Insomniac Games recently unveiled the long-anticipated Marvel’s Wolverine video game for PS5 with the transforming mutant Mystique next to the saying “Meet Mystique. You won’t even know she’s there”. The tweet was quite short but it immediately brought players all over the world to respond with using their own passion, this range included requests for the game, debates about the localization, and even character design.
Despite the short tweet, Insomniac’s tweet gave little to nothing what it was all about. The tweet provides only the character of Mystique in the form of a not-clear-at-all cinematic shot. But no media is included in the actual tweet data. Players’ reactions to the reveal are the most important thing rather than the reveal itself.
The most talkative among players are the Turkish players. Numerous comments are found in the comments that demand the Turkish language support, and one player shares the view: “Turkish fans adore this game—please provide Turkish subtitles so we can fully appreciate its excellent story.” Another commenter makes an even simpler request: “I want Turkish language support 🇹🇷,” while still more users asked for both dubbing and text support. However, it is not just a few random requests. In fact, a Turkish localization demand trend runs throughout the comments showing that there is a significant number of people in Turkey waiting for Wolverine in their own language.
On the one hand, the localization requests represent one side of the story while on the other hand character design of Mystique has turned out to be the other major issue that some of the players are really concerned about. It was even pointed out in some comments how she has turned out to be less attractive than her comic book character with one user complaining: “They took a character who is hot as shit in the comics and made her ugly what don’t you get?” Others responded to someone who defended the design by saying, “People who understand anatomy will either acknowledge it or they are stupid or do not believe men and women are different which is also pretty stupid.”
Another user sparked the debate by saying, “Ah yes the Sony first party special sauce, Androgyny. They are so terrified of attractive women.” So, another player began the back-and-forth by asking, “Don’t pretend you understand artistic decisions that have nothing to do with you or game design especially when you’re nothing but an Xbox console-warring fangirl just trying to nitpick at the most inconsequential things because you’re butthurt over the fact Xbox is dead lol.”
What was I saying—oh right, the console war nonsense. Definitely there is some platform rivalry, which has reflected in the comments, with one user commenting “Insomniac games do Coming to Xbot Spider Man 30fps real 🤡👎🏻🥱 Trash 🗑️🫵🏻,” followed by another user who just replied with a bunch of clown and trash can emojis targeting Xbox fans. This is the same old console war issue we see every time a big exclusive tease occurs.
The silver lining is that not all players are dissatisfied. One very excited comment reads “OMG, this Wolverine tease is incredible @insomniacgames! Loving the Mystique reveal.” However, amidst the positive feedback, there are some doubters in the audience wondering how much they’re actually getting, one player saying, “yup. milking every shot of that trailer until next April.”
The unveiling of Mystique thus triggered some very intriguing discussions regarding her shape-shifting powers. One user mentioned: “She was a man literally 2 seconds before this,” another user added, “and that shape had a dick.” These comments indicate that it is certainly Mystique’s fluid identity and appearance that are at the core of her character, thus any design choices become particularly fraught with a lot of emotions for fans.
A teaser can create a lot of drama, and it’s incredible how one small thing can escalate the whole situation. We’re discussing a character that keeps on changing her shape, and players have a lot of passion for their arguments regarding her look at a particular moment. On the flip side, there are some players who would just like to access the dialogues in their language.
The localization demands from Turkish players are very sincere, though. The comment section is full of users who make polite but firm requests for Turkish support, one of them saying, “We really want Turkish localization in Marvel’s Wolverine. Experiencing this amazing story in our language would be a big deal to us. Just text support would be enough.” The reason behind this is that having seen how story-driven Insomniac’s Spider-Man games were, it would only be logical for players to want to be completely aware of the story in Wolverine as well.
As for the game, when are we going to get our hands on it—who knows. The teaser definitely did its job of increasing the hype but at the same time it also revealed some of the developers’ challenges for the year 2024. Players asking for localization from all over the world, different opinions about the character’s look and, last but not least, the constantly simmering console wars in the background—this is all what a mere tweet showing us a blue shapeshifter for about two seconds has caused.
Still, one thing is clear: if fans’ responses to these teases are any indication, Insomniac has another winner on their hands. The negativity and positivity from customers show that they are very much involved with this game. Whether it is the Turkish players who want the story to be told correctly, or the comic book fans who are arguing over the character designs, everyone seems to be eager for what Insomniac is cooking up with Wolverine. The final product will have to show whether it can meet all the expectations and controversy that have built up around it.
