The Tuesday letters page finds itself agreeing with the boss of Take-Two, as one reader expects Black Ops 6 to be the biggest Call Of Duty in years.
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Pre-launch line-up
Count me in as someone else that’s getting really excited about the Switch 2, now that it seems like things are moving closer to an announcement. I know nothing’s for certain, even for the rumours, but I think there is reason to hope that the reveal will be this year.
I understand the logic about not wanting to put people off from buying the current Switch at Christmas but consider the rumour that the console is also backwards compatible. It’s more than a rumour really, it’s basically the only thing we know about the console with 99% certainty.
So, if it is backwards compatible then not only is Nintendo not necessarily losing any software sales by promoting their new console this year, they’re creating a great ‘launch window’ selection of games. After all, if a launch window can go beyond the actual launch day what’s to say it can go before it too?
Ishi
Return of the White Wolf
I think the rumour since forever has been that Ciri will be the main character in the next Witcher game and I’m fine with that. I don’t think we need a new trilogy of Geralt games. Things would just get too ridiculous at that point and even just a change of character can help to make things seem fresher than they are, which is how I think Assassin’s Creed gets away with as much as it does.
But, really, I’m just interested to see CD Projekt make a 100% current gen game and in the franchise that made them famous. It’s been eight years since the Blood And Wine DLC and I for one am looking forwards to see what they can come up with now, with all those years of technical improvement and the experience of making Cyberpunk 2077.
Johno
Reality check
I’m afraid, to me, Sony releasing all their PlayStation 4 exclusives on Switch 2 sounds like one of those ideas that is too good to be true. It makes sense on every level, but I just can’t see Sony doing it. Lego Horizon Adventures is an interesting decision but at the moment it’s a one-off and I think that’d have to do really well for them to consider anything more.
And besides, it’s not like a Lego game being successful on Switch means that The Last Of Us is going to be. In fact, I’d be shocked if it were. And I can pretty much guarantee that the average Nintendo fan doesn’t want to pay £50 for it. It’s all a fine idea in theory but I don’t see it happening.
Focus
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Last minute save
Good on Nacon for buying Tango Gameworks, so they don’t have to split-up. Although I imagine a lot of them have already moved on, since it’s not as if people can afford to wait around for a possible rescue or not. Surely Microsoft could’ve organised this before they just announced they were shut down out of the blue, surely a tiny proportion of their $3 trillion could’ve paid for that?
I have reservations as to whether a presumed Hi-Fi Rush sequel is going to sell very well, considering the original didn’t even on Game Pass. But then maybe that stopped as many sells as it inspired, given a lot of people probably didn’t try it but at the same time would never have bought it because they knew it was ‘free’ on Game Pass.
Who can say until they try but hopefully this means a good chance for The Evil Within 3 as well. I know not everyone liked the originals, but I did and I think they’re a lot more original and interesting than most other survival horror games being made now.
Gronk
Never-ending duty
So this year’s Call Of Duty is going to be pretty massive, right? Modern Warfare 3 last year wasn’t even supposed to be a full game, so it’s understandable why it was bad (I never bought it) but even then it didn’t seem to affect its popularity or success.
Between the marketing blitz Microsoft are going to give it and the fact that it does actually look good Black Ops 6 could end up being the biggest Call Of Duty of the last couple of generations. If it is good I don’t see any problem with that but the comedown is likely to take a long time, even if it has multiple duds in a row, so that’s at least another generation of domination in the bag!
Brucie
The Inbetweeners
So what do we think is going to be Sony’s first game after Astro Bot? Surely it won’t be Wolverine, which is not likely to be any earlier than autumn next year. There must be something between now and then, but what?
Unfortunately, the only educated guess you can make is the other Sony live service game, whose name I had to look up and is called Fairgame$. Would anyone want to bet on there being anything else?
There’s Physint and Death Standing 2 at some point, which are PlayStation 5 exclusives, but Sony doesn’t make them – like Stellar Blade and Final Fantasy Rebirth – and I think that’s just going to become more and more common in the future.
And yet there’s so many Sony developers that haven’t announced anything in years, so what are Housemarque, Naughty Dog, Bluepoint, Insomniac, and Guerrilla doing (not that we can’t guess for the last two)? Maybe the other reader was right and they’re all working on PlayStation 6 games now, so we really won’t find out for years.
Danson
GC: There’s also the remake of Until Dawn out this year.
Frankly sleezy
Pretty funny to read that the ‘erotic’ photo opportunities have been removed from Dead Rising. Surely they showed what kind of sleazy photo journalist Frank West is. He’s a paparazzi. Anything that shocks or titillates goes in his camera.
I’m so glad that doesn’t happen anymore in real life. Wink.
Why didn’t they just rebalance and have men in underpants and dubious positions?
I’m wondering now if they have toned down the gore and violence. Sigh.
Bobwallett
Time poor
I found the comments of the Take-Two boss about Game Pass and other subscription services to be very interesting. I’m sure none of us expected GTA 6 to be on any of them but I actually found the other thing he said to be of more interest:
‘People consume far fewer hours of interactive entertainment in a given month than they do of linear entertainment,’ according to him. ‘And within that consumption, there are far fewer titles consumed in interactive entertainment than there are with linear entertainment.’
I’m sure he’s got the data and statistics to back that up, but it only confirms what many have thought of for a long time. The reason so many live service games fail, even the good ones, is that people just haven’t got the time to play more than one or two and, in fact, don’t want to be spending that much of their free time on video games.
If I was a publisher, I’d just stick with reasonably priced, less than 12 hours long, AAA games. People have got time for that, they know they can fit it into their schedule, and they’d know it’s not going to take over their lives. The problem with gaming at the moment is that the main alternative to games that never end is games that almost never end, thanks to open world bloat.
Shorter and cheaper but the same high quality should be what they’re aiming for. Only thing I can think of like that at the moment is Astro Bot, but there should be a lot more.
Tosh
Inbox also-rans
Has the next Switch been officially named? If not, I predict it’ll be called… the Super Switch!
Henry
GC: Nintendo hasn’t said anything, other than they’ll reveal it before April.
Here’s a sad anniversary for you all: it’s 10 years this week since the P.T. demo was first released. R.I.P Silent Hills, we never knew you.
Hwood83
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