Games Inbox: Will Sony do a U-turn on PS5 discs?

The Wednesday letters page thinks that the Xbox is regressing back to being a ShooterBox, as a reader is very upset at the layoffs at id Software.

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

Thick as thieves
I know that Sony has already changed how its factory works but I really can’t see them getting away with this all-digital push without a U-turn. I don’t even understand why they’re doing it now. If the PlayStation 6 was digital-only I don’t think many people would be surprised and while they wouldn’t like it, you can’t say much if it never had the option.

But the PlayStation 5 is in its last couple of years, what’s the point of changing anything now? Unless you love bad publicity. I put the blame squarely on Rockstar Games who I suspect put Sony up to this. They want 100% of the profits from GTA 6 and they’re big enough that they can make that happen.

Kudos to the memes and people posting against Sony on Twitter and elsewhere. If you keep it up, I think they will U-turn, for the PlayStation 5 only. Except I bet there’s one exception… for GTA 6.
Zeiss

Exec Unit 3021-6
Kudos to that Bungie dev that called execs ‘stupid detached money grubbing idiots’ you can’t get a better description than that without using harsh language. These people are all the same and everyone’s already noticed that Asha Sharma speaks exactly the same as Phil Spencer.

They probably both got ChatGPT to print off their scripts and give them their opinions. I’m beginning to think that the only reason we never hear from Sony nowadays is because they don’t want to make it obvious that they talk the same way. They’re all just robots who couldn’t give a damn about video games.
Spender

Final Doom
Really disappointed that id Software have been hit by layoffs, with some suggesting that the bulk of their development team have been let go. As game developers they gave us a truly excellent modern Doom trilogy where each game was unique, rather than a minor evolution on what came before.

Doom Eternal, in particular, is a wonderful game that will stand the test of time. Additionally, as technical specialists they have developed proprietary, incredibly scalable game engines that other studios leveraged to give us experiences like Indiana Jones And The Great Circle. My condolences to everyone who has been affected but as a huge id Software fan that news really stung.
Magnumstache

GC: You’re right, including about Doom Eternal being great.

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Saw it coming
All in all, that seems to have worked out quite well for the likes of Tim Schafer and Guillaume Provost. I’m guessing in the desperation during Xbox One, Microsoft paid them a decent amount of money to buy Double Fine and Compulsion. They then got the freedom to work on what they wanted for almost a decade and at the end Microsoft has seemingly just handed the studios and all the IP back to them.

So essentially they’re just back where they were at the beginning, just a lot richer.

A lot of people say Microsoft only cares about money. But Xbox seems far better at giving it away to people than actually making any.
Tim

GC: It’s been suggested that Double Fine had a carefully constructed contract that planned for just this sort of eventuality.

Over the top
I wonder what the first big game to launch after GTA 6 will be? I see Sega’s Stranger Than Heaven will be out on January 15, but I’m not sure how big I’d say that was going to be. After that it’s the Tomb Raider remake in February, which seems to be the first big one we know about at the moment.

Although I have read rumours saying that God Of War Laufey is going to be out very early next year, so maybe Sony has struck some kind of deal that they’ll be the first to make a move, and Rockstar won’t try to counter them with too much marketing at the time.

If it is out early next year that kind of hints that Interstellar: The Heretic Prophet will be the big Christmas game for Sony. I hope it gets an unveil at The Game Awards in December because I really want to know what it’s like, but that may be a bit early if it’s not out for so long.
Rizzo

ShooterBox Pro
One glance at the studios Xbox has left and it’s obvious what their game plan is. As you said, they just haven’t got the talent any more to make anything other than Halo, Gears Of War, and Forza. So they’re right back to be being the ShooterBox, targeting young American men and nobody else.

This was their main problem with the Xbox 360 and the reason they never went further than that, in my opinion. I think the main reason Phil Spencer bought companies like Double Fine and Compulsion is that he wanted to expand things, do more arty games, but it never really worked out. It took too long for the games to be made and in the end they weren’t really that great.

I think he thought they were going to be award-winning darlings, but it never happened, and instead they just ended up looking like weird double-A games that nobody played even when they were free on Game Pass.

Resetting the clock back to the Xbox 360 era might see a small increase in Xbox’s popularity but it’s also admitting they haven’t moved a step forward in 15 years. Personally, I think Team Xbox should call it a day, they haven’t got anywhere to go now and it’s only going to get more embarrassing from here.
Korbie

Just try it
I will laugh so hard if Microsoft try to make The Elder Scrolls 6 an Xbox console exclusive. If you thought the upset about physical media was bad just imagine if Microsoft try and force you to buy an Xbox to play the sequel to Skyrim. Something we will have all been waiting for close to 20 years by the time it comes out.

I honestly want to see them try because the U-turn will be so swift it’s going to take some heads off. Personally I give it a 50/50 chance that they’ll try it.
Cubby

Hidden costs
While going digital-only eliminates the second-hand market, there are additional benefits from the perspective of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. The most obvious is that they cut out the so-called middleman, the retailer, and thereby retain all the profits if, as is typically the case, they can sell digital versions at the same price as physical copies sell for in stores.

But there’s another important factor here, that if no physical commodity is produced, scenarios like that of Atari, when surplus stocks of E.T. were buried in the Arizona desert, no longer occur. With digital it is impossible to over produce, thereby eliminating the problem of building inventories, which then have to be stored at physical sites that incur additional costs, and whose value if not quickly sold decreases.

Companies still risk considerable amounts of money when investing in game development but eliminate risks concerning the quantity of games, that would otherwise have to be produced in physical form in anticipation of potential but not necessarily realised demand. By selling games in digital format only the manufacturing costs incurred in the production of physical games is eliminated.

Furthermore, as we have seen with day one patches, the turnaround time from investing in game development to point of sale is also greatly reduced, even though in many instances the game releases onto the market effectively broken.

The end of physical games has been a long time coming. The incentives for companies going digital-only are so great that sooner or later this was bound to happen. Sony isn’t going to back down, history is on their side, but you can be sure that as soon as it is expedient Nintendo will gladly follow suit.

When you factor in all the jobs lost in retail, manufacturing, transportation, storage facilities, and so forth, the layoffs at multiple game developers are only the most visible tip of a far greater invisible iceberg.

In the final analysis, digital or otherwise, none of this resolves the current crisis engulfing the video game industry or lessens the impact of the cost of living crisis affecting many gamers and their ability to pursue their hobby.
Ciara

Inbox also-rans
OK Asha, hear me out. You want more Halo, and Bungie just let go all their Destiny 2 staff. Why not sub them in as contractors and make the Destiny 3 that everyone wants… but it’s Halo?
ArmandxUltra (gamertag)

Given what’s happening with Double Fine I went and tried to play Kiln on Game Pass. Emphasis on the tried, because I couldn’t find anyone to play with and it’s only a month or so old! I checked on Steam and it has an all-time peak of 193 people. I’m kind of starting to see Microsoft’s point here…
Dougal

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

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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