Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a standalone game, not an expansion pack
When Insomniac unveiled Spider-Man: Miles Morales during Sony's The Future of Gaming event, we correctly pinpointed it as a launch title. However, it seems there was some confusion about what exactly the game is—namely, is it an expansion of the studio's previous Spider-Man game, or is it a standalone spinoff?
Insomniac cleared up this question on Thursday in a PlayStation blog post. Creative Director Brian Horton said Spider-Man: Miles Morales will be a standalone title based on the universe the studio had created.
"This standalone game lets players experience the rise of Miles Morales as he discovers new powers that set him apart from his mentor, Peter Parker," said Horton.
However, he explains that the new game will be much smaller in scale than the original. Horton compares it to Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.
"We know a lot of you want to know how big this game is. You'll experience a full story arc with Miles, one that's more akin to a game like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy in terms of overall scope."
Lost Legacy was a standalone expansion to Uncharted 4: Thief's End and was about half the size with a playtime of around 20 hours or so. By comparison, Thief's End takes about 40 hours to complete. Spider-Man was about the same, so Miles Morales should run around 20 hours or so. That's not bad for a game that has only been in development for about two years and on next-gen hardware no less. In fact, it is a bit surprising it will be ready for PlayStation 5 at launch.
Horton also mentioned that along with the new story, the game would introduce "new set-pieces, fresh villains, unique quests," and more (video above). Presumably, there will be various side missions like the first had that can extend playtime much farther than the 20 hours of story. Insomniac did not mention if the team was planning any DLCs for Miles, but Horton did say that ideas for the next true sequel were already brewing.
"Oh and one last thing: Many of you fans have wondered if Peter Parker is OK," the creative director added. "Don't worry, we still have much of Peter's story left to tell. But this game is all about Miles, a critical part of our Spider-Man universe, and you won't want to miss what happens.