Sinister Six--and his granddaughter, Starling. Those high-tech villains will help Miles come to terms with what kind of hero he wants to be. On a thematic level, they're technology-based villains similar to The Tinkerer, and Vulture is similarly elderly.
New Miles, New Peter
One aspect that was immediately apparent from the debut trailer was that Miles has gotten a new look for this sequel. He looks much more like his comic book counterpart now, with a darker skin tone and shorter hair.
Less apparent was that Peter would be getting a facelift too. That detail wasn't announced until well after the game had been, with word that Insomniac had replaced the face model for Peter in Spider-Man Remastered. The new Peter looks notably younger and more like the current Marvel Cinematic Universe's Spider-Man, Tom Holland. Insomniac says this is to make his face a better match for the facial capture performance from actor Yuri Lowenthal, who also provides Peter's voice. Lowenthal lightheartedly tweeted that it's the fault of his "stupid stupid bones."
Guys. It’s my face’s fault. The stupid stupid bones in my face. Blame my bones. https://t.co/VUES1jQLC5
— Yuri Lowenthal (@YuriLowenthal) September 30, 2020
Some fans have been critical of the change, suggesting the new look doesn't appear as if Peter has been Spider-Man for eight years by this point. While it hasn't been confirmed that Peter will make an appearance in Spider-Man: Miles Morales, it would make sense as Peter is acting as Miles' mentor. If he does show up, it will probably be with the new face model, not the old one.
Miles' Unique Powers
Though Miles Morales is a Spider-Man, he has a few unique powers that differentiate him from the familiar Peter Parker version of Spider-Man. Miles can web-sling and wall-crawl just like Pete, and he has similarly enhanced speed, agility, reflexes, and durability. He has a Spider-sense, but canonically it's not as acute as Peter's. Miles has two unique powers of his own, though: a cloaking ability that lets him render himself (and his suit) essentially invisible, and a "venom strike" electrokinetic shock.
We've already seen some of these powers in action during the debut trailer and subsequent gameplay trailers. His venom strike power in the comics has often been relatively limited, but in the game it appears to be much broader electricity powers that play into a wide suite of abilities. His Spider-sense also appears to be on-par with Peter's in terms of gameplay, where it is used to warn you of impending attacks. On the PS5, this ability will make use of the DualSense controller. The haptic feedback will give you cues for which direction an attack comes from, and you'll be able to feel the crackle of Miles' Venom Punch.
"The haptic feedback precision allows us to do all sorts of new things," Brian Horton, creative director on Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales explained. "We'll be hinting to players which direction attacks are coming from by providing haptic feedback from the appropriate direction on the DualSense wireless controller. Because of the high resolution of DualSense wireless controller's haptics system, we can really push the dimensionality of the feedback. As you hold down Square to do a Venom Punch, you feel Spider-Man's bio-electricity crackle across from the left side of the controller, culminating in the right side on impact."
The story will show itself in Miles' abilities too. Since he's a less experienced Spider-Man, his animations and moves are said to be a little less refined than Peter Parker's. He'll also be the only playable character, a change from the 2018 game that featured story sequences with Miles and Mary Jane. A teaser also showed Miles wearing one of Peter's suits with a hoodie, a possible reference to the character's iconic look from Into the Spider-Verse.
Next-Gen Power: Performance vs. Fidelity
On PlayStation 5, you'll be able to choose from Performance Mode and Fidelity Mode in Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Performance gives the game a smooth 60 FPS in Dynamic 4K, while Fidelity Mode runs at 30 FPS in 4K and includes visual enhancements like ray tracing. The PS5 version is also said to run without loading screens, even when using fast-travel, thanks to the new hardware's SSD.
