The Thursday letters page explores the modern Nintendo vs. Sega rivalry, as one reader wants an end to Resident Evil remakes.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Turn back the clock
With Resident Evil Requiem and Pokémon Pokopia both selling out in terms of physical copies I wonder if there might still be a way to reverse the trend towards digital only? There’s lots of stories about Gen Z going retro for physical media, like CDs and DVDs. I’ve never heard game mentioned but I would’ve thought the same logic applies there.

Part of the reason behind the trend (apart from being contrary) is that they’ve realised it’s actually fun to own things, to put them on shelves, and to know they can’t be taken away from you. None of that applies to digital games so my hope is that we will see the increase in digital sales begin to slow and hopefully reverse.

If vinyl can make a comeback – and I hear even audio tapes and VHS – then video games absolutely should. There’s so much more to be gained by owning the games you pay for.
The Bishop

Your sequel is in another decade
A Fallout 3 remaster is all well and good but it’s now over 10 years since the last mainline Fallout game and we have absolutely no idea when Fallout 5 is coming out. After The Elder Scrolls 6 could mean 2033 or later. By that time we may not need a video game to experience a post-apocalyptic wasteland!

If I was Microsoft I’d hand the whole franchise over to Obsidian, who made New Vegas. Bethesda has been sitting on the series for so long and they’ve done absolutely nothing with it. They’ve had all the time and money needed to get more people in and work on two games at once but that doesn’t even seem to have been a thought.

I think it’s because Todd Howard wants to do everything himself but, I’ll be honest, him not working on the next Fallout 5 would be better news than it coming out tomorrow.
Focus

Super Pokopia Odyssey
I see Pokémon Pokopia has sold over 2.2 million copies in four days, which puts it ahead of the pace set by Super Mario Odyssey… which went on to sell over 30 million. Very happy to see, not just because it’s a great game but because it’s a bit of a risk that’s been rewarded.

You can slap the Pokémon name on anything and it’ll sell something at least, but they obviously put a lot of care into this one, more it seems to me than the mainline games. We all know GC hates the Dynasty Warriors games, so they get the bonus of Omega Force being taken off that while they’re busy with Pokopia.

Looking forward to playing it some more and it already looks like there’s lots of plans for post-launch support.
Zeiss

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Brief rivalry
It is always funny to compare Nintendo’s fortunes to Sega’s. They’ve been partners now for much longer than they were ever rivals but there’s no way Sega is in the same league as Nintendo now, if they ever were.

I think the reason Nintendo is reaping the benefits of good reviews, but Sega isn’t, is that Sega’s brands are just too old and tarnished. After all these years, nobody expects a Sonic game to be good and Shinobi may be a good game but nobody remembers or cares about the franchise.

On the other hand, Metaphor: ReFantazio is a weird game, with a weird name and concept, that looks basically like a PlayStation 2 game. I played it and loved it but frankly I’m surprised it did as well as it did.

Sega left it far too late to revive their Mega Drive era games and now the majority of gamers don’t even know what they are. While with Nintendo it’s the opposite and Pokémon is a household name that only boosts the sales of an already good game.
Onibee

Console first
Is Microsoft’s proposed combination of PC and console likely to shift Sony’s policy of putting console exclusive games on the PC, or is that something that had already shifted?

As an aside have just completed and really enjoyed Death Howl. Excellent game – thanks for highlighting it.
Matt (he_who_runs_away – PSN ID)

GC: We’ll probably never know for sure, because Sony hasn’t commented publicly on any of its policies for years. The most recent suggestion is that Sony is more worried about Valve’s Steam Machine than they are Project Helix.

Quiet for now
The build-up to a new console launch is always tiring in terms of all the nonsense companies talk. I can’t wait for the tech demos that don’t look anything like any of the games that ever get made. Anyone remember the one for the PlayStation 5, with the Tomb Raider looking woman and the promise that SSDs would change the way games are designed (spoiler: they didn’t)?

