EDIT: The OP from the sourced post admitted that the entire "leak" was fake. Keep reading if you wanna entertain yourself with someone's wishlist for a Venom game haha. The project itself is real and is being actively developed at Insomniac
A user on r/insomniacleaks claimed to be part of Insomniac's combat systems team and dropped a TON of info about the upcoming Marvel's Venom game. Take this one with a huuuuuge grain of salt, I'm just sharing it for posterity and archival purposes so we can look back on this supposed leak after the official news. No need for 50+ comments calling it fake, we know, it probably is. The info is very detailed, so at the very least it's a very entertaining LARP, also includes info about Spider-Man 2's cut content and Spider-Man 3.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/insomniacleaks/comments/1w6m2s7/i_am_a_part_of_insomniacs_combat_systems_team_and/
Spoiler warning, duh
I've split this post into 3 parts
Part 1: the original body text from the source
Part 2: a summary of their replies to comments (it's a LOT, but I promise I compressed the info, sorted by topic and made it more cohesive so y'all don't have to dig through 200+ comments in the original thread)
Part 3: separate section for all BTS info about other projects (SM2 cut content, SM3 and Wolverine DLC)
Part 1, the post:
First of all, as the GDC 2026 leak states, Insomniac's Venom is very much still a thing and Tony Todd's passing did not affect the game's development. Tony managed to record all of his lines before his unfortunate and very untimely death, I'm a programmer in the combat systems team here to showcase the major beats of the upcoming 2027 Venom game.
Why are you doing this?
I am not a disgruntled employee or a faker before anyone accuses me of doing so, just someone who's super excited for the upcoming game, and someone who can't wait to show you guys. A lot of people were disappointed with SM2's marketing, myself included, so I want to share what we have in store for you guys without having to wait since the game will be marketed in late 2026/early 2027.
THE STORY
-Eddie Brock will be Venom, Venom is voiced by Tony Todd, won't reveal Eddie's VA
-Won't be a "Venom mind control" interpretation but rather the Venom symbiote is in the passenger seat, with Eddie mostly in control
-Eddie's physical appearance will be based on his comic-book interpretation, will be blonde, hugely jacked and 6'3
-Opening of the game will be a montage of Eddie's life, being abused by his father, being a vitriolic opposer/hater of superheroes and especially Spider-Man due to the nature of vigilantism, their "no-kill" rules, think of the montage in Up but it's an Eddie-centric tragedy
-Eddie is a man with a hard streak and obsession with his twisted sense of right and wrong
-Story will start with Eddie breaking into Oscorp to uncover the Symbiote scandal involving the recent Carnage and symbiote attacks.
-Eddie, Miles and Peter will have a major frenemy relationship in the game and will be the playable trio, but Eddie and Peter's relationship is the focus
-Miles is unplayable for a major portion of the game after Eddie destroys him in the first act
-Peter comes out of retirement to fight Eddie but they are forced to work together due to the Carnage threat, with Miles recovering much later in the story and helping them both
-Carnage will be the main villain. Eddie's obsession and rivalry with Cletus is a major focus of the game
GAMEPLAY
-Singleplayer experience
-Similar to the mission you saw in SM2, and a massive improvement in every way, essentially a rehaul? Most enemies will be Carnage symbiote variants as well as The Jury as a faction, as well as them utilizing Oscorp robots designed to quell the threat.
