Insomniac Games has reportedly been hacked, with details of its upcoming Wolverine game included in the stolen data

Wolverine grimaces and brandishes his claws
(Image credit: 2K)

According to a report from cyberdaily.au, Insomniac Games, the studio behind the Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank games, has been hacked by a ransomware group. The group, who call themselves Rhysida, provided proof that included a screenshot of Insomniac's upcoming Wolverine game as well as character art for various Marvel-owned characters.

More concerningly the hack also includes scans of passports belonging to both current and former Insomniac employees. They include a personal document belonging to voice actor Yuri Lowenthal, who provides the voice of Spider-Man in Insomniac's games. Internal emails and other confidential documents were also part of the hack.

Rhysida have given Insomniac a week to pay their ransom, but have also begun an auction for the full set of data that begins at 50 bitcoin, or $US2.1 million. "With just 7 days on the clock, seize the opportunity to bid on exclusive, unique, and impressive data," Rhysida reportedly wrote. "Open your wallets and be ready to buy exclusive data. We sell only to one hand, no reselling, you will be the only owner!"

A spokesperson for Insomniac's owner Sony provided a public statement in response. "We are aware of reports that Insomniac Games has been the victim of a cyber security attack," they said. "We are currently investigating this situation. We have no reason to believe that any other SIE [Sony Interactive Entertainment] or Sony divisions have been impacted."

Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.