How Are People Playing Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Early?

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a Spider-Man. But, in the case of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, it seems like some people have been swinging around well before its October 20 release date. So, you might be asking yourself, just how are people playing Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 early?

How People Have Got Spider-Man 2 Early

One reason people have got their hands on Spider-Man 2 early is that they were reviewing it. It’s not always the case, but more often than not, reviewers are given copies of a game well before its release, to give them time to play it and, ideally, finish it.

Would a reviewer willingly leak footage of a game before an embargo (the date when they’re allowed to publish)? Not if they valued their job, because it’d be a huge black mark for them and the site they worked for. It could also mean that the publisher, in this case Sony, refused to send them any more games.

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However, we have heard of a case or two where games journalists have accidentally started streaming an unreleased game, presumably because they hit stream instead of record on their setup. A few days ago, the first hour of Spider-Man 2 was floating around and that had been recorded off someone else’s stream.

Piracy is not, currently, a thing on the PlayStation 5, so people won’t have got their hands on pirate copies of Spider-Man 2. However, physical copies are sent out pre-release and it’s possible that someone has broken the street date.

Unlike games journalists, Joe Public isn’t subject to embargos. And while Sony might try to copyright strike any footage off YouTube, unless they’ve actually stolen the game, the owner of that game probably isn’t breaking the law.

I know that I’ve ordered games outside of my job, and had them arrive up to four days before street date, usually when I’ve bought them off eBay. So while big chains, GameStop and so on, are more likely to be beholden to street dates, some smaller resellers may be more inclined to just send out the games when they’ve got them.

So the answer to how have people got Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 early is that they’ve either been reviewing or otherwise covering it as part of their job, or a retailer/reseller has broken the street date.

If you’re looking for more on the game, check out the reveal for the EnCOded costume for Miles Morales in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.