Spider-Man games "suck", says Acti boss

By Ellie Gibson Published 20 January, 2010

Kotick takes a pop at the most recent ones.

Activision boss Bobby Kotick has said the company's recent Spider-Man games deserved to get low review scores - because they're rubbish.

"Our Spider-Man games have sucked for the last five years," Kotick told US magazine Game Informer (as read by Destructoid). "They are bad games. They were poorly rated because they were bad games."

So what seems to be the problem? "We went away from what is Spider-Man," the bubbly brunette continued. "It's about web-slinging. If you don't do web-slinging, what is the fantasy of Spider-Man?" Getting off with Kirsten Dunst while upside-down, obviously.

Spider-Man games released by Activision in the last five years include Ultimate Spider-Man (6/10), Spider-Man 2 (5/10), Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (5/10) and Spider-Man: Friend or Foe (3/10). Oh dear.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (28) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Tonne #1 2 years ago

    it wasnt all bad. ultimate spiderman on the ps2 and Web of shadows on the PS3 were fun.
    just not good enough for fullprice..
    Edited by 1 at 20/01/10 @ 07:28

  • djed #2 2 years ago

    I'm sure Treyarch et al appreciate these words of support from their boss.

    PS: Kotick, Ultimate Spiderman was ace.

  • darkmorgado #3 2 years ago

    I seem to be the only person that actually rather enjoyed Web of Shadows. The side-missions got rather repetitive and the graphics were nothing brilliant, but it did web-slinging very well and there was something cool about the levelling system and the different suits.
    But, after what Kotick has said about wanting to take all the fun out of games, what does he care about whether a game is good as long as it sells well?

  • remote #4 2 years ago

    web of shadows on DS was a great little metroidvania style game!

  • mkreku #5 2 years ago

    Hmm, I remember playing some Spiderman game on my PS2 a long time ago. You had an entire city to explore and you could websling all you wanted. It wasn't bad at all! In fact, it was great. I'm guessing it didn't come out in the last five years then?

  • menage #6 2 years ago

    Didn't the guys who made the new Terminator game say the exact same thing.

    I'll believe it when I see it.

  • Shadders #7 2 years ago

    Spider-Man 3 came out in the last five years didn't it? Not that it was good, it just wasn't on Ellie's list.

  • muscleblade #8 2 years ago

    Web of shadows was decent enough imo. Played it through 2 times for different endings. 7/10 imo.

    I actually enjoyed Spider Man 3 too.
    Edited by 1 at 20/01/10 @ 08:57

  • M_of_the_sys #9 2 years ago

    @mkreku

    Yeah. That was Spiderman 2 I believe. Lots of fun. I'm sure it was more than 5 years ago.

  • OllyJ #10 2 years ago

    There was a great PS1 game by Neversoft!

  • SAMagic #11 2 years ago

    They were poorly rated because they were bad games."
    This man clearly earns his salary.

  • Zebula77 #12 2 years ago

    I think Spider-Man 2 on the PS2 was quite excellent. True, the mission structure was repetitive and the main quest not all that fun. However, exploring Manhattan, web-slinging and climbing skyscrapers was a whole lotta fun. I spent many, many hours with that game after I'd completed it.

    I'd give it a weak eight out of ten in my book. Perhaps a little biased since I'm such a big Spidey fan, but still. Good game.

  • Nightbite #13 2 years ago

    Spiderman 2 handled the swinging mechanic the best, and I personally think Web of Shadows did fighting and the symbiote element the most successfully. The old PS1 game where you could unlock about 10 different suits was brilliant (I know, rose tinted specs, but it was fantastic fan service), and Ultimate Spiderman had a charm of it's own, though it was extrememly limited, it did treat it's source material well. Spiderman 3 game was just shocking, and Friend or Foe shouldve been a 800ms XBOX live game at best.

    So most of the games had flashes of excellent, but couldnt pull it all together - personally, even though I'm a huge Spidey fan, I'm not entirely sure its possible to make a successful city sized spidey game unless they are given GTA sized budgets to play with, so you can create the assets to have 15-20 hours of unique events and some clever enjoyable side missions.

  • bad09 #14 2 years ago

    It's not they were rubbish (well can't speak for WoS or FoF never played 'em), it's just they've pretty much been the same game since the PS1 original. Enjoyable though, I quite enjoyed Spidey 3 (shame about the movie) and Ultimate.

