In late 2023, Marvel's Wolverine developer Insomniac Games was the subject of a major data breach. Hacking group Rhysida stole a huge amount of information from the developer, including future plans, sensitive strategy documents, personal employee information, and images, video footage, and design documents relating to the unreleased — and then mostly under wraps — Wolverine. After Rhysida's demands for a $2 million ransom were not met, most of the stolen data was released online.

The scale of the hack was unprecedented in the game industry. And its effects are still being felt at Insomniac, as gamers compare new preview footage of Wolverine to the leaked videos of an earlier version of the game and jump to conclusions about its development — some of them unfavorable.

"The data breach was a tough time for the studio," Wolverine game director Mike Daly told Polygon recently at PlayStation's London offices. "That was not fun. It led to a lot of anxiety."

But Daly said Insomniac's resilience, and a strong show of support from both fans and its parent company Sony, made it possible (if not easy) to shrug the hack off.

"We got through it, I think, because the studio did a great job supporting each other, Sony did a great job supporting us, and our fans supported us too," he said. "We felt like, despite the data breach, we were able to keep going. And we had the, you know... I've said support, I feel like, too many times here, but we had the support of everybody to get back up and running and continue to do our best with the game that we're making."

Daly stepped in as game director of Marvel's Wolverine after the hack, in 2024, alongside creative director Marcus Smith. Smith and Daly had previously directed Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart together. They replaced Wolverine's original directing team of Brian Horton and Cameron Christian due to "creative decisions," according to a 2024 report by Game File.

But Daly said the hack didn't have any material impact on Insomniac's plans for Wolverine. "UIltimately, it was disruptive, but it never changed our goals," he said. "And I do feel like we were able to just get past it and keep doing our best."