The 2023 PlayStation Showcase was a bit of a disappointment. Sure, plenty of our predictions came true, but the whole event was a very “meh” affair. Quite frankly, the most exciting part of the showcase was the final game, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and that’s mostly because its trailer showcased some actual gameplay. Despite the many new things we learned about the sequel in that trailer, though, it raised some new questions regarding Venom’s identity in the game.

Sony ended the PlayStation Showcase with a marvelous bang, pun definitely intended, by treating audiences to 12 uninterrupted minutes of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 footage. The video teased Kraven the Hunter as the main villain, a potentially larger world to explore that expands past Manhattan, and, most importantly of all, a Symbiote-infected Peter Parker. And where there’s a Black Suit Spider-Man, Venom isn’t far behind. But that raises an important...