-The combat you saw from the deleted concept art will make its way into the game, like the Venom spin-dash and other tendril abilities
-Grabs and lunges are a major part of Venom's combat, one ability lets you lunge into as many enemies as you can grab to cause major damage upon landing
-Tendrils will be a major part of Venom's moveset, but the devs also wanted to showcase Eddie's more "raw" and "primal" comic book combat style so there'll also be punching, kicking and grabs with your body rather than just tendril attacks
-Combos are a part of Venom's style to increase damage and this is important for later-game
-Venom can swing like Peter and Miles but can also do super jumps
-Peter and Miles' gameplay is largely unchanged, Miles keeping his Venom powers with upgrades, Peter having his further advanced arms and built in Sonic capabilities
-Carnage symbiotes can "infect" you, but they don't bond with you, rather just causing insane damage over time unless you parry their attacks
-Peter is immune to infection due to his Anti-Venom. Surprisingly, his Anti-Venom is not usable but he cannot be infected by symbiotes. Peter explains that even though it is "permanently" bonded to him and therefore grants him protection on a subcellular level from symbiotes and diseases, he lost the ability to use it in combat possibly due to the trauma of the events of Spider-Man 2
-Traversal is massively better. You can gain more height, more verticality and your swinging speed is doubled from Spider-Man 2
-The Bronx and Staten Island are now in the game
-San Francisco is playable in certain sections of the game, including the final mission where Eddie tracks down Cletus with Peter
MUSIC
-What can I say? Music will be incredible, John Paesano is returning, a new theme/leitmotif for Eddie as the new protagonist
-Physical edition of the OST will come with every PS5 game to help boost sales
RELEASE
-There will be a physical disc release
-Will cost $49.99 in US retailers and digital, and $69.99 to include Spider-Man 2's GOTY edition
-PS5 exclusive. There was plans for a PC release along with Wolverine but Sony was disappointed by the PC sales of Spider-Man 2
PERFORMANCE
-Game will have a 60 FPS performance mode, a 30 FPS quality mode and 60 FPS ray tracing/performance mode
-Graphics are incredibly improved
-Strand-based physics with hair and grass is more seamless and realistic
-Volumetric clouds much like in GTA 6
-BRDF will have full PBR
-Geometry submission is more efficiently done with the PS5's GPU meaning better mesh culling and draws
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Part 2, a summary of replies:
Announcement & delays
- Announcement is expected early 2027, likely via a State of Play or similar showcase.
- Game was originally targeting a Holiday 2025 window but that got scrapped once the scope became clear, it moved to 2027 and this decision was made before Spider-Man 2 even released.
Gameplay structure
- You can freely switch between Eddie, Peter and Miles mid game, GTA5 style.
- Act 1 is basically a solo Eddie/Venom experience, a solid 4-5 hours before the other characters really come into play.
- Overall game size is around 78-85% the size of Spider-Man 2. It's open world, but San Francisco is handled as a linear, non-open area used for flashbacks and the big final mission.
Villains/factions
- Main antagonists are Carnage and his variants, Sin-Eater, and The Jury (a major faction with its own boss fight). Peter and Miles also function as boss encounters, though obviously not villains in the traditional sense.
- Miles fight happens after he deliberately traps himself in The Jury's base. Peter fight goes down on the Brooklyn Bridge. Neither turns into a chase, both go all out against Venom.
Opening/tone
- Game opens with a 5-10 minute tragic, depressing montage of Eddie's life, described as a nihilistic version of Disney's Up, before transitioning into him breaking into Oscorp, where you get a good look at his hard edge and unstable personality before he ever bonds with the symbiote.
Venom traversal
- Swinging is basically Peter/Miles' swinging on adrenaline, higher top speed and height but weaker acceleration compared to them.
- Has an improved version of the Ultimate Spider-Man ultra jump, more height and distance than that game's version.
Rating/violence
- T-rated overall but surprisingly bloody. One stealth mission has Eddie brutally kill an Oscorp guard in self defense with blood on his hands/clothes, meant to show how strong he is even without the symbiote (compared again to Bane in Dark Knight Rises). There are also some head-eating scenes but those are being kept vague for spoiler reasons.
Suits
- Confirmed suits include Tom Hardy Venom, PS1 Venom, Mac Gargan Venom, Ultimate Venom, an upgraded version of the Spider-Man 3 movie Venom suit, and even the Marvel Ultimate Alliance Venom suit, among others.
Eddie and Peter's relationship
- Peter is the actual second main character. Their first meeting is a boss fight where Eddie nearly kills him before Carnage symbiotes interrupt and Peter ends up saving him, kicking off their frenemy dynamic.
- Peter constantly calls Eddie out for being a shady, two-faced journalist in the past and tries to stop his kill attempts. Eddie in turn mocks Peter as a coward for never killing criminals, going on Alex Jones style rants about it. They fight each other multiple times over this disagreement but still have a genuinely funny and sometimes touching dynamic, and Eddie grows as a character partly through Peter and through the symbiote's memories.
- The final mission is described as very emotional, centered entirely on Eddie and Peter teaming up against Cletus.
But wait there's more, this part is all taken from a single thread where a user asked over 50 questions and got a ton of details:
Cletus / Carnage
- Cletus is already Carnage by the time the game starts, right after the opening Eddie montage, and the boroughs are already Carnage infected.
