Sony is releasing Marvel's Wolverine, developer Insomniac's follow-up to its hugely successful Spider-Man games, but this time with an 18-rated (Pegi-18) certificate rather than a family-friendly one. That marks a deliberate change of direction for the studio, whose Spider-Man titles have sold 50 million copies, and represents a commercial gamble by narrowing the pool of people who can legally buy the game while embracing graphic blood and violence to suit the character.

According to a BBC review, the game favours a linear, curated structure over Spider-Man's open-world exploration, with fast, accessible combat built around a "rage" meter that lets players heal by dispatching enemies. It takes roughly 15 to 20 hours to complete, and critics note that while the violence is more graphic than in Spider-Man, it doesn't feel gratuitous. Game director Mike Daly acknowledged the rating "reduces the scope" of the potential audience but said it was "the cost of doing business" to portray Wolverine authentically.