As usual, Microsoft just cannot shut up and let its product do its talking. They’re still going on as if they’re a big deal and it’s just getting sad. They could’ve just been the next EA and that would’ve been plenty important for them, but now we’ve got to endure Xbox One Part 3.

It should be humiliating for them that Sony don’t care what they think, they’re only worried about Steam Machine, even though it flopped once and there’s no guarantee that Valve can make it a hit at all.

And yet still Sony apparently think there’s a better chance of that happening than Xbox messing up their plans. And yet despite all that I think going for a premium price PC is actually a good idea for Microsoft. It’s not the same thing as PlayStation and it sounds like it’s going to be more expensive/more powerful than Steam Machine.

At least that’s a clear point of difference, so they may have some luck with it, even if it is for a niche audience. But for pity’s sake just stop with the hype until you’ve got something to show, by which I mean a games line-up, a price, and a release date.
Jakey

Monster anticipation
Are you planning on reviewing Monster Hunter Stories 3? I very much enjoyed the last two and the third looks like a development on an already very enjoyable series.

I have the game pre-ordered and whilst I don’t always agree with your reviews I am curious about your take on this spin-off series.
BristolPete

GC: Yes, we’ll have a review this week.

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Keep the plates spinning
Nice to see Resident Evil Requiem doing so well and looking forward to playing it. I’m cheap these days and with a sizeable backlog anyway, can wait for the sales. Still haven’t finished Resident Evil 4 remake yet.

As a fan of the series, though, I’m surprised Capcom and gamers (looking at the GC letters page) are so unimaginative with where they could take these now beloved characters and the absurd zombie conspiracy story they’ve cooked up over the years. Online all you hear is talk of the next remake or DLC. However, with such a rich tapestry to draw on, they could easily churn out new spin-offs and semi-sequels for a while yet.

I mean, why tie yourself down to remaking older entries at all? With the modern RE Engine perfected, just reuse assets from the previous modern games to do side entries with new stories and more regularity. Send Jill Valentine off to Latin America to battle an outbreak and meet a new bunch of scientist weirdos for an all-new direct sequel to Resident Evil 3.

Give Leon and Chris a new game taking down dodgy virus labs in made up ex-Soviet states now they’re special forces bros., etc. Maybe call it Resident Evil Revelations 3. I guess you’d risk it becoming the video game version of those supposedly bad CGI movies nobody watches… but Capcom are on such a roll I’d trust them to get the job done for a few games, before it got stale.

They don’t need to go through the mill of making Resident Evil 5 or 6 work in the modern age, just forget them.
Marc

GC: Resident Evil spin-offs have a very mixed history, whereas almost all the remakes have been great; so it’s not hard to see why fans might prefer one over the other. That said, we’d love to see Revelations 3 happen.

Inbox also-rans
A new game by he creator of Wordle? I wish you hadn’t told me that, as now I will be doing my best to pretend I didn’t know, so I don’t waste my entire morning on it.
Aslan

I wonder why February has become such a big month for new releases. I guess it’s because it’s still dark out in the evening, but so is almost all of March. Seems odd to go from busy to almost nothing.
John Parsnip

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: Should Capcom remake Resident Evil 6?

MORE: Games Inbox: When will the next big Super Mario game be announced?

MORE: Games Inbox: Will Project Helix be a successful comeback for Xbox?

A reader paints a grim picture of the end game for the video games industry, and how the current financial system is disincentivising innovation.

The video game industry is in crisis, and I don’t see a way out of it. In many ways it is a textbook example of what happens with any industry. As readers often point out, every company is in it for profit. This is a basic truism. But the important thing for any business is that it doesn’t end there. It is essential that to remain in competition and therefore profitable, a proportion of the profits realised must be thrown back into circulation, effectively to enable the company to grow.

Take DMA Design as an example. They started out as a small studio based in Scotland that produced a successful game called Lemmings. As with any company making goods (not, in other words, finance capital which makes profit through interest, or owners of land and intellectual property which make profit from renting them out), an initial investment (startup capital) is required for any idea to get off the ground.

