**Marvel’s Wolverine $305 Million Budget Revealed – Sony Must Sell 6 Million or X-Men Trilogy Dies — Transcript & Summary | SozAI** Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/marvel-wolverine-305-million-budget/ Marvel's Wolverine $305M budget revealed; must sell 6M copies or risk X-Men trilogy cancellation, amid mixed reception and media defense. ## Key Takeaways - Marvel's Wolverine has a massive budget but faces significant sales pressure. - Mainstream gaming media may be biased in defending the game due to corporate ties. - Social media shows strong negative reactions to character design and game direction. - Failure to meet sales targets could end the X-Men trilogy and Marvel license with Sony. - Exclusivity deals for Marvel games are controversial and may harm broader fan access. ## What the video covers - Marvel's Wolverine by Insomniac has a production budget estimated around $305 million, possibly excluding marketing costs. - The game faces backlash over character designs, particularly female characters, linked to artist McKenzie Patrick's previous work. - Polygon, Kotaku, and similar outlets defend the game, likely influenced by corporate interests and access. - Social media sentiment is largely negative, contrasting with mainstream gaming media's positive coverage. - The game must sell at least 6 million copies to avoid cancellation of future Insomniac Marvel titles and potential license termination by Marvel. - The licensing agreement allows Marvel to pull the license if sales targets are not met, threatening the X-Men trilogy's continuation. - Insomniac's other projects like Spider-Man 2 and 3 also reportedly have budgets exceeding $300 million. - The video criticizes the exclusivity of Marvel games on Sony platforms and suggests a preference for multiplatform releases. - There is skepticism about the quality and appeal of the game despite high production values. - The video encourages viewers to share opinions and engage with the channel for further discussion. ## Chapters 1. 00:00 Introduction and Initial Reactions 2. 01:04 Discussion on Feminist Criticism and Character Focus 3. 01:49 Media Defense and Anticipated Reviews 4. 02:52 Social Media Reaction vs Media Coverage 5. 03:56 Google Search Results and Media Influence 6. 04:56 Criticism of Character Designs and Artist Background 7. 07:24 Artist Career Path and Impact on Game Design 8. 08:25 Budget Revelations and Sales Expectations 9. 09:37 Licensing Terms and Potential Consequences 10. 12:36 Closing Thoughts and Viewer Engagement Answers ## Questions about this video What is the estimated budget for Marvel's Wolverine game? The estimated production budget for Marvel's Wolverine is around $305 million, with some reports suggesting it could be as high as $315 million, likely excluding marketing costs. Why is the sales target of 6 million copies important for Marvel's Wolverine? The game must sell at least 6 million copies to avoid cancellation of future Insomniac Marvel titles and to prevent Marvel from terminating the licensing agreement with Sony. How has the gaming media reacted to Marvel's Wolverine? Mainstream gaming outlets like Polygon and Kotaku have defended the game, likely due to corporate interests, while social media reactions have been largely negative, especially regarding character design. ## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown 00:09 Speaker A Well, looks like people are starting to figure things out when it comes to Marvel's Wolverine by Insomniac. 00:16 Speaker A Because what's really funny to me is you've got a lot of people out here talking about how the game looks like it's straight out of Concord with the female designs, and then it turns out the woman who worked on Concord's designs 00:32 Speaker A designed the women in this game. You can't make that stuff up. It's crazy. So, there's a lot of people trying to defend this game. Polygon being one of them. Marvel's Wolverine big news story trailer is being overshadowed by drama. 00:50 Speaker A Now, they put this out back in July. Of course, they did. Polygon's funny, right? This should be a character they don't like. They should be making articles. Usually, they would be making articles about how Wolverine's outdated. 01:04 Speaker A What we really need is the stronger, more feminist, powerful female clone X-23. She should be the star of the game. 01:14 Speaker A Uh, but they're defending it, which is funny because he's literally a toxic white man. But here they are because really at the end of the day, they work for the corporation. They want that access. Wolverine's getting some backlash. So all these principles that 01:31 Speaker A they say they have out there at Polygon, uh, they set all those aside for that sweet, sweet, sweet corporate access. 01:38 Speaker A And I am going to guarantee you Polygon, Kotaku, The Gamer, all of them will give this game excellent reviews. 01:49 Speaker A It's going to be one of the greatest games of the year in their opinion. And maybe it will be somehow. I don't think so. But nonetheless, so Polygon put out another article because if there's one thing I'm sure many of you have noticed 02:03 Speaker A if you've been paying attention, Polygon, Kotaku, they're all coming out in defense of this game. 02:11 Speaker A Marvel's Wolverine is fighting the most ridiculously complex online war in years. Yeah, these people are always on the opposite side of whatever the chuds are on. Damn our principles. We want that access and we are going to go after 02:30 Speaker A the chuds. But I'll show you what Polygon's actual reach is. Look at this post on social media. They posted this yesterday at 4:20 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. So, this is them linking their article, and it's got one comment, two retweets, 02:52 Speaker A and 14 likes. And I want you to keep in mind, Wolverine was trending on X, uh, all day. And actually, it's been trending, it's been trending since like Friday. 