When news broke that Marvel's Avengers, the upcoming superhero title from Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics, would feature Spider-Man as an exclusive playable character for PlayStation owners, people got upset. Primarily, it was Xbox, PC, and Stadia fans that took it the hardest, as it meant that they were being denied content and not just a simple skin or something, but a whole character - a character who also happens to be one of the most popular superheroes in the world.
The ensuing backlash sparked discussions regarding console exclusive content, whether Spider-Man's exclusivity means there won't be cross-play, and the lack of any exclusive characters for the other versions (at least, so far).
However, despite the bad publicity, it appears that the news has still resulted in pre-orders for the PlayStation 4 version of Avengers to shoot up, as it has been reported that it is now the #1 best seller on Amazon.
It's abundantly clear that PS4 owners are more than happy with the Spider-Man news and some have possibly decided to purchase the game because of his inclusion. It's obviously too early to tell how well the game's initial sales will be like, but so far things look positive for Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics.
It's possible that sales for the Xbox One, PC, and Stadia versions might suffer as a result, but pre-orders for the Xbox One version seem to be pretty high still, with it listed at #6 on Amazon's Xbox One best-sellers list. It appears that, despite the very vocal outrage, most people don't appear to be all that bothered.
The recent War Table streams have probably helped, as they provided the closest look at the games since the initial reveal last year and generated a lot of excitement, with the most recent one highlighting the beta, which is soon to become available to the general public.
It's still incredibly disappointing to know that Xbox One, PC, and Stadia owners will essentially be receiving inferior versions of the game due to lacking content locked to the PlayStation owners. It has been pointed out, as well, that this could result in any Spider-Man related content being lackluster, meaning PlayStation owners will suffer too.
It's entirely possible that Spider-Man will be added to the other versions later in the game's lifespan, but this has not been confirmed or hinted at so far.
Marvel's Avengers will release on PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and Xbox One on September 4th, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions to follow.