DMA Design would have had a small amount of investment capital (perhaps from a bank or, as often is the case, from wealthy parents) used to purchase means of production (MP) such as computers, offices, and so forth and, crucially, to pay the wages of a labour force (LP or labour power) to make the game.

But the investment is only realised as profit if the game is sold at a sufficient price in sufficient numbers for a return on the investment to be made. In other words, to receive an amount of money that not only recovers the costs but to expand on the original investment. With the additional money now available, they can afford to scale up by purchasing additional MP, hiring more staff, and producing more ambitious games that take longer to make before a return through the sale of the game can be made.

Small companies like DMA Design may be profitable but they’re exceptionally vulnerable to changes in market conditions whereby an unsuccessful product or, as is often the case, changes in the economy that detrimentally impact profit margins make them ripe for acquisition. Even if successful, larger companies viewing them as competitors or wanting an easy way to expand their portfolio, perhaps through ownership of successful IP, have the resources to make a hostile takeover bid or offer enough money to entice the owners to sell.

DMA Design is now known as Rockstar North, a subsidiary of Rockstar Games which in turn is owned by Take-Two Interactive. From video games that took thousands of dollars to make to ones such as GTA 6 which cost many millions and take years to make, the greater the level of investment, the more that is at stake, the larger the market needs to be for profits to be realised. This breeds conservatism. We all want GTA 6 to have vehicles that drive like those in Forza Horizon or gunplay like that in Destiny. Don’t count on it.

Competition does not in itself drive innovation. If anything, as we have seen with Sony’s race to produce the next Fortnite, it tends if anything to lead to conservatism. There is an apparent contradiction here. As we know of Nintendo’s history of (relative) failures, whenever they lose market share, they tend to produce new and innovative products to recover it. Their successes with the Wii and Switch are cases in point.

But rather than leading to more innovative products and cutting-edge software, as we are seeing with the Switch 2, success tends to breed complacency and conservatism. Nintendo is a market leader. By successfully competing against far larger firms, such as Sony and Microsoft, they have a formula that appears to work. So why change it?

In the case of Nintendo, rather than focus on what they do best – make cutting edge software based on innovations in console and controller design – they appear instead to be cashing in on the Switch’s success with more of the same. Worse for gamers, they appear to be shifting focus by cashing in on their brand and IP through movies, theme parks and so forth.

Instead of making what every gamer wants – Half-Life 3, Left4Dead 3, and Portal 3 – Valve, by comparison, have put all their resources into Steam and are seemingly doing well out of it. So why bother making Half-Life 3 if they can turn (more of) a profit with Steam? Or in the case of Nintendo, if they can make huge profits from movies, why bother with video games as it becomes increasingly difficult to make the equivalent profits from them?

These companies are ‘innovating’ but not in the ways that gamers would like them to.

What prompted me to write this piece is the excellent article by Adam Starkey that catalogued all of Microsoft and Sony’s recent acquisitions. This is set to continue. As we have seen with other media industries, there is a tendency towards concentration or monopolisation as the larger companies with vast resources able to withstand broader economic problems buy up competitors. From the perspective of gamers, this would not be such a bad thing if their aim was to inject money into them by supporting the development of software and thereby the labour force that makes it.

But in many instances, it makes economic sense to close the company down, thereby removing a competitor (or the prospect of another company purchasing them), and stripping them of whatever assets they can capitalise on. They may well be able to make a profit on some of that IP, just not as much as they can in the short term in other ways, especially if it increases shareholder value.

If Nintendo are the angel of the big three, it is because they are unable to compete on these terms. As video games are their primary source of income (for now), they need to turn profit on the consoles they make and through their IP, where they do have a competitive advantage, continue to make video games that people will want and can afford to purchase (at least in sufficient quantities to make a profit).

