The Monday letters section has been attempting to adopt a more budget-friendly approach.
Xbox
Series X before the potential price increase, according to a worried reader.
Star Wars
Games are likely to become scarce in the years ahead.
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But why thou?
Not surprising that
GTA 6
It has been postponed, considering all the warning signs. Clearly, this is why Take-Two remained silent as well, particularly with their stock prices taking such a hit.
the delay is confirmed
.
It will be intriguing to observe how various publishers hurriedly release their games prior to May next year, leading to numerous titles likely being incomplete and riddled with bugs that will have to be addressed through subsequent updates. Such is what we can anticipate.
A query I haven’t often seen raised—though perhaps one worth considering—is: Why exactly did this happen? Since an official explanation seems unlikely, could it simply be due to general refinement efforts? Perhaps certain elements weren’t functioning correctly; possibly some game mechanics required adjustment? Alternatively, might GTA Online 2 have fallen short of expectations?
If we receive an official statement, I’m certain it will simply highlight some necessary refinements. However, I believe that over a year’s postponement suggests there were deeper issues at play rather than merely forgetting to include quality assurance towards the project’s conclusion.
Kanker
Exception to the rule
Nice couple of
Star Wars highlights are scheduled for the weekend.
I haven’t had the chance to play “TIE Fighter,” so I can’t comment on whether it lives up to its acclaim or not. However, based on my experience with similar titles, the feedback appears accurate. Still, I’m concerned that successful yet moderately popular licensed games might become less common as time goes on.
Producing something as massive as Star Wars Outlaws must be incredibly expensive. To see it fail, similar to how Avengers and Midnight Suns performed poorly, really debunks the idea that licenses always generate profits. Of course,Spider-Man is an exception, but it stands out as quite a rare case.
Following the pattern of live-service games, companies will likely persistently attempt to replicate their past successes until either achieving them or facing bankruptcy; however, I doubt this approach will work out differently this time around. It’s unfortunate because I would prefer a consistent release of fresh Star Wars and Marvel titles over yet another episodic game offering.
Netts
Waiting game
I wasn’t aware that the
The Xbox Series X costs more than the PS5 Pro in the United States.
Now, that is absurd. Why cripple the console in what should be your premier (and virtually sole) market? It’s quite clear that Microsoft has lost interest in hardware sales and has abandoned efforts to promote or subside their consoles.
However, does the revenue from their other titles truly validate sustaining the Xbox division? Certainly, Call of Duty dominates sales, yet none of their other releases occur frequently enough to significantly impact overall performance, despite being well-received. Additionally, both Game Pass and cloud gaming haven’t grown sufficiently large to compensate for this discrepancy.
Cloud gaming will be some day, and I guess that’s Microsoft’s long term plan? They’re rich enough they can just tread water waiting for technology to catch up and for Sony to become irrelevant.
Austin
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The usual delay
I foresaw this happening. I’ve always felt that the unavoidable was bound to happen: Grand Theft Auto 6 has been pushed back to sometime in 2026. Specifically, May seems likely. wasn’t this expected? Didn’t those who overlooked the consistent release patterns of Rockstar Games clearly miss an obvious outcome?
Regretfully, we are all disheartened, yet this was a foreseen decision. What once caused anguish has transformed into mere anticipation whenever Rockstar decides to create a fresh game. An entire year of waiting is undeniably agonizing, but finally, we have a concrete release date. As expected, those who lack patience will grumble, protest, and vent their frustration.
The content producers will likewise seek engagement through clicks and views. Nonetheless, I shall wait patiently with hope of being able to make an early purchase soon. Additionally, we are entitled to receive screenshots, another trailer, and further information revealed. Perhaps at minimum, some efforts towards damage mitigation should be made.
Shahzaib Sadiq
Unofficial mascot
I’d be amazed if anybody really cared that much about it.
Losing Sackboy as the mascot
. Don’t get me wrong, most of the games he was in were pretty good, but I don’t think he as a character had anything special going for him. He didn’t talk and didn’t have any clear personality that I could work out, other than he’s… happy all the time?
Astro Bot shares similarities in this aspect and lacks both uniqueness and an intriguing design. Sony should’ve acquired Lara Croft and positioned her as the PlayStation mascot instead. The franchise faced difficulties even during the PlayStation 2 era, so I doubt such a notion was considered at that time. By now, it might be too late for that change; however, she is the character most closely linked to my perception of PlayStation.
Lennox
Save to spend
I agree with Adam W regarding both the Game Pass and Microsoft Rewards program. My subscription to Game Pass Ultimate will be ending soon. However, when I purchased a yearly Xbox Live membership from CDKeys previously, it cost around £35. A two-week free trial of Ultimate set me back only £1, making my total expenditure about £36 for roughly eight months of access to Game Pass Ultimate. Just within recent months, I’ve been able to play titles such as *Far Cry: New Dawn*, *Watch Dogs: Legion*, *Mullet MadJack* (which I highly recommend; it’s wild), *Indiana Jones And The Great Circle*, and currently, *Clair Obscur: Expedition 33*. Additionally, games like *Oblivion* and *Balatro* have provided some great opportunities to explore new content.