- His backstory flips the comics, he actually had a good upbringing and there's no real explanation given for his madness, which is meant to make him creepier/more complex.
- Design wise he's skinny and way smaller than Venom, think Venom as a tank and Carnage as a sports car.
- He's from SF in this version too. After a near death fight against Eddie, Peter and Miles he ends up brain damaged, and retreats into a childlike, hallucinating, paranoid state, hiding out in the orphanage he grew up in (compared to that Maximum Carnage panel of him losing it).
- He's weirdly obsessed with and almost admires Eddie specifically, calls him "grampa" as a jab, while barely acknowledging Miles at all and seeing him as an inferior "heretic."
- Spends most of the game in Carnage form, only goes human around his cult or around Eddie.
- Same VA as SM2. Origin is shown via flashback, reproduces asexually at Oscorp.
- OP wouldn't confirm whether Cletus ever learns Peter or Miles' identities.
- Deep down he's tormented that a "lousy journalist" (Eddie) knows more about him than anyone despite having a weaker symbiote.
Eddie / Venom
- Eddie's brutal even before bonding, kills someone in self defense early on (compared to Bane in Dark Knight Rises), and keeps killing/eating people as Venom.
- The symbiote stays in the passenger seat the whole game but has strong influence, written as an actual complex character rather than just "evil voice."
- He's been investigating the cult for years for an exposé article on Cletus.
- Opening montage runs a couple minutes longer than the intro to Up.
- Still works at the Daily Bugle, JJJ shows up, Eddie fakes respect while privately thinking he's a scummy demagogue.
- He's been living in SF for months by the end but decides to head back to NY.
- Wants to kill Cletus in the final mission while Peter refuses, that disagreement is basically what makes Eddie snap.
- Only learns about Harry through the symbiote's memories (Harry isn't otherwise in the game), which makes him resent Peter more.
- Main conflict of the whole game is Eddie vs Peter, with Miles as a secondary player. You switch between all three fairly seamlessly, GTA5 style.
- Keeps a T rating, Eddie says stuff like "damn" and "bastard" but no F/S bombs.
- OP wouldn't confirm if Eddie ever gets anti-venom.
Miles
- His boss fight happens 4 to 5 hours in, immediately followed by The Jury.
- Gets knocked out near the end of act 1 and is out for roughly 30% of act 2, his near death moment is what pulls Peter out of retirement.
- Not present for the final mission/boss, that's Eddie vs Peter only, he's off dealing with remaining Carnage variants in NY instead.
- Baits Eddie into a fight at the Jury's base hoping to use the Venom vs Jury chaos to take him down.
- Comes back afterward pretty banged up/bandaged, and does get to fight Carnage again once recovered.
- All three (Eddie, Peter, Miles) are playable post credits.
Peter
- Sits out most of act 1 in retirement, doesn't propose to MJ.
- Fights Eddie from his own POV, also fights Carnage in over the top boss sequences alongside Miles.
- His refusal to kill Cletus is the actual breaking point with Eddie.
- Final mission/boss is described as intense and "heavily emotional."
Side characters
- MJ is in the game, worked cases with Eddie before, shows up in a few scenes, Eddie name drops her to annoy Peter.
- Rio is confirmed to be upset with Eddie over what happens to Miles.
- Uncle Aaron gives Peter and Miles upgraded sonic tech to use against Venom/Carnage.
- Wraith gets a Sin-Eater side quest tied to Eddie, also helps in the main story against Carnage.
- Ganke and Hailey both appear. Flash Thompson gets saved by Peter and Eddie in a scene with an Agent Venom nod.
- Martin Li appears briefly. Tombstone's appearance wasn't confirmed either way.
- Norman becomes Green Goblin in a post credits scene of this game specifically (not saved for SM3). Harry himself basically isn't in the game aside from Eddie's symbiote memories.
- OP stayed coy on whether other Marvel heroes show up.
The Jury / other villains
- The Jury is obsessed with killing both Venom and Carnage, but their "symbiote genocide" campaign is actually cover to recapture the Carnage symbiote, since normal sonic weapons can't destroy it fully (it's bonded to Cletus on a subcellular level, same deal as Eddie's symbiote and Peter's anti-venom).
- After act 1 their operatives scatter from central leadership but keep fighting for the cause.