The source of what adds value to their IP, making it cutting edge, is their highly skilled and talented labour force. Unlike Sony and Microsoft, they cannot afford to lose them. If, however, they continue to shift focus towards monetising their IP through movies and such like, and are successful in these regards, they too may go the way of Sony, Microsoft and Valve and shift their focus entirely.

Their business model, which has proven so successful and in many ways is the linchpin of the whole industry, is vulnerable. Ultimately, they, with a market cap of approximately $75 billion, could go the way of their competitors and become ripe for acquisition too, perhaps by Microsoft (with a market cap of $3 trillion) or Disney.

Things are only going to get worse. The combination of tariffs and the rising prices of rare minerals, RAM chips and so forth, is a threat to the entire industry.

It is worth distinguishing here between the mass and rate of profit. To make themselves more competitive than rivals, larger companies can afford to lower their margins. To simplify things, if the cost of MP (machinery, plant, raw materials and so forth) and LP (the cost of employing labour) to produce 1,000 units is $1,000 dollars, it costs $1 per unit – the commodity such as Super Mario.

If each unit is sold on the market for $3, the mass of profit is $2,000 dollars for the 1,000 units sold with a rate of profit (not accounting for other costs such as taxation) three times the cost of production (MP and LP). By reducing the price of the commodity to $2, they still make a profit of $1,000 on 1,000 units sold. The more units that are sold, the easier it is to lower the margins to the point that only a fraction of profits are realised for every unit sold.

So, if 10,000,000 units of Super Mario are sold, even with a rate of profit at a tenth of the cost of production the mass of profits is still relatively high. In other words, larger companies can afford to lower their margins to fractions, thereby undercutting their competitors and still generate healthy profits.

The problem is that their competitors will sooner or later be forced to do the same, lowering margins to the point that any change in the economy, such as an exponential increase in the price of RAM chips affecting the whole industry, quickly turns profit making companies into loss making ones. While Microsoft has access to vast amounts of investment capital to weather such loses, smaller companies don’t. They either go under or get bought out by the larger ones, leading to further concentration. This is happening today.

It gets worse. Trillions of dollars are today being invested in AI (in the US) on the speculation that this will eventually enable companies to cull their labour force and thereby lower the costs of production (although gaining hegemony over China will be driving a lot of this investment). Not only does this create the immediate problem of rising costs of RAM chips and, unable to get a return on the vast investments, the likelihood of the AI bubble bursting, leading to a global depression, but even if ultimately integrated into the productive economy to reduce labour costs (assuming that is an incentive), another problem arises.

As more people are replaced by AI there are fewer consumers to purchase the goods, making it harder for companies making things to realise profits. It is an obvious point that the more naïve investor seems oblivious to, namely that to realise profit consumers with the wage capacity are needed. AI may eventually replace workers (up to a point), but it cannot replace consumers. This is one of the many contradictions that ultimately lead to the kinds of crisis we are now in.

Where does this leave the video game industry? To put it in colloquial terms, up the proverbial creek. While Japan has tighter regulations on acquisition than the US, which may afford some protection to Nintendo, without (further) state regulation and protection of their industries, it is hard to see how the industry in its current form can survive.

Small independent studios struggle enough as it is, but they are exceedingly vulnerable to any change in the economy that increases the cost of production or diminishes the capacity of consumers to purchase their games. Even those that remain profitable are vulnerable to acquisition through the further consolidation of big tech companies whose monopolies have far greater ramifications for society than they do the video game industry. But they too risk becoming victims of their own success as more people are thrown into poverty.

It is human labour that the economy ultimately relies on. More precisely, it relies on productive labour, the sort that makes things like video games. Finance capital does not produce anything. As with rentiers, it leaches on the productive economy. Profit ultimately relies on the sale of things produced by human labour and purchased through the wages they receive which, in the case of video games, needs to be above subsistence levels. In a cost-of-living crisis set only to get worse, something must give. The video game industry is a microcosm of a general crisis and perhaps one of its earlier victims.

