Hackers reportedly leak screens and details of Insomniac's Wolverine game - Sony "investigating"

Spider-Man 2 studio Insomniac Games have reportedly been hacked by ransomware group Rhysida, which has led to the release of docs and screenshots purporting to be of the Sony-owned developer's mysterious Wolverine game. Sony are "investigating" these reports and say that "they have no reason to believe that any other SIE or Sony divisions have been impacted", which reads to me like an acknowledgement that the leaks are legit. Colour that speculation for the moment, however.

All that comes from an article published by Cyberdaily.au. If you've not had the pleasure of Rhysida's acquaintance before, they've also carried out attacks on US hospitals, the University of West Scotland, and the Chilean Army. What an enterprising bunch.

In this case, Rhysida have circulated what they claim are annotated screenshots from the Wolverine game, together with character art, internal emails, signed confidential documents, and passport scans for Insomniac employees. The ransomware group have given Insomniac seven days to respond, and are running an auction on the rest of the data, with a starting price of 50 bitcoins or around $2 million.

Sony have now released a brief statement. "We are aware of reports that Insomniac Games has been the victim of a cyber security attack," it reads. "We are currently investigating this situation. We have no reason to believe that any other SIE or Sony divisions have been impacted."

Insomniac's Wolverine game has only been announced for PS5 at the time of writing, but it seems likely the game will join Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart and Insomniac's first Spider-Man title on PC eventually. I have tempered expectations for it, not so much because I doubt Insomniac, but because in my experience, Wolverine games tend to be big, silly hack-and-slashers. Wolverine's key qualities, after all, are pop-out metal claws, accelerated self-healing and barely controlled rage. He is known for many things, but varied and thoughtful approaches to conflict aren't among them. Still, I do have fond memories of X2: Wolverine's Revenge on GameCube, in which Wolverine is voiced by Mark Hamill.

The official images that exist for the new game give little away besides one location, the Princess Bar, a seedy dive in the fictional South East Asian city of Madripoor. I could be wrong, but it looks like there's an eye-patch on the bar in the image at the top of this article, which could be a reference to the events of the Uncanny X-Men comics. Hey, look at me, I did a lore speculation! Do you have any hopes and predictions to share?