03:03 Speaker A Probably it's trending right now. And there's no traction on this post. No one actually gives a [ \_\_ ] what Polygon has to say. Uh, they exist to pop up in Google search. Oh, what's this chuddly argument going on? I better look it up. 03:20 Speaker A And Polygon, Kotaku, uh thanks to Google's algorithm, they pop up first. So, their side of the argument is likely what people are going to see first if that's how they're looking for it. Now, if they go to YouTube, it'll be 03:37 Speaker A a little bit of a different story, but on Google, yeah, these asses have, uh, the front lines to eyes. They have to search down to find anything else. But yeah, Polygon Kotaku, they'll be right at the top. And just to prove my point, 03:56 Speaker A here's a Google search. Insomniac Wolverine game is all I looked up. And check it out. Who's right there at the top? Kotaku, GameSpot, Polygon, and IGN. 04:10 Speaker A And the first three of these are articles defending the game's honor. You see how that works? But when you go to social media, it's a much different story. Like with this post here from that game collector. If you're heading 04:28 Speaker A on Wolverine PS5 already, you're laring as a gamer. And your gamer card is revoked till release week. The game looks effing sick and adult oriented. 04:40 Speaker A They should have easily did some lame. They could have easily did some lame kitty stuff with no blood. Y'all never happy. Now, what's really funny when you compare this to the Polygon post, uh, this guy, just like just about anybody 04:56 Speaker A else that's really going hard for this game, uh, gets ratioed into the ground. 212 comments, the 98 likes. It's just an example. I just found this one funny because he's really arrogant about it. 05:09 Speaker A And then he posted again saying, "I struck a nerve." Well, I was actually only pretending to be [ \_\_ ]. Thanks for the interaction. 05:18 Speaker A So this is just another example of just how much, you know, Polygon, they've lost the plot. They're a dying breed but they are maintained for algorithmic reasons. 05:30 Speaker A But when you go to social media the conversation changes completely and it's not so happy like the controlled Google algorithm. 05:40 Speaker A But people are figuring things out. I showed this post earlier. Mystique's design in Marvel's Wolverine is awful. 05:47 Speaker A Her face looks weird in the exact same way that Concord characters did. It's painfully obvious that the person who designed her also had a hand in Concord. 05:57 Speaker A Same vibe, same choices, and same results. Insomniac really can't stop making ugly, soulless characters. And what's funny is that this is true. 06:10 Speaker A So McKenzie Patrick failed upward to this and I talked about this yesterday. Uh, this was her career path: Blizzard to 2019. Then she was a character artist at, get this, 343 Studios. That's right, the studio that was rebranded to Halo Studios 06:33 Speaker A and has had a hand in all the ugly Cortana re-imaginings that you've seen. She's there till 2020. So, whatever that year was for the for that Halo game. I don't remember when Halo Infinite came out. 06:47 Speaker A Don't remember the exact time. Uh, but I think we can safely put that around Halo 5. So, she worked on that. 06:55 Speaker A Then, character artist at Blizzard again till 2022 and then Firewalk Studios Concord. And they were so impressed with that that they moved her to Insomniac because Insomniac's Sony studio as well. So, uh, we're all keeping it house. Every one of 07:15 Speaker A these people fail upward. This person has no business working in the gaming industry, but they just keep bringing these people back in. 07:24 Speaker A Just come right on back. You screwed that last project up with ugly ass characters that nobody liked. Come on and work for us. In fact, we're going to put you on the Wolverine game that male gays. We 07:37 Speaker A got to get rid of any of the sexiness of the women. You are our woman to make that happen. So naturally, you put these people on this [ \_\_ ] and then they twist it up and this is what you get. Now, 07:49 Speaker A here's the good news. Here's the good news. This game apparently has a very, very large production budget. Some people are putting it up there like 315 million. 08:02 Speaker A Now, I can't find exact numbers, but from some reports that were coming out a little while ago, this game apparently is around 305 million with production. I don't know if that includes marketing or whatever. Going to guess not. So, here's where some of this 08:25 Speaker A information came from. Insomniac's Spider-Man 2 and the upcoming Spider-Man 3 and Wolverine have budgets exceeding 300 million. Okay. Then Kotaku themselves put this out back in 2023. 08:45 Speaker A See, all this was coming out in December 19th, 2023. Here's the same date. And then here's another article that talked about it. Not a lot of, not a lot of outlets actually covered this. This one's a little bit newer. 