I say all this as a wage earner able to afford the hotly anticipated Resident Evil Requiem. But I wonder for how long I will have a job or a wage sufficient to enable me to fund my hobby. Moreover, I wonder for how long there will be games like this or Super Mario when it is becoming harder to realise profit on such vast expenditures (or easier to make quick profits from financial investments and the renting of IP as platforms, such as Steam do).

Those produced for a fraction of the cost by so-called indie developers, which some see as a great white hope, are even more vulnerable to all the things that today make the headlines and is causing so much hardship and grief. Brace yourselves. Nobody is immune.

By reader Ciara

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MORE: My dream narrowboat sim would be the ultimate cosy game – Reader’s Feature

MORE: PlayStation and Xbox have finally realised exclusives are the heart of gaming – Reader’s Feature

MORE: Why is Microsoft destroying the Xbox? – Reader’s Feature

The Monday letters page realises that the next gen Xbox will be able to play PS5 games, as one reader hopes Bluepoint Games isn’t working on God Of War.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Nintendo logic
So, Sony has had a successful State of Play, their best in years I’d say, and Xbox’s was good too (I’ll be honest, I can’t remember anything about it, but I remember the buzz was decent). That means that Nintendo is the next one to have a showcase, but we still don’t have a date for it.

I’ve seen some rumours that it’ll be March, but I feel that’s just the obvious guess anyway. But my question is what will they be talking about? All we know about from them at the moment is Fire Emblem and Splatoon Raiders and while I don’t think many people here would consider them a particularly big deal you just don’t know with Nintendo.

But surely they must be preparing to announce at least one new triple-A game (or whatever you’d call them with Nintendo). It’s probably not Animal Crossing or Zelda, because the timings don’t work out, so to me the two obvious options are Super Mario or Smash Bros.

You might say Mario is the most obvious, but Nintendo has been so weird about it so far I don’t think there’s any guarantee they’ll suddenly become predictable. My bet would be on Smash Bros., with some new characters and other minor new content. Not the most thrilling choice, in my opinion, but the logical choice. I would expect it to be the big game for Christmas.
Ishi

Perfect prelude
There was a lot of good stuff at the State of Play but it didn’t shake my opinion that Resident Evil Requiem is the most exciting game at the moment and the one I’m most looking forward to. The new footage looked great and so has everything else before it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game not make a single mistake before release and always look like a must have.

If it turns out to be a dud after all this I will actually be really impressed that Capcom has been able to hide it so well. I don’t expect that will be the case though and while I’ll still wait for the reviews I’m predicting this will be one of the best game of this year and probably the whole generation. Don’t let me down now!
Purple Ranger

Stuck in Sparta
I tend to agree with the Reader’s Feature about God Of War. Sons Of Sparta looks bad and a remake trilogy does sound like a big wasted effort, given those earlier games were nothing like the new ones in terms of gameplay or story. It’d be tragic if Santa Monica Studio were wasting their time on it, but it’d be just as bad if it were Bluepoint Games, doing it – which is something I’ve heard fans talking about.

It’s not that remaking the game itself is a terrible idea, it’s just that by doing that you’re locking out talented developers for five years or more. Developers that could be busy moving the franchise forward or just generally not redoing something that already exists and you can play as remasters. I just don’t see any good outcome, because if they get a no-name dev, like with Sons Of Sparta, then that drastically decreases the odds that it will be any good.
Focus

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Two Keanus
I didn’t think much of the state of play. The hair on the back of my neck when the John Wick trailer started playing. It would have been obvious to anyone that has watched at least one of the films it was a John Wick game.

But that’s tempered by the fact that I’m an old gamer that remembers when movie tie-in was just another way of saying a game was a poor quality, rushed cash-in. Remember The Matrix game?

GoldenEye 007 was the first game I remember that was based on a film that turned out to actually be good.
TomTom

For the love of the game
Interesting comparison of Sony and Valve’s attitude in the Reader’s Feature at the weekend. I would not have thought of the comparison myself, but it does work. I think the problem for both companies is that ordinary games – basically anything but a mega hit – have become too small for them to bother with.

