Gamebox: When will the next big Super Mario game be announced?

The Tuesday Letters site is shocked at how expensive amiibo have become, as one reader complains about recent job losses. Battlefield 6 developers.

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

Annual holiday
So MAR10 Day is here again, but this time it looks like Nintendo is building something in terms of an announcement. There was that Mario Kart World Rumors but if that happens I don’t see how it will be announced because not even a shadow of Nintendo releases a Direct. Unless Nintendo also starts announcing things via tweets, but let’s hope not.

I have to say, I can’t wait until Super Mario Galaxy Movie is out because I feel like it’s taking too much attention away from that and we won’t have any real moves on a new game until that’s done. I couldn’t care less about a Mario movie, but I’m really looking forward to the next 3D game. But I think it’s pretty clear that they’re waiting for the movie to come out first.

Still, I have some hope that we’ll at least get a tease of another 3D Mario today. They’ve already announced their sale and new games on Nintendo Switch Online, so it would be disappointing if we didn’t get at least a little news.
Onibee

Premium products
I fully believe it The Helix Project it will be about a greatness, but I also believe that Xbox are crazy to do it. Other than that, that seems to be the way things are going. If fewer people buy and play consoles, then the obvious way to make money for a publisher is to make a more expensive item, which will make the same amount of money even if fewer people buy it overall. That’s why Ferrari doesn’t bother making a family hatchback, because it’s chicken feed in comparison.

I don’t think it will work for Xbox, because who would want to buy Xbox after all this, but it definitely seems to be the case The valve are going with the Steam Machine. Sony are basically already there, given how expensive the PS5 Pro is.

There’s no way I’d pay that much for a console, but it makes me wonder what kind of games I’ll be playing on it. Will they just be the same as normal with better performance? Because I can’t imagine anyone making an exclusive game for a format with only a few million customers.
Hameriron

Worst job in the world
It’s been said before, but I honestly don’t know why anyone would want to be a game developer. I imagine the pay is OK (except for all the unpaid overtime), but there is literally no security to keep your job, no matter how well everything you’ve done works out. And even if you keep your job, you’re only months away from being replaced by AI. And then, if by some miracle you’re still around, you’ll have to worry about death threats from rabid fans.

I don’t see any positives at all. If you’re smart enough to be able to make games, there are a hundred other jobs using similar skills that would be a lot less trouble. I remember when it used to seem like a dream job, but now it seems more like a nightmare. Congratulations to everyone working on Battlefield 6 was fired by EA.
Royston

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A new problem
I can tell you now if it’s dynamic price becomes a thing with video games I’m out. It’s retro and indie games for me and nothing else. Every day publishers seem to come up with new reasons not to buy their stuff and it’s bothering me.

Play a good game and I’ll pay. I’ll probably pay £60 more if it’s really good and I don’t think you’re messing with me. But it’s never that simple. Everything has to be more expensive than claimed or have small print that makes it worse.

I know there’s no going back, but I really miss the PlayStation 4 era. All these things were starting then, but it still wasn’t bad, and the games were top notch. This entire generation has been nothing but downhill in every direction.
stone

No history
Some interesting info on the Marathon player counts on Xbox where it is at #32 over the past week with the slam server at #37. Also note that Helldivers 2 is still #16 this list.

There’s no supporting story, but the PlayStation side of things lists Marathon as 38th with Server Slam at 26th. Helldivers took 18th place during the week.
NaturDom

GC: We’re not sure what to make of this, other than that both games are doing pretty well on both formats?

Ignorance is bliss
There’s been a lot of talk about what Xbox is doing hardware-wise, but I think a bigger question is what will happen to games under this new boss. Any decent business person should be able to make reasonably sound decisions about a console, but game development is a whole different kettle of fish.

It’s different for every game, it involves a lot of factors that you won’t have an idea about unless you’re a gamer, and in terms of management Microsoft has been terrible at it since forever. On the other hand, it can actually be good news, because maybe someone more objective, who isn’t particularly into gaming, can provide a better perspective on things.

We all know Phil Spencer didn’t work, so he makes a good argument that the people at the top shouldn’t be players because they have a skewed perspective.

But how will this new ‘AI guru’ make decisions about what to do with the next Halo or whether Gears Of War needs a reboot? The problem I see is that Microsoft already tends to overstate how good and popular their games are and now we’re going to have people whispering into this admitted non-gamer’s ear that everything they do is awesome.

There’s a lot that could go wrong, but I guess we’ll just have to see. But if there’s a twist, we’ll know from now on that the secret to running a good gaming business is to know nothing about games (at least at an executive level).
July

Half price
Happy GameCentral Mario Day, all readers and Underboxers! I see the Pragmata amiibo is in stock for pre-order at Nintendo Store UKit’s £24.99 – which is a lot for a small amiibo.

I thought there might also be a soldier amiibo, but there isn’t.
Andrew J.

GC: This is madness. The game itself costs just £50.

People change
About Scooter and changing tastes in games, my niece, well great niece, at age 11 plays everything usually: Minecraft, Fortnight, Roblox, Rocket League… but I guess that’s also for socializing purposes, but she’s more than willing to try other games.

A few years ago I got an arcade emulator, two hard joysticks and six buttons a piece, you can shake each other and knock the sticks around, just like you are in a real arcade, circa ’94! And she loves it, she and her sister discovered the many joys of all the different versions of Street Fighter 2 at Christmas. The little one found Chun-Li right away, girly and cute, and soon discovered her button by pressing the 100 foot kick, which she used over and over again to defeat her big sister!

So she is now Chunners forever, the eldest now methodically trying out each character until she runs into Eddy Honda and his 100 hand slaps! This is the end of Chun-Li and all hell breaks loose. There are screams, name calling and a point or two… ah, memories, of the days when controllers were hitting the walls, controllers I didn’t have to buy!

Also, with Game Share on Xbox, it has had Street Fighter 6, Hogwarts Legacy and WWE 2K24. She was keen on Star Wars Outlaws, but don’t think she’s tried that yet, and her mum said she couldn’t play Resident Evil 2 and 4 remakes, ’cause they were too scary. What kids play now is probably 50-50 games and socializing, which we/I could only do face-to-face during the day.
big bent boy

Inbox-ka too
Interested to see what else can Shinji Mikami come up with in his own company, but I’ll be honest, he hasn’t done much since he left Capcom/PlatinumGames. If he still has a great game left, I’d love to check it out.
Fester

I didn’t realize Slay The Spire is almost 10 years old. Crazy how time flies. But I guess that explains why there have been so many clones over the years, they’ve had plenty of time.
Lokishat

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