The Tuesday letters page predicts an untimely end for Rare, as one reader fears there’s no way to improve Starfield with a single expansion.
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One of kind
I wonder if Battlefield 6 has any chance of actually outselling Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 or at least getting close. As has been said, it did get pretty close when it was at its highest and Call Of Duty was at its lowest, but that’s just how it felt down on the ground, I don’t know what the sales figures were.
I don’t want Call Of Duty to go away but I would like to see it lose a few rounds, get knocked down a few pegs, not only so Activision will put in more of an effort but so that other companies see that Call Of Duty is not undefeatable. We shouldn’t have just one military shooter, just like we shouldn’t have one football game or one racing game.
Just a generation ago we had Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport, and a bunch of others. Now all we’ve got is Forza Horizon and we haven’t even had one of those new in a while. Everything is slowing down and facing less and less in the way of rivals. I feel it’s better for everyone if there’s proper competition for everything.
Heathcliffe
GC: Battlefield 4, from 2013, sold somewhere over 7 million copies. It’s contemporary, Cally Of Duty: Ghosts, sold around 19 million copies.
Ultimate doesn’t play the game
I don’t know what’s more tragic: what Rare has been reduced to nowadays (making DLC for a seven year old game and literally nothing else) or the fact that Microsoft thought it could make a couple of quid from selling merch reminding you of what the company used to be before they got hold of it.
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I think we all know why Gregg Mayles left Rare, just as everyone was being laid off, and it wasn’t because he thought his job was done and everything was in safe hands. Even if they announced a new game tomorrow it would be five years, at a minimum, before it was out. Such is the tragic state of video game development today.
I don’t see the studio lasting that long though. If you see a bunch of devs leaving in the next few months that will be the sign that it’s on its last legs.
Wendel
Top 10
What makes me wonder about these Xbox sales figures is what Microsoft must’ve been pretending to themselves for the two or three years of the Xbox Series X/S. Did they think they could turn things around or were they just trying to convince themselves that ‘this is fine’.
It’s probably the second one and then they thought Game Pass would make up for it all, but wow… Xbox hardware is so dead. I was a little surprised to see that even the Xbox 360 didn’t do that well. How does it compare in terms of all consoles?
Benson
GC: It’s the ninth best-selling console of all time, just below the PlayStation 3 and just ahead of the PSP. In terms of only home consoles, it’s seventh (or sixth if you don’t count the Switch).
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Switch 1.5
I feel Metroid Prime 4 is getting dismissed a bit too much because it’s a cross-gen game. It may have been designed as a Switch 1 game but I’m sure they knew about the Switch 2 long before it was made public.
If you remember, when the first Metroid Prime 4 trailer came out everyone thought it was Switch 2 footage and Nintendo were secretly putting it out there to see if anyone noticed (and hoping people would think it looked better than it does on Switch 1).
The point is, I think it will look at least as good as Mario Kart and Donkey Kong, while being something completely different making use of the mouse controls, which neither of those games do (which is the most obvious sign that they were never designed with the Switch 2 in mind).
Metroid Prime 4 is the game I’m most excited about this year, regardless of format, and I’m sure other people will feel the same way once we get a Nintendo Direct on it. Somehow I doubt that will be true of Hyrule Warriors or Kirby Air Riders.
Cubbie
The lesson is: never try
If Starfield comes out on PlayStation 5 within a hundred lightyears of GT 6 then you’ll know that Microsoft purposefully did it in order to sink the franchise and not have to bother with it again.
The annoying thing about the game is that if you had asked me beforehand I, even as a big Elder Scrolls and Fallout fan, would’ve said I’d definitely prefer a new IP to just another sequel. Then you see the end result and suddenly you’re wishing people would never try anything new again.
Obviously that’s not true but I don’t see any way a new expansion can improve Starfield enough to where it’s worthwhile. If anything, the last one made it worse, so I’d just stop while they’re ahead. Or only a little bit behind.
Boggly
Window display
I agree with Limpton that Nintendo could handle their Switch 2 PR better but that to me is a completely different question from how arrogant and complacent they’re being.
They shouldn’t have had that Partner Direct in July. Whether or not they had to for contractual reasons is open to speculation, but it was one of those things whose mere existence somehow made the platform less appealing. But that doesn’t mean they’ve been caught nodding or that they’ve rushed things out. Nor does keeping their powder dry in terms of the longer term pipeline.