It’s not bad considering the initial cost of £36. While I do enjoy AAA titles with substantial budgets, I often find myself hesitating due to the continually increasing prices of new games. Around £50 seemed to be my limit; however, despite this, I’ve purchased several high-profile releases right when they launched, including Hogwarts Legacy, the Resident Evil 4 remake, Mortal Kombat 1, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Star Wars Outlaws, and more recently, Assassin’s Creed Shadows. This is precisely where the rewards program becomes particularly beneficial.
I’d really like to possess all my games as physical editions, but nowadays that isn’t particularly practical. Throughout the years, I’ve consistently bought and exchanged them whenever necessary, especially since they cost around 70-80 pounds each.
very
Required today, but those days have passed. EBay and Facebook Marketplace are not ideal for selling used games. Therefore, using the rewards I’ve invested, in actual currency, between £10 to £35 each.
Based on the number of rewards I had accumulated at that point, I used them all to purchase Assassin’s Creed: Shadows and only needed to pay an additional £10 with actual money. This transaction occurred roughly five weeks back, and since then, I’ve managed to save around 23,000 points, which equates to approximately £20 in such a short period. Therefore, considering games typically cost £80 each nowadays, both Game Pass and Microsoft Rewards have become invaluable resources for me; without these options, I might have been compelled to abandon my 35-year-long gaming habit by this stage.
big boy bent
Dead franchise
It’s unfortunate about the layoffs at EA. While I’ve never been particularly fond of many EA game series, I hope these cutbacks won’t affect Motive Studios, as they did an excellent job with Dead Sea.
I’m unsure whether it performed well enough, but having Motive develop aDead Space 2remake would have been fantastic.
iceltichghost
GC:
Motive is assisting with the development of the new Battlefield and is also working on an Iron Man game.
The Dead Space remake did not perform sufficiently well.
For EA, however, there won’t be any more of these.
One and only
I doubt anyone else aside from myself picked up an Xbox Series X disc edition over the weekend. Smyths hadn’t applied the additional £20 surcharge yet, which Argos had done.
At the beginning of this generation, during the pandemic, I acquired an Xbox Series X. My intention was to get a PlayStation 5, but the chance arose to purchase an Xbox Series X instead. I figured it would suffice until I could obtain Sony’s console. Once I finally got my hands on the PlayStation 5, I ended up selling the Xbox Series X as planned.
I’ve always felt remorse about it, particularly since Game Pass is capitalizing on Microsoft’s excessive expenditures. However, the primary reason remains that it was far more convenient for playing online games with my relatives, all of whom own an Xbox.
I resolved that when the Xbox Series X was back on sale, I would buy one once more. However, it never came back into stock during this period; meanwhile, the PlayStation 5 had multiple promotions including an attractive Astro Bot bundle deal.
Although the monthly cost is typically £14.99, you can still get Game Pass for much less. I purchased a year’s subscription to Game Pass Core from CDKeys for £40 and then upgraded to Ultimate; based on the exchange rate, this equated to about seven months of service at roughly £7.85 per month.
Not those absurd offers from the beginning of the generation where I purchased two years of Gold for around £85 and later upgraded the entire period to Ultimate for just £1. Still, it was quite beneficial.
Additionally, that highly sought-after digital copy of the outstanding PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 version of Daytona USA which I recently parted with is expected to get an undue amount of focus. What a remarkable game.
Simundo
Inbox also-rans
I’ve spent a lot of time with Unicorn Overlord this weekend (it’s such an excellent game), and also revisited Portal 2 after many years. Initially, when it was released, I wasn’t fond of it because I found Wheatley irritating. However, now that I’m playing again, I am thoroughly enjoying it—it’s surprisingly humorous and the puzzle elements are fantastic. Now, I find myself eagerly wanting a sequel like Portal 3!
Simon
I’m looking into the physical availability of Forza Horizon 5 and Indiana Jones And The Great Circle for the PlayStation 5 with a physical disc version, but there seems to be no update on this. As I recall, you mentioned that these titles were supposed to have physical releases.
Alan Stephens
GC:
Forza won’t have a physical edition, whereas Indiana Jones will, as that was always intended.
I’m still disappointed that after all these years of anticipation and hope for Shenmue 3, it turned out to be incredibly dull and failed to advance the storyline in any significant manner. It’s akin to if GTA 6 were eventually released as a match-three puzzle game instead. Apologies for the rant; sometimes you just need an outlet, and I figured this would be a safe space.
Mark Matthews
GC:
That’s fine. It was a perplexing decision that utterly wasted what might have been the franchise’s sole opportunity for a revival.
If EA were to collapse, it seems unlikely that we’ll ever see the long-awaited remakes of Need For Speed Underground (1 and/or 2), which fans have been requesting for two decades.
LeighDappa
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