Insomniac Games announced today that it is currently using a new face capture model for Peter Parker in Spider-Man Remastered, which is a game that’s going to be included in Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition. As a result, the face of the character has significantly changed, much to the dismay of many fans.
After the release of the title’s new in-game footage, fans quickly criticized Peter Parker’s new design, while others compared his new appearance to that of Spider-Man actor Tom Holland. While his redesign isn’t necessarily a bad thing, this change just isn’t what the fans expected nor wanted.
Due to this uproar, the game director of Spider-Man Remastered took to Twitter to release a statement regarding the change.
Insomniac Games released a new teaser for Spider-Man Remastered today, which is where you can take a look at Peter Parker’s new face. Naturally, since this is a remastered game we’re talking about, many fans were already expecting the title to have visual changes and adjustments.
However, they weren’t expecting the main character himself to have a completely new and different face from the original PS4 version of Spider-Man that was released in 2018. The change has had polarizing reactions from fans, as some don’t like the fact that Peter now looks younger, while others don’t really see what the big deal is.
Because of these reactions, Spider-Man Game Director Bryan Intihar decided to release a statement addressing this big change on Twitter. In the statement, Intihar explains that the reason why Insomniac Games had to redesign the character is because they needed a “better facial match for Spider-Man actor Yuri Lowenthal,” who is the voice actor of the character.
As a matter of fact, the game director would even call this change a “necessity.” He also goes on to say that this decision was a big one even for them, but they had to make this hard choice for the betterment of the game.
A few words from me on today’s news… pic.twitter.com/PpdWVuw4Mm
— Bryan Intihar (@bryanintihar) September 30, 2020
In the original 2018 Spider-Man game, the actor they chose to model as Peter Parker was John Bubniak, another young, thin white male who matched the profile of the character.
On the other hand, Peter’s new face model, Ben Jordan, is a great match as well. However, fans are complaining that the redesign has made Peter look younger than he’s supposed to be based on the game’s timeline.
We don’t blame the fans to be taken completely by surprise, though. After all, it would understandably be jarring to find that a character you’ve played with for hours on end has a completely new look.
In any case, it’s best to look at the positive aspects of this situation. For instance, a recent PlayStation Blog post discusses the improvements Insomniac has made to the characters in Spider-Man Remastered.
For the game’s visual upgrades, you will find higher fidelity skin, eyes, and teeth shaders, along with hair strands that have been individually-rendered. That honestly sounds exciting and we can’t wait to see these well-loved Spider-Man characters come to life.
The post also reiterates what Intihar said regarding their decision to change Peter’s character model. Though Insomniac Games “loved working with John Bubniak,” they’re also very proud and excited to show off what Ben Jordan has brought to the game.