I’m not going to be as aggressive as Adam was with his feedback but to be honest, I find it slightly shocking that a new console can launch with two proper big exclusives, that were generally very well received and the conclusion is still that the business is asleep at the wheel. Yes, you can be a bit deflated or disappointed when you try those games (although I note playing them hasn’t even been a condition for some commentators). But if this is a question of effort, I completely reject the insistence that the Switch 2 has been in any way worse than the Switch 1.
The main offence seems to be the absence of a game like Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, which was clearly fully made for the Wii U and sensibly sat on by Nintendo till the Switch’s launch. But everything that’s happened with console launches since as far back as the first Xbox should tell us a platform holder isn’t likely to fully and exclusively dedicate the development of such a game to the launch of a console.
I say ‘isn’t likely’ because here we have Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza and, frankly, that borders on miraculous in comparison to what we’ve consistently had on the front of genuine exclusives with other consoles since the PlayStation 2 generation. The best of which I’d say was the PlayStation 5 with a Demon’s Souls remake (which of course carries its own caveats) and Returnal, if you include that as launch window.
At the very least, most of the games from the Switch 1 launch window rolled out by Taylor Moon either already have their own analogue on Switch 2 or they don’t compare favourably with what’s actually on offer this year. Especially when you include the upgrades for the two Zelda games and cross-gen games like Metroid Prime 4.
I know this’ll come across as an apologist rant, and if I’m being honest, I’d happily swap any short term release schedule in existence for one game like Breath Of The Wild. Plus, I’m not even fully convinced Metroid Prime 4 is going to be as good as I’d like. But to dismiss what has gone into the Switch 2’s launch so far as low effort and arrogant does feel to me like little more than typical gamer entitlement mixed with an unhealthy degree of memory loss when it comes to modern console launches.
I’m glad the commercial performance so far doesn’t reflect that, especially since I think Bananza, in particular, is a much better game than its slightly mixed reception might indicate.
Panda
Retro Power
I see this month’s cover story for Retro Gamer is 40 years of the Amiga, so just bought a copy for myself, being a big Amiga fan.
Andrew J.
PS: I see you can give your opinion on physical and digital games on a new Nintendo Survey, I presume a response to some people not liking Game-Key Cards for Switch 2. I have just filled out the survey myself. Here is the survey if you want to fill it out.
GC: We like that the cover is reminiscent of Amiga Power.
Decent start
I got a Switch 2 a couple of days after launch. While not without its launch fumbles I can’t find anything to get mad at.
Sourcing the console was easy and not the hell trying to get a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X was at launch and long after.
The Switch 2 version of Cyberpunk 2077 sitting somewhere between the PS4 Pro and Xbox Series S was a assuring demonstration of the hardware’s potential.
It does sound like the screen could of been a bit better. But having come from the OG Switch it’s feels like, and is, a big improvement.
The recent third party Direct was pretty lame but the presence of Outlaws, Cronos: The New Dawn, and Borderlands 4, it’s already a much more encouraging picture for the Switch 2’s third party support than the last four Nintendo home consoles have had.
With announced third party games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, 007 First Light, and Elden Ring I’m genuinely scratching my head as to why people think it’s this Nintendo console with the third party problem.
Even discounting the games I’ve no interest in, like Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the launch window looks good for me. The execution may have been slightly fumbled, but Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bonanza are fantastic. I also intend on getting Metroid Prime 4, Professor Layton And the New World of Steam, and Hades 2.
I’m counting cross-gen, seeing as two of the best Switch launch period games, Zelda: Breath Of the Wild and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, were too.
The GameCube addition to Nintendo Switch Online is a treat and I have F-Zero GX and Zelda: The Wind Waker to play for the first time.
Performance boosts are a big reason for me buying early this gen. I’m currently enjoying a second run of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom and picked up Bayonetta 3 to play for the first time, now it’s frame rate is a solid 60fps on Switch 2.
I would of liked maybe one more Switch 2 exclusive I’m interested in and something to really prove the mouse controls, although we’ll see how that functions on Metroid Prime 4. Mario Kart World retailing for £75 raises legitimate concerns even with the caveats of it’s cheaper bundled or bought digitally. Other than that though, decent.
Simundo
Inbox also-rans
I have just started playing Wheel World and I love it. Beautifully chilled but occasionally reminiscent of Burnout. I’ve only played an hour or so and I’m really looking forward to sinking many more hours into it. A very pleasant surprise.
Ed
Very interesting insight into what goes on behind the scenes of rumours. Removing three games from the Direct seems extreme though. Why? Could they really not get 30 seconds of useable footage out of whatever it was? Nintendo gonna Nintendo.
Beaker
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