The Thursday letters page doesn’t believe the PS6 will be out in 2027, as one reader tries to imagine if Nintendo bought Sonic the Hedgehog.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Next gen rodeo
So we’re at that part in the console cycle where we’re comparing meaningless numbers and trying to decide which console is more ‘powerful’? It always happens, I know, this is not my first rodeo.
Even if the number of teraflops was a proper way of measuring the power, which I don’t think it is, nothing matters but how the console is used. Nobody but Microsoft devs are going to prioritise the next gen Xbox, so everyone’s going to be optimising their games for the PlayStation 6, just as they have the last two gens.
The Xbox Series X is, on paper, more powerful than the PlayStation 5 but when have we seen even a single game that proves that? It’ll be just the same with Project Helix. On paper, the Switch 2 is not powerful at all, but we all saw the Zelda: Ocarina Of Time footage and things like Cyberpunk 2077 running well on it. It’s not the console that makes the difference, it’s the developer.
But anyway, there’s not a chance in Hades I’m going to buy a PlayStation 6 next year or any time soon and I still don’t really believe it’s coming out then anyway. I know all the evidence suggests it is, but it’s not needed and the component crisis is going to make it much, much too expensive. There’s no way it’s not going to be delayed until at least 2028 and if I’m wrong Sony are even dumber than I think.
Focus
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The third way
I kind of feel like Fire Emblem needs a third setting in between the causal and permadeath modes. Casual feels too safe, with very little consequence for just throwing your troops to their deaths, but in permadeath mode I end up worrying that if I lose too many I’ll get stuck later on with a limited team, so I abuse the save function and it turns into casual with extra steps.
A nice halfway house would be if fallen troops were injured and couldn’t be selected for a certain amount of time, then maybe when they recovered they would go down a level or two. That way losing soldiers would still be a problem that you want to avoid, but not so ruinous as to require save scumming.
TGN Professor
GC: That seems a good idea, and not dissimilar to how Star Wars Zero Company works.
Xbox generation
I’d say I’m an Xbox supporter by default. It was the new gen console I picked. I’m not a company supporter but I thought it was more aesthetically pleasing than the PlayStation 5. The sacking of all the people isn’t great, but Sony’s hands aren’t the cleanest either.
I stuck with Xbox even though the Xbox One was pretty bad for load speeds. I’m glad the Xbox Series X is backwards compatible, as most of my games are from that gen and can be got fairly cheap. I’ve had every Sony device except the PlayStation 5 and while it’s not likely to get purchased I don’t think the PlayStation 6 will come to me either. I’ll hopefully just update my PC with a pre-owned 4070 or higher.
Bobwallett
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The next step
From the first announcement of Xbox layoffs I suspected a lot of people outside of the studios would be losing their jobs. After all, they did say they wanted to drastically reduce the number of layers to mostly just have people who make the games.
Now after Tuesday’s announcement I think it’s fairly safe to assume once Fable, Gears Of War: E-Day, and Clockwork Revolution have released their studios will move to Activision and Bethesda (or one or two might close) and the whole management/publishing layer of Xbox Game Studios will be gone.
I’ve not really bought into the idea that Microsoft is going to exit the games industry, but Activision Blizzard and Bethesda are still separate legal entities to Microsoft, so it does leave them in a position where the companies can quite easily be spun out into independent companies with ownership transferred directly to the shareholders.
Tim
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Bad guess
This cashback that Sony is doing will be mostly on cheap games that’s over five years old and the money you earn will only be available to spend on some games and before anyone that says no one knows the details yet, this is Sony. This is a company that’s trying to own the whole of the console market.
This is a company whose T&Cs are so tight you never get your money back in cash. This is a company that mocks its customers. This is an offer that doesn’t offer anything of value, this is a company that’s trying to pull the wool over our eyes. It’s greed. When this is fully out let’s see if Sony will let you use your cash back on day one Sony titles. Sony will take pounds and give back pennies on this.
David
GC: The games confirmed so far are all 2026 titles: The Blood Of Dawnwalker, Halloween, Star Wars Zero Company, and Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2.
Super Sonic bros.
That was an interesting article about Sonic being potentially axed by Sega before the success of the films.
It did raise a couple of questions in my head though.
In hindsight how important does the character remodelling seem now?
The director of the first movie pushed its release back a few months because of the backlash of the hideous looking Sonic that can only be best described as a grown man in a scary blue onesie.
That was definitely the right decision and I’m sure the director got a lot of pushback from people higher up regarding that matter. So good for him.
Also, if Sega had have written Sonic the Hedgehog off. What would have been the likelihood of someone like Microsoft trying to buy the rights?
Especially as Microsoft where about to release the Xbox Series X/S.
I would like to think Nintendo would want to buy him, as it just seems like a better fit with the other franchises they have to offer.
Anyway, thank goodness things worked out the way they did. Not only did we get some great movies out of it, but I don’t think many gamers these days remember a time when Sonic the Hedgehog wasn’t a relevant character on our gaming shop shelves.
Long may it continue.
freeway 77
GC: That’s an interesting thought; Nintendo does seem the most obvious suitor.
Death Adder goes forth
Perhaps I’ve missed it, but I haven’t seen you mention the Golden Axe cartoon on these pages before.
It certainly doesn’t look top tier but seems to be positioned as a comedy, which looks quite fun and definitely worth a look.
What a shame I don’t have and don’t intend to subscribe to Paramount+.
Sven
GC: That was our feeling too.
Name change
It’s interesting to read between the lines on the shuffling around going on at Xbox, over how this consolidation plays into rumours of their future hardware plans. There has been a drip of news for a while Project Helix is just a ‘PC in a box’, which seems legit when you see Microsoft’s moves around official emulation of older console titles on PC, the ROG Ally X, and that disc-to-digital conversion*.
If the new Xbox is just a living room PC, à la Steam Machine, then emptying it’s officially branded publishing arm into Activision and Bethesda would seem to suggest the Xbox name itself is being put out to pasture. Future games will be sold on various store fronts across the PC space as Activision or Bethesda releases, same with ports to Switch 2 or PlayStation 5/6.
Let’s take that even further, what are the odds on Project Helix being branded under Microsoft’s Surface line of devices? A Surface TV high end box designed to be a full living room Co-pilot AI driven entertainment hub… the Xbox One launch dream fulfilled.
Microsoft probably doesn’t want the market thinking it’s just the next iteration of its failed games console when the next generation rolls around after all. They could reserve the Xbox name for what Game Pass would become in that world, so buying an Xbox is just buying access to your digital library and Game Pass for Surface TV or whatever other PC based system you have.
Thinking of Xbox as a competitor to Sony and Nintendo in the console wars has been old-fashioned thinking for a while, as have been most gamer suggestions of how Xbox could recover with exclusive games and whatnot. We’re heading into a much changed gaming landscape where that stuff is irrelevant.
Marc
*Hope Sony follow this route with disc-to-digital for when the new PlayStation portable rolls around. Still have a few PlayStation 4 titles on disc and it’d be nice to take them on the go. Given current form I doubt it.
Inbox also-rans
You know who could’ve made a truly great Halo game? id Software.
ANON
I hate to say it but those Gears Of War: E-Day developer are toast the second the game comes out. Terrible, Wikipedia says that’s 200 people right there.
Gorf
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