Crystal Dynamics Co-Head Fails to Explain Why Spider-Man is a PlayStation Exclusive

Earlier this week, Crystal Dynamics caused a bit of a stir when they announced that one of the most popular superheroes of all time, Spider-Man, would be showing up in their upcoming Marvel’s Avengers game as a PlayStation exclusive. I assumed it was because Sony had the rights to Spider-Man and was thus leveraging that exclusivity to get an edge over their competition.

But apparently I was wrong. Because according to studio co-head Scot Amos in an interview with ComicBook, there’s an entirely different reason. And his explanation is nothing short of… presidential.

Here’s the full, unedited quote:

So the beauty of Spider-Man, and what Spider-Man represents as a character, and as a world is...again, it comes back to the relationship with PlayStation and Marvel. We happened to be...once you can execute and deliver, when it comes down to choices of where and what Spider-Man can be, that’s a relationship question that PlayStation absolutely has the rights to, that as you guys know, with Sony’s ownership there, and Marvel with Sony saying, ‘Hey, this is something we can do. This is something we can do on this platform.’

And so, what we do as creators is say, ‘This is an opportunity that we can make something unique, and fun, and awesome that we all...you just talked about Black Widow, and to be able to have that experience. So we love the idea of being able to bring this character to the PlayStation players.

But I really do think people will look at this and say, ‘Yeah, okay, we get that, we can understand the business behind that’, but in general, we’re making this game for everybody.

Clearly, studio co-head Scot Amos has the best words, and he deployed them to explain this issue satisfyingly for everyone. As soon as everyone finishes deciphering it.