There are a lot of things I can sort of look past as a consumer of video games. I don’t mind DLC or microtransactions when I can simply choose to ignore them. I really don’t even mind games that function entirely online. These are things that point to my personal privileges about where I live and my personal life. I understand those who hate DLC or online connectivity and would never say they’re wrong. Funny enough, something that really bugged me this week seems to bug most everyone else as well.

The new Marvel’s Avengers game announced that Spider-Man would be a PS4 and PS5 exclusive character. Character exclusivity in cross-platform games doesn’t just limit one community’s experience over another. It’s a full-on acceptance of the same console wars nonsense that leads to community hostility. Interestingly, most Sony fans and Microsoft fans aren’t too happy about the decision to make Spidey exclusive.

The idea of licensing rights is beside the point here. Spider-Man is a character license for his mainline games and that may very well seep over to likeness in other titles. However, we saw Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 feature Spider-Man and even the PS4 voice actor for the character. Did Sony just sign that away because Nintendo isn’t their true competition? I don’t think that’s the case. So what’s up with this latest decision?

Whether you play on PlayStation or Xbox shouldn’t matter here. The same price is going to come up when gamers check out at their local game store with a copy of Marvel’s Avengers. There should be two identical experiences waiting for gamers on either console. Instead, Sony players get Spidey and Xbox players miss out on a character beloved by many. Is this punishment for buying one console over another. It sure seems like it.

All in all, Sony seems pretty greedy in this case. If Xbox was doing this to Sony in a reverse situation, I’d still be upset. Either way, my pre-order is cancelled and I’m not interested in supporting this game further. I don’t advocate for others to spend or not spend their own money unless it’s truly harmful. This might not quite make the mark of harmfulness, but it sure is a petty practice.

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