    Give it back to Capcom, that where Spidey and his friends should live!

    / still lives in hope of MvC3

  • Phishfood #15 2 years ago

    Ultimate Spiderman was probably the best Spiderman game I have played.

  • Cyclone #16 2 years ago

    Spider-Man 2 on the PS2 was great, but personally I think the best of the lot were the PS1 Spider-Man games. Especially the first one. It just felt like a Spider-Man game should. I wish they'd let Neversoft have another crack at making one.

  • dudefella #17 2 years ago

    Spider-Man 2 was great, Web of Shadows was okay. But now that Arkham Asylum showed us what a superhero game can be, Spider-man deserves better.

  • metalangel #18 2 years ago

    Activision games "suck", say gamers.

  • Murton #19 2 years ago

    Then why continue to publish them then? If the developer in question isn't making good games and making you a good return your investment then cut the tether. Surely buying out of the contract with a poor developer is better than allowing them to keep releasing failures?

    Also, what is it with Ellie and the hair colours of publisher bosses?

  • Tonne #20 2 years ago

    ''Spider-Man 2 was great, Web of Shadows was okay. But now that Arkham Asylum showed us what a superhero game can be, Spider-man deserves better''

    OK guys Batman AA was awesome.
    but you cant say with every superhero game look at AA.
    I love batman but what i cant understand is why it took so goddamn long in the first place to make Batman AA.
    Batman is an easy hero to make a game about.

    spidey on the otherhand needs something else, they need to look at the source material and use it.
    not just the common facts about him.
    and then the setting of a spidey game should be free roam. it has to be busy kinda like say Crackdown
    Web of Shadows and Ultimate spiderman were steps in the right direction. but they still have a long road to go

  • zuljin #21 2 years ago

    @Murton
    "Then why continue to publish them then? If the developer in question isn't making good games and making you a good return your investment then cut the tether."

    Who says they're not making a good return?

  • Bravestinsane #22 2 years ago

    come again Elle

    "the bubbly brunette continued"

    Seriously you could at least put a smiley at the end to indicate a joke. Everyone thinks he's a complete dick

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #23 2 years ago

    It's funny to think that back circa 1999, Activision's Spiderman and Tony Hawk games were dazzlingly innovative.

  • trubadman #24 2 years ago

    I agree with Spiderman generally being a poor franchise recently, but Spiderman 2 got 5/10 and for me that was one of my favourite PS2 games, i'd give it an 8/10

  • trip919 #25 2 years ago

    @ Phishfood

    I couldn’t agree more. While the game is very short, and the world was empty & devoid of things to do. It more then made up for it with the chase levels for me. They were challenging, imaginative & incredibly exhilarating.

    The end level where you are chasing Venom over the vast city is breathtaking!

    More people need to play that game.
    Edited by 1 at 20/01/10 @ 20:44

  • Triggerhappytel #26 2 years ago

    But don't tell me... the next one's going to be 'different' and a 'reinvention', right?!

  • Lusterpurge #27 2 years ago

    I don't think Bobby is as bad a guy as everyone believes. If I were in his position, I, too, would try to infuriate and screw gamers as much as possible.

  • JamesBrophy #28 2 years ago

    What the hell is he talking about?
    Spider man 2 was a watershead in how a budget strapped movie licence game could still inovate with a gta style openowrld experience. Plus it had the great web swinging mechanics. And the story for mysterio was excelent! One of the best gags in an action game. Granted the story was pants the voice acting and cutscenes were rubbish (there is a great moment in the making of where Toby maguire complains about his lines) but it showed promise and innovation.

    Ultimate spiderman had imput from the book creators but it suffered from having a disconnected story (with huge gaps) that ultimately made the game feel hollow.

    Spiderman 3 was an inexcuseable mess of a game. Terrible terrible terrible. Not of merchantable quality. That deserves an apology. And a refund.

    Web of shadows is clearly the game they wanted to make instead of spidey 3. It had utterly absurdly broken web swinging but it actually made use of the marvel universe. And the way the ramp up the action and make the entire dizaster spideys fault was glorious! Great game, even though they shifted the focus to fighting and ended up making the web swing absurd. And you got a sense that just a touch mor money/Dev time could have made it an all time great.