This seems a mistake to me though, as in Sony’s case they lose out on a key incentive in buying their console. But for both companies it’s a waste of talent and knowledge that has taken years to build up and is no longer being used properly. As long as a profit is made why not make them anyway, for the kudos alone?

That worked for Astro Bot, which wasn’t a big hit but made people think better of Sony for a while. Soras will probably be similar, but I feel we need a lot more of that, multiple times a year.
Tenna

Only on PlayStation
Perhaps I’m just being slow here, but I realised that if the next gen Xbox is just a PC in console’s clothing, as it were, then that means that all PlayStation 5 games will, eventually, be on Xbox. I guess it doesn’t really mean much, since Microsoft doesn’t get a cut of the sales or anything, but we may finally have our all-in-one single format (except for Nintendo, but that was never going to happen).

For years that seemed like something to really wish for but now that it’s actually close to happening it feels like nobody will actually care. In the end, the PC has been the single format all along (especially for those using emulators) and Microsoft putting the Xbox logo on a different machine isn’t going to change that.

I think we’ll soon begin to realise that, in terms of consoles, single format domination is a bad thing. People are upset about Sony not releasing more first party games but now that the Xbox has slipped into irrelevance they have no incentive to change.

Why spend all that money when you’ve already proved it doesn’t matter to whether your game Is a success or not? Sony won by doing nothing so there’s no incentive to do more next time.
Tom Meadows

Last gen
I’ve been watching Nioh 3 a bit on Twitch and wondered whether or not it should have been a dual console release. I can’t see any reason it couldn’t work on the PlayStation 4. Surely they could lower the resolution or whatever it was that stopped a version on PlayStation 4. It seems like Sony left money on the table with this decision. To me at least it still looks the same as Nioh 1 and 2.

Pretty sure there’s still millions of PlayStation 4 users out there.
Bobwallett

GC: It’s not Sony’s game.

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Positive recap
I’m still thinking about Thursday’s State Of Play, because it was more than a few steps ahead of the usual disappointments that we are usually served by Sony. It absolutely began with a bang. Death Stranding 2 on PC; Ghost Of Yōtei: Legends in March; Kena 2; the reveal of a John Wick game, with Keanu Reeves returning in the role of the Baba Yaga. Silent Hill Townfall was revealed and it’s first person; that was quite the surprise. It’s also set in an island inspired by Scotland, so that’s a nice change of pace to see locations from Japan to the UK being used. It’s a very fresh take on the series.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is free from PlayStation 3 jail. I’ve wanted for this for many years and to see it finally happen is just unbelievable. Saros continues to look stunning and I can’t wait for it, personally. Pragmata looks charming and I actually have played the demo; very enjoyable and a fun hacking romp – Diana is a charmer as well. Project Windless is quite interesting. A chicken with a bone to pick and dual swords. Yep, I’m sold.

The anime titles and Marathon were my low points. I’m not particularly interested in either title. Control: Resonant and 007 First Light continue to impress. Crimson Moon sounds like a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing more. The final reveal was the remake of the God Of War trilogy, which was a win for me personally. It’s obviously years away, and it did just begin development, but spoken as a massive fan of the franchise I’m absolutely pumped for this.

However, it was disappointing to see no Phantom Blade 0 at the event. At least pre-orders could have been revealed. Since it does have a release date, after all. We didn’t see Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 or Kingdom Hearts 4. That was a let down on Square Enix’s part. Maybe we’ll see those at the Tokyo Game Show.

