'Well, that didn't go as planned' says EA as it footage of its Iron Man game leaks online

EA has confirmed that leaked footage of Motive's Iron Man game is real, after an unauthorised version of a trailer for the superhero game appeared online on Friday.

"Well, that didn't go as planned," EA wrote on the official X account for Marvel's Iron Man in response to the leaked video (via IGN). "But now you know, and we've got a lot more to show you. See you when we're ready."

The trailer, which is clearly built from work-in-progress footage of the game, shows two and a half minutes of both cutscenes and in-game action. We see Tony Stark flying around what appears to be New York, battling enemies both on the ground and in midair, and paying a visit to the S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier as it drifts through the sky.

My immediate reaction to the footage was 'Yeah, I'd play that.' Even though there's a lot of missing detail to the world, like low-resolution textures, unfinished cutscenes, etc, Iron Man's flying looks very slick and the combat seems to have considerable nuance to it. Iron Man's suit is loaded with gadgets like rockets, cluster missiles, repulsor blasts etc. But Stark is equally capable of beating enemies to a pulp and tossing them around—including one sweet manoeuvre where he suddenly bursts forward and slams an enemy into a wall.

The footage also shows what appears to be a suit customisation system—which makes sense given how Stark is constantly tinkering with his gear. Stark himself seems similar to his MCU equivalent in appearance, though he is apparently not modelled after Robert Downey Jr. The game does ape other elements of the MCU films, like the holograph-ringed closeups of RDJ's face in the movies.

The trailer is labelled "Aug26 Test", suggesting it is a recent creation. It also has placeholder text for a release window, so it might have been eventually intended to kick off EA's marketing cycle for the game. It certainly aligns with the game's development timeline. Marvel's Iron Man was announced back in 2022, so it's been in development for at least four years. Given how games tend to come together at the very last minute, the footage could well represent a build that's much further along than it initially appears.

EA's Iron Man game was part of a suite of superhero titles planned for development at EA. But not all of these are still in production. The company's Black Panther game announced in 2023 was cancelled last year. More recently, EA employees have been bracing for the worst following reported plans for massive cuts at the publisher after its recent buyout. But for now, at least, it seems Marvel's Iron Man is unaffected.

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Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.