Gaming Inbox: Is Xbox Doomed To Fail?

The Tuesday Letters page tries to see a way forward Microsoft AND Xboxas Kickstarter responds Sonythe new digital-only policy.

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

The shrinking franchise
So the Xbox has done exactly what we all knew it would and downloaded even more people and lost five studios in the process. I can easily see why they chose these because they only made art house games that no one ever played. You can’t even say that Microsoft shouldn’t have bought them, because it was the new boss’s idea anyway.

But where do they go from here? They have no studio left to do anything but HelloGears Of War and Forza, so are they stuck doing this forever? I totally believe the rumors that the studio is doing moved to work on Halo and nothing else, but what I don’t believe is that there are enough people who have left that care.

The heyday of these games was in the mid-2000s, so you’re talking 20 years ago now. Anyone who liked them then will be in a completely different place in their lives now and I see no evidence that anyone younger cares about those franchises. Xbox is backing itself into a corner, relying on nostalgia that I don’t think is really there. It really feels like the whole business is doomed.
Cranston

The chain of command
Absolutely disgusting that Microsoft can lay off 3200 people like that. From what I understand, about 200 people is pretty big for a trio studio, so imagine what all those dev talents could have been used for if the Xbox wasn’t doing so poorly.

All those people who have had their livelihoods taken away, although they may think it was worth it if they deal with 14 layers of management every day. How this could have happened under Phil Spencer, and he thought it was okay, I don’t know. But from what I understand, Matt Booty was at the top of the games and he’s still there! That company has been run so horribly for the past few generations.
Benson

Just one more remaster
I don’t know how Bethesda got away doing so little for so long. I can imagine the boss of Xbox asking for an Elder Scrolls update and being given various elaborate excuses while nothing gets done. Not even a brief glimpse.

They’ve had their luck, and I think Microsoft is ready for them and will demand results. Or maybe they’ll just make another one Skyrim remaster or anniversary edition to buy time.
Mark Matthews

GC: We said exactly that in our article today.

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

Never again
As far as digital-only games in the future, I’m not too surprised. The choice between physical and digital is being removed, it’s a shame. Pros and cons for both methods. The obvious profession for the physicist is the ability to trade. What’s needed when things go fully digital is a refund policy that’s fair, much more than what’s currently available, free game demos to try before you buy, and an exchange system for digital coupons to spend in store. If one company implements such a trading system, then I will guarantee that the other will follow suit.

The ability to trade in may encourage me to buy more digital games at or near full price than I currently do.
Paul C.
PS: I’m currently playing Project Cars 3 again on the Xbox Series X. I love this game (it was heavily maligned at launch for various reasons). The game has a tendency to drop frames, too bad, if it’s running from a full hard drive. I have 360 ​​GB of free space at the moment and the game is running perfectly.

GC: Publishers pushed for digital in large part to kill the concept of commerce, they won’t willingly bring it back.

New small font
This thing with disc games isn’t Sony’s fault, it’s the people who bought them digital only since the games were launched. If you haven’t gone down to your local store and bought the game, guess what? You haven’t played it and now no one can be bothered to go to a store to buy the game.

Sony showed you the digital problem years ago when they were removing the digital movies and TV shows you already bought. The amount of players who have written saying download has done so. Sony has just updated their terms and conditions, saying that if your account isn’t used within 36 months, you can lose your account all together, including games and stuff. Why don’t people learn that, yes, digital games are better for the planet, but if you don’t own something, it’s not yours to keep.
DAVID

Intended replacement
i played Border countries 2 but not to any serious degree. But I played a lot of Destiny 1 and 2 and Diablo in the time between that and Border countries 4and I must say that I have found it a great pleasure. The campaign was okay, but some of the side missions were really funny. The ones with the guy who was strangely obsessed with mating his animal thresher and the existential racket were highlights.

But I’m not level 60 on my first character in UVH5 (Ultimate Vault Hunter 5) and it still looks like a big the amount left after 90 or so hours – including arriving at UVH7, about 30 missions/side missions, tons of stuff collected, and removal still to do. And that’s not even thinking about a second or third character.

The amount of different builds you can do is also great, with so many options (though as usual only a few high end ones for the higher difficulties).

I would highly recommend if you like loot shooters and maybe get off the back of Destiny 2.
Tom

Kicked to the curb
This is one of the other Kickstarter campaigns I’ll be backing, which I’ll probably promise later, it’s called Dark Queen of Samobor and is a side-scrolling puzzle battle game with amazing visuals, inspired by classic Disney animation and dark fantasy films of the 80s for PC. I’ll probably go for the digital copy with my name in the credits for £23. There is also an option for a digital copy for £9.

With the announcement that Sony is ending production of physical PlayStation discs, this is also affecting Kickstarters, as a way to raise money for a Kickstarter campaign, you can usually buy a digital copy or spend more to get a physical copy on Switch, Xbox and PlayStation.

Some of the Kickstarters I’ve seen mention what will happen to the physical PlayStation in their campaign rewards. I’ve seen one Kickstarter creator say they’ll have to research what to do with the physical PlayStation 5 hardware in their rewards due to Sony’s announcement.
Andrew J.

The Legend of Goemon
The first Super Famicom Ganbare Goemon has always been one of my favorites. I had rented the western version of Legend Of The Mystical Ninja and then saw the free Japanese version and it became one of the few imported games I had for the SNES; I liked that there were parts that were removed for our version. I knew a sequel existed from the magazines at the time and was disappointed it never came out here.

I owned the first N64 game and loved it, it was my first time seeing some of the other main characters now shown as allies and my introduction to the giant robot Impact. Dash dash dash.
Years later I discovered that there were multiple Super Famicom sequels plus many games before and after on other consoles.

The Japan only Goemon collection is fantastic, some of the games are quite a turn off for me as they are full RPGs and being able to read Japanese is a hindrance. But the way Konami experimented with the franchise was great, just get platforming, mini-games, role-playing, whatever and see if it works. This means that the games can be a little hit and miss depending on your preferences, but when they hit the spot, they’re really great.

Konami also destroyed the park with the graphics and sound on the four main Super Famicom games, for a company that really knew how to get the best out of the SNES sound chip, I’d say the soundtracks for all four games are probably the best they’ve ever done in that era.

Enough waffle, if you’re interested in slightly obscure (UK) games from that era I’d definitely recommend picking up a copy of the new collection, I even enjoyed going through the menus just to get the screen settings I wanted, it reminded me a bit of carefully typing out the huge save codes for my import copy of Goemon, all in kanji. All I learned from that experience was that battery-backed saves were better.
John Atkinson

Inbox-ka too
So who do we think bought Undead Labs and Ninja Theory? I actually don’t care for State Of Decay 3, but I wonder if Sony will buy Ninja Theory and make them make a new Heavenly Sword? I’d be up for it.
Johnson

So I guess Psychonauts 3 isn’t happening right now. Well, I have a lot more faith in Double Fine surviving on their own than if they were still under Microsoft.
Interlocking

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