Alleged Spider-Man PS4 Puddle Downgrade Angers Gamers

With the Spider-Man PS4 release date being September 7, it's only natural for the franchise's legions of fans to rewatch every single trailer prior to the game's eventual release. And in doing so, some have alleged that the game has received a significant downgrade in a rather shallow department - Spider-Man's puddles.

Yes, it seems that the pixel pedants on Reddit have suggested that Spider-Man has received significant graphical downgrades due to the difference in the size of puddles in areas of the game shown in early footage versus more recent trailers. The argument reminds us of games such as the original Watch Dogs, which was subject to such controversy during its 2014 launch. That said, when you consider how complex modern big budget video game development is, particularly for a title like Spider-Man that has a multitude of moving parts, it's only natural for things to change in development.

In its defence, developer Insomniac has claimed several times that this is far from the case.

"It’s just a change in the puddle size, there’s no downgrade at all," claimed the studio's Twitter account in response to several queries. Continuing, Insomniac added that Spider-Man still has "plenty of other places with tons of puddles."

Community Director James Stevenson answered questions pertaining to this from his personal Twitter account as well.

"I am telling you I talked to the technical and engineering and art staff, and looked at the live code of this from the final build," responded Stevenson. "There was NO DOWNGRADE [emphasis his]."

Stevenson insisted that "it's not a downgrade. Downgrade implies we showed something not possible as a trick or reduced capabilities. Neither of those [are] true." He also added that these complaints are why developers are hesitant to publicly show games while they're in production.

It's not long before you can decide on your own if Spider-Man for PS4 did get a downgrade or not. Though with the wealth of content on offer, we doubt it would impact your overall enjoyment of the game.

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