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'Spider-Man' for PS4 Has to Be Patched to Remove This Failed Marriage Proposal

One of the best selling video games of the year is currently also a sad reminder of a failed relationship.
Image: Sony

The new Spider-Man game is enjoying a bit of a moment right now. Not only is it the fastest selling game of 2018 according to UK sales charts, but the PlayStation 4 exclusive is also the biggest subject of discussion on social sites like reddit and Twitter. The game is even generating its own mythology: specifically, the appearance of a marriage proposal for a now-defunct relationship.

In May, a hopeful beau named Tyler Schultz tweeted at Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games, asking to have "Madison, will you marry me?" hidden in the game somewhere. Tyler and Madison had been together for five years, it turned out, so Tyler assured developer Insomniac that the proposal could wait a few months until the September launch.

After Spider-Man launched last week, Tyler uploaded—then deleted—a video to YouTube explaining that he and Madison had broken up. Jacinda Chew, art director for Spider-Man at Insomniac, expressed her sympathies and offered to patch the proposal out of the game, but so far nothing has changed. Players can still check out Tyler's ill-fated proposal on the marquee of a local theater, shake their heads sadly at the incomprehensible chaos of the human condition, and go on to pummelling bad dudes and saying 'sup to friendly New Yorkers.

This isn't the first time video games have featured in wedding proposals. Back in 2009—a different era!—the Bethesda forum community pitched in to create a Fallout 3 mod so a young woman could propose to her boyfriend. In 2015, one man made an entire video game to propose to his girlfriend, building levels out of specific memories of their time together. Most closely related to the latest Spider-Man episode, a Portal fan got Valve and Ellen McLain, the actor who voices GLaDOS, to make a custom proposal level for him and his then-girlfriend. Unlike the story off Tyler and Madison, however, the Portal proposal had a more successful result.

We had a mostly positive but slightly blank reaction to Spider-Man ourselves: Matthew Gault thought that the game was fun and well-made, but sort of forgettable in the way that big Marvel blockbusters tend to be. At least for Tyler (and also poor Madison, the unwilling co-star in this entire show), Spider-Man will be memorable at the very least.