It’s been over 14 years since developer Insomniac Games‘ fondly remembered alternate history shooter series drew to a close with Resistance 3, but it turns out fans might have seen a fourth mainline entry if the studio had got its way. Outgoing Insomniac boss has revealed the studio pitched a “wonderful concept” for Resistance 4 – but Sony ultimately said no.
Price – who announced his retirement last month after more than 30 years at Insomniac – was speaking to the Kinda Funny Gamescast. When asked if he had a favourite pitch the studio had made over the years – a “one that got away” – Price dropped the Resistance 4 bombshell.
“We did pitch that one,” he revealed, “and it was a wonderful concept… It was the result of a lot of Insomniac team members being passionate about extending the story further… I do believe that Resistance has set up a really cool alternate history base where anything can happen with the Chimera and where they go and what their origins are. We spent a lot of time working on backstory and brainstorming on where we could take this in the future.”
Unfortunately, Sony couldn’t be convinced, with Price citing “timing and market opportunity” as the reason the project didn’t progress beyond its pitch. Exactly when all this happened is unclear based on Price’s comments, but a glance through the archives reveals he told Eurogamer the studio was “not slated” to do Resistance 4 all the way back in 2011. A year later and Price was ready to draw a line under the series in considerably more definitive terms, saying, “We won’t be making any more Resistances.”
And while that’s proven to be the case so far, Price revealed to Kinda Funny he’d love to see a Resistance revival, calling the series, “Near and dear to my heart.”
“When you work on a franchise for a long time,” he explained, “it’s nice to have a chance to move onto something else. And at the same time, it’s also nice to be able to come back to it. So fortunately, because [Insomniac is] part of Sony and Sony owns the intellectual property to Resistance, we will always have that opportunity to revisit Resistance.”
But while fans may be disappointed to hear about the Resistance 4 that almost was, Price remains philosophical. “I do strongly believe there’s a reason everything happens,” he told Kinda Funny, “and when I look back at the games that we’ve made – the ones that were received well, the ones that weren’t received well, the ones we didn’t get to make – all of those have led us to where we are today. Which is an amazing relationship with Marvel and working on games we are truly excited about.”
Insomniac’s next game is Wolverine, which was teased back in 2021 and is still without a release window. “We’ve announced Wolverine, and we’d love to talk more about Wolverine,” the studio said earlier this year, “but we have to be like Logan today, and remain very stoic until it’s time to pop the claws down the road. As much as we have pent up excitement, we’ve got to hold on to it. So that’s about as much as we could say about our upcoming projects today.”