The massive data breach that affected Insomniac Games in late 2023 was a "tough time for the studio," leading to "a lot of anxiety," according to Marvel's Wolverine game director Mike Daly. The hack, carried out by the group Rhysida, resulted in the theft of a significant amount of sensitive information, including future project details, employee data, and materials related to the then-unannounced Wolverine game. After the hackers' ransom demands were unmet, much of the stolen data was disseminated online.
Daly, who stepped into the game director role for Wolverine in 2024 following the incident, stated that the breach, while disruptive, did not fundamentally alter the game's development goals. He credited the studio's ability to move forward to the collective efforts of its employees, support from parent company Sony, and encouragement from fans. "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," Daly told Polygon. "We felt like, despite the data breach, we were able to keep going."
Daly and creative director Marcus Smith, who previously directed Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart together, took over the leadership of Marvel's Wolverine after the original directing team departed due to "creative decisions," according to a 2024 report by Game File. Despite the unprecedented scale of the hack and the subsequent public scrutiny from leaked materials, Daly maintained that Insomniac's core objectives for the game remained unchanged. "Ultimately, 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 with the game that we're making."