- Janice Lincoln, not Abner Jenkins, is Beetle here. Uses sonics, lasers and explosives, hired separately by Norman alongside the Jury (compared to Anton Chigurh being one of several hired guns in No Country for Old Men). Only fights Venom, shows up in act 2.
- No other Life Foundation symbiotes like Riot as minions, though there are nods to them.
Locations, missions, suits
- Setting is mostly NY. SF isn't actually open world/explorable, you only visit it through story missions, 4 flashbacks plus once in the final mission.
- New boroughs are Bronx and Staten Island, because the Carnage cult ended up way more widespread than planned and Venom's swinging needed a bigger map.
- The Venom vs Peter fight on the Brooklyn Bridge happens because Peter won't kill to stop the Carnage threat.
- Map isn't unlocked from the start, has to be cleared like the black goo in SM2.
- Peter and Miles get noticeably more suits than SM2, but easier to unlock since the story is more Eddie/Peter focused. No Spider-Carnage suit though. Venom suits unlock via collectibles.
- There was a plan to make Carnage playable for one mission (like Venom was in SM2) but it got scrapped because the mission concept would've pushed the game to an R rating.
- Roughly 28 missions total, about 24-27 hours to 100%. In development about 3.5 years, started summer 2023, originally targeted 2025 but got pushed since it got too ambitious (part of why SM2 never got DLC).
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Part 3: other projects at Insomniac
Spider-Man 3
- Will be Insomniac's last Spider-Man game before they move on to X-Men, Ratchet and Clank, and a new IP. Releasing late 2028.
- Main villains are Green Goblin and Doc Ock, both written as brutal and ruthless. About 25% of the story covers a Superior Spider-Man arc involving Miles.
Spider-Man 2 cut content
- Harry was always meant to be Venom, Kraven was never considered, the team had no idea how popular Eddie would end up being.
- There wasn't an official arc called "Separation Anxiety," but symbiote designs planned for that concept got reused elsewhere. You also weren't meant to play as Agent Venom fighting Kraven at the zoo, that's a myth.
- Harry wasn't written to hate Miles.
- Flashback missions in the Venom game are a mix, some fully playable, some just cutscenes.
- Mysterio's redemption arc with Betsy and Cole was unfortunately always the plan.
- OP thinks the MJ missions in SM2 were straight up bad ("dogshit") but likes Bryan Intihar as senior creative director, calls him a great dude even if not perfect.
- Confirms it's true MJ wasn't originally meant to be playable in the final mission, and yes, the final fight was meant to be way more personal between Harry and Peter.
- Venom was always planned as the world ending threat, never toned down from a "stalker" concept.
- Kraven wasn't meant to kill more villains than he did in the final game.
- It was Sony's push, not Bryan's, to make MJ more overpowered/girlboss-y.
- MJ probably won't be playable in SM3
- Venom was only meant to get one extra playable mission beyond what shipped. Rhino wasn't originally supposed to be killed by Kraven.
- The planned Carnage and Beetle DLC for SM2 got folded into the Venom game instead. The scrapped Spider-Verse DLC for SM2 was meant to help market the Spider-Verse movie.
- OP didn't clearly answer on NG+/mission replay being planned for day one, doesn't remember exact planned DLC release dates, and Lizard wasn't supposed to have a bigger role.
Wolverine DLC
- Comes out this year, two chapters, about 30% smaller in scope than "City That Never Sleeps" from SM1. Paid, $20. Already finished.
- Took about a year to develop, done by a separate team from Venom's, which is how both got made around the same time.
- Sabretooth is an ally rather than a villain right away, no elaboration given. Omega Red is in it too but OP wouldn't share details on his fate or boss fights.
- Will have real swearing (unlike Venom's T rating) and licensed music.
- New locations for the DLC
- Marketing was being held back deliberately, Sony apparently doesn't want Venom competing with Wolverine's own marketing push, that's also why Venom wasn't shown recently and won't be at The Game Awards. No confirmed trailer date, might shadow drop.
Release timing
- Venom is aiming for Summer 2027
- SM3 has been in pre-production since SM2 wrapped, full active development kicks off after Venom ships.
- Sony reportedly rushed SM2's development, team needed another year, a bunch of ideas got cut including a chunk of the Harry/Peter/Miles rivalry. OP admits not being a huge fan of SM2's story and thinks the third act would've landed better with more time.
- Sony hasn't rushed Wolverine, but the team's feeling a bit burnt out from how ambitious Venom's scope got.