Wolverine will be shared in the spring, so I wasn’t expecting that. All in all, it was a fantastic event and the games look very stellar. There’s much to be excited for and I can’t wait to see more. I’ll also say that I would have liked to see more from Judas and Tides Of Annihilation and Lego Batman, but I can wait longer. To a wonderful 2026 and the release of Resident Evil Requiem in two weeks!
Shahzaib Sadiq

Inbox also-rans
I’ve got a lot of sympathy for the Highguard dev complaining about ‘gamer culture’. It’s not my type of game, so I wouldn’t be interested in it whatever happened. But I never saw any explanation for why everyone turned on it except that they were hoping for something else to be revealed at The Game Awards – which is hardly the developer’s fault.
Kakem

Am I the only one that thought the latest trailer for Marathon made it look like Splatoon? Not necessarily a bad thing but why do they have blue blood?
Gonk

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

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MORE: Games Inbox: Was the latest PS5 State of Play a good one?

MORE: Games Inbox: Would PS5 exclusives on Switch 2 be a mistake?

MORE: Games Inbox: What will the new The Witcher 3 DLC be about?

The Friday letters page is relatively enthusiastic about Horizon Hunters Gathering, as one reader thinks Nintendo should ditch GameChat on Switch 2.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Poor Partner
So that Partner Showcase from Nintendo was awful, as we all thought. Although it was actually quite a bit worse than I was expecting, to be honest. There was no real surprises for anything big, Elden Ring and The Duskbloods weren’t there, and the mic drop at the end was Bethesda.

I don’t want to get into fanboy territory but if there is one developer whose success I have never understood it’s Bethesda. OK, Skyrim was innovative back when it came out but stuff like The Witcher 3 did the same idea much better. More importantly, Bethesda has never made anything that good again.

Fallout 4 is significantly worse than 3 and I, along with most people, didn’t even bother with Starfield – which you’ll notice was not one of the three games they revealed. But what really gets me is how bad Bethesda is technically. Everyone’s been saying it about them for years and yet they never change.

And so what do we see in that new trailer? What looks like a terrible port of a game that should have no problem working on the Switch 2. If that’s what you’re showing off I hate to think what the rest of the game looks like.
Torrence
PS: The only saving grace was two different dinosaur games!

Welcome bomb
What a nice surprise the Nintendo Direct pulled today.

A Bomberman Collection? Heck, yes! Takes me back to when I was 10 years old playing Super Bomberman 2 single and multiplayer and destroying the CPUs.

Also, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in June, for Xbox and Switch 2? I will take that!
ShaunOMacY2J (gamertag)

Small screen gaming
Yikes, that Partner Showcase was weak sauce. I know we were told not to get ourselves hyped up but I really question what the point of it was. It’s not like the proper Nintendo Directs don’t have third party games, so why exactly did we need this bunch of third rate games and lazy-looking ports?

Fallout 4 looks like it runs terrible on Switch 2 and it’s going to be nearly 11 years old by the time it makes it, so I really find it impossible to get excited about it.

But what else was there to tempt anyone? Resident Evil Requiem looks like a pretty good port but there’s no way I’d buy it on Switch 2 instead of PlayStation 5. Third party games on a Nintendo format need to offer something special or be really well suited to portable play, but that didn’t seem to be the case for most of the games they showed.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on a handheld screen would be such a waste given how over-the-top and detailed the graphics are. Another Nintendo Direct and yet more disappointment.
Goldwing

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Evil deal
While most of what I was interested in from yesterday’s Direct was already known about, the release of the Pragmata demo was at least a welcome surprise.

Short but sweet as a demo, but it’s sold me on the game. Hopefully I get better at the hacking and combat at the same time, it’s a bit like rubbing your stomach and patting your head. But it already feels like it’ll be a good game.

Capcom are really going through a golden period. The new Resi looks good too, the triple pack of 7, 8 and 9 on Switch is just £82 at Argos, which is tempting, even for Game-Key cards.

I do wish Elden Ring had been in the Direct though.
Euclidian Boxes

GC: That is a very good price for the Resi trilogy.

Forgotten birthday
We are getting very close to that Zelda 40th anniversary and Nintendo still hasn’t said a thing, except for some concerts. Are they really going to ignore such a big number, even as they make a fuss about Pokémon turning 30?