08:59 Speaker A Uh, this one says, "Future Insomniac game titles could be cancelled if Marvel's Wolverine does not sell six million copies." So, Kotaku talked about this, too. And basically, you have to sell a ton of copies of this game or Marvel could pull the license. 09:23 Speaker A Oh, you're not making the money that we expected. All right. Well, we're gonna take that license back because Marvel, I'm sure, is expecting a large kickback from this. It needs to be profitable for them. They need to make 09:37 Speaker A money. And if they're not going to make the money, they'll give it to somebody else who either pay them enough money, well, it doesn't matter, or they're going to make it through the game sales or whatever. I, I don't know how the 09:49 Speaker A actuals of this work. Uh, not even this really goes over how much Marvel makes from any of this [ \_\_ ]. But as it points out here, each game is getting around 120 million for its budget. See, this 10:04 Speaker A goes against what it's saying. That's why I wonder if that 300 million is wit... 10:21 Speaker A saying 120, but then you go over here to this article and it's saying 300 million going over some of the stuff, the projected budget. So, who knows, maybe it went over. 10:33 Speaker A Either way, uh, one thing that seems clear going over this is that Marvel can terminate the deal. The licensing the licensing terms also outline potential termination grounds. 10:49 Speaker A Neither Sony nor Marvel can terminate the deal for convenience. But if any one of the X-Men games doesn't sell at least 6 million units between PlayStation 5 and PC in their first year, either can terminate the agreement. If Sony and 11:08 Speaker A Insomniac terminate, they have to pay Marvel $9 million as well as unpaid portions of all guarantees. If Marvel terminates, the fees will be waved, but Insomniac can continue to sell whatever games they already have they already have released 11:25 Speaker A at the time. So basically, that that actually is a good thing. So, you know how we can't play the older X-Men and Spider-Man games because of licensing? 11:36 Speaker A This means if you bought it uh or you wanted to play it in the future, you I'm thinking would be able to go into their digital store and still buy it, right? 11:46 Speaker A And that probably includes licensing for future console releases, which is another thing that they didn't really start working out properly until the PlayStation 4, so that they can make sure libraries would build. That's why the PlayStation 4, Xbox era, 12:04 Speaker A uh, Xbox One is what they were calling it, right? That era was important. And this is what really hurt Xbox when they when they screwed up with their TV [ \_\_ ] with Xbox One and fumbled that generation because the games that you've 12:19 Speaker A bought carry over now. So, people built up big digital libraries and physical libraries that can play from four to five to six. Well, actually six won't play your physical games anymore, but the point is like you have that library 12:34 Speaker A that will follow you now and that was important and it kind of was the death nail for Xbox. Maybe Xbox can bounce back. We'll see. But the point is it can be terminated unless they sell 6 million. 12:50 Speaker A That's a lot of copies. And there's uh a lot of people that aren't very fond of what Spider-Man 2 did. So now I wonder, you know, how is this going to affect Wolverine? Because I think it's going to 13:02 Speaker A it's for sure going to sell 2, three million. Will it make it to six though? 13:06 Speaker A And keep in mind that's not within its lifetime. That's in one year. If this game were to be a catastrophic failure, would they pull it? I'm not sure. But uh that would be that would be a bad look and it would at least start 13:26 Speaker A conversations. I would like the X-Men or that the Marvel license in general to be pulled from Sony and given to somebody that would number one like this exclusivity thing is dumb for Marvel games uh multiplatform and to people 13:39 Speaker A that actually maybe want to tell a real Wolverine story and not just whatever they want like you know when they got [laughter] a a black woman that specializes in LBGT books to work on the game like that's the last person that should be writing a 13:56 Speaker A Wolverine game should be a dude that was fans of the character cuz these guys pro they proved they have no idea what to do with this character based on stuff that they were doing with him before like crafting kits for Wolverine who has a 14:09 Speaker A healing factor that makes no sense. I mean we've already seen a game do it back in 2009 was it the Wolverine Origins game they showed him that that's the model you follow where he heals in real time. So anyway, let me know what 14:24 Speaker A you guys think about all of this. I'd like to hear from you. Also, if you would please like, subscribe, share the video, hit that notification bell, and we'll see you on the next one. Topics: Marvel Wolverine Insomniac Games Video Game Budget X-Men Trilogy Game Sales Targets Polygon Kotaku Character Design Gaming Media Bias Sony Exclusivity --- This is the markdown twin of https://sozai.app/transcript/marvel-wolverine-305-million-budget/ — the same content, without the markup. Published by SozAI (https://sozai.app). Reuse and quotation are allowed with attribution and a link back. Machine-readable index: https://sozai.app/llms.txt · data API: https://sozai.app/api/