You’d think they’ have a game lined up to go along with it, probably a remaster or remake, but I don’t see how they’ve got time to release it now. Even if they shadow-dropped it. Considering how multiple leakers knew about the Partner Showcase, and were accurate about it, I don’t see how we get a surprise Nintendo Direct in the next two weeks.

I’d love if it did happen but at the moment I’m not even confident Nintendo will mention anything to do with Zelda this year. Since when did Link become the unloved loser who can’t get anyone to go to his birthday party?
Paulie

Wasted time
As achingly trend chasing as it all looked, I surprisingly found myself quite fluffed by the Horizon Hunters Gathering reveal, it looked very polished and fun.

But live service games’ moment-to-moment gameplay often is very good, it’s that they are designed to drag on forever that’s the problem; for the well documented reason of being forever games and all the monetisation models around them, I genuinely feel I need to boycott live service games.

Jan-Bart Van Beek’s assurance at the start of the video, that Guerrilla bloody love making single-player games, and will continue to make them, didn’t convince me one bit. If it’s a hit they’ll divert more time and resources to it.

At the start of the gen, and the talk of Sony having 500 or so live service games in development, I convinced myself that it was additional to single-player. But we learnt that wasn’t the case and nearly all of their traditionally single-player studios were significantly tied up with the live service push. With the $3.6 billion purchase of Bungie as well, Sony committed massive resources to it all.

So no live service games for me, or Nintendo Directs from now on. Time better spent elsewhere.
Simundo

Honest addition
Interesting to see Valve admit that the RAM problems have caused them to change their Steam Machine plans, at least a little bit. I think that’s the first time a company has actually admitted it, because usually they just say it won’t even when they turnaround and do a price raise straight after.

Maybe Valve would be a good addition to the console world if they’re actually going to… tell the truth and engaged with people? They’re not saying much at the moment, because the thing hasn’t been properly unveiled yet, but I’m hoping they can bring some straight talking to the industry… as well as Half-Life 3.
Gantz

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Always in motion is the future
The steady stream of news about the Switch 2’s fortunes is kinda interesting, it seems like it’s destined to get locked in a debate over whether it is a success or not for a while to come. I think both things can be true, it’s the fastest-selling console ever and taking Japan by storm, but also underperforming in the West and third party games sales are floundering. 18 million consoles sold is great but if everyone is just replaying Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom at 60fps, as Ubisoft weep into their Star Wars Outlaws sales, that isn’t the gaming saviour we were hoping for.

I did suspect performance in the UK might not be in line with the blockbuster figures elsewhere, the Black Friday deals (admittedly modest) ended up running right up until the end of January and the console wasn’t ever sold out over that time.

In Japan, it’s worth remembering that the machine is essentially being subsidised due to the currency problems with the yen. They have a much cheaper, locked Japanese language version that’s unavailable in other territories. Suggesting in the West, at least, Nintendo really need to bring that price down significantly somehow. Maybe ditch GameChat? I recently saw figures it was being used by less than 4% of console owners.

The latest Partner Direct lent into Japanese developed titles and franchises (outside the Bethesda reveals) in a strategy that seems to double down on the console’s trajectory so far. If Western publishers can’t turn a profit on it and so ditch support, it won’t be good for anyone at a time when we need games to be as widely available as possible. If the market fractures everything will be even worse.
Marc

GC: GameChat Is unlikely to have cost very much in either R&D or manufacturing. That’s probably why it exists. Nintendo actually did better, proportionally, in the UK than most other countries, over Christmas. Whereas it did unexpectedly poorly in France, which is usually it’s biggest market in Europe. Everything is very much in flux at the moment.

Inbox also-rans
So if the PlayStation 5 is selling roughly the same as the PlayStation 4 that means it’s going to come out at about 117 million sales, right? So somewhere around the fifth best-selling console of all time, above the Wii and PS1. That seems a pretty good achievement to me.
PhantomZ

So glad to see that Rave Racer is getting a proper console. I was always sore it never got a proper home version, as it was my favourite in the arcades. Can’t wait to play it again.
Johno

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