Games Inbox: Is GTA 6 worth paying £100 for?
Only if it’s worth it
A story is doing the rounds claiming some in the industry ‘hope’ that GTA 6 costs $80-100, as it will allow other companies to follow suit with their new releases. This has gone down about as well as you’d expect on social media, with many arguing GTA 6 is probably the only game that could justify a higher price point given the hype and the expected Rockstar Games quality.
I would agree with this, as like them or loathe them, Rockstar just does it better. It’s been said before but stand anywhere on a Rockstar map and something (usually hilarious) will happen. Their world design is just beyond everyone else and the trailer/rumours would suggest they’re going all in on non-player character intelligence this time, which will only increase the mini-stories that appear at random.
If other AAA companies want to start charging $80-100 then they’d better get working on quality, or they’ll find out the hard way when their incomplete, shallow experiences don’t do the numbers they expect. Even EA Sports FC, usually a guaranteed runaway success, has faced the wrath of customers voting with their wallets because it needed another six months in development, and they’re sick of the terrible quality control.
I don’t mind my score disappearing once or twice, or player hair turning weird, but four months post-launch these things should be fixed! No wonder it can be picked up for under £25 already.
If anyone should be allowed to charge a little more, it’s indie developers who consistently give us the best games of the year. I have over 100 hours in Balatro now, and it costs about £12…
Dipper Pines
GC: EA Sports FC 25 was the best-selling game of 2024 in the UK.
People in their wrong mind
Just read on your page that game publishers are hoping that GTA 6 will be £100 when it comes out, so they can jack up the price. The problem with that is GTA games don’t come about that often, it’s 10+ years since Rockstar brought out there last game, with multiple free DLCs for the best part of 10 years.
Games like EA Sports FC and Call Of Duty, to name a few, have a yearly release, no one in their right mind would pay a £100, knowing that within 12 months there will be a new one coming out. GTA is like the golden egg now, you buy it and for 10+ years everything that comes out is free. If all games go to £100 I’ll be giving up gaming, it won’t be worth it in my eyes.
David
Falcon punch
If Nintendo’s last release for the Switch is some kind of purposefully niche fan wish fulfilment thing, I will go nuts. If it’s F-Zero I’ll probably explode.
I realise it’s just a rumour, but I would love for Nintendo to say to hell with it and spend a ton of money making a great game they know not that many people will buy but will just be really good and something the developers want to do.
I mean, what’s $20 million or so to a company that makes as much money as they do? I get the feeling they do this anyway sometimes, with things like Bayonetta and Famicom Detective Club. Nintendo are the least rich of the three console makers but they’re the only ones that do things like this.
End the Switch with a bang, instead of just fading away, and I swear I’ll pre-order the Switch 2 the minute you’re able to.
Benso
Last man standing
Somehow, I don’t think the PlayStation 6 reveal trailer is going to be outdoing the Nintendo Switch 2, if Sony thinks that releasing it in 2027, or anytime near that, is going to work. I’m sure it will be around that time, because they’ve already said the PlayStation 5 has peaked, but only in terms of console sales.
In terms of games released it barely seems to have started and has basically been stalled for the last two years. Compare that to the Switch 1, which is now going into retirement with the best version of almost every Nintendo franchise and multiple 10/10 games, to the PlayStation 5 which had… some good cross-gen games at the beginning?
The irony is the best games on the PlayStation 5 are Returnal and Astro Bot and they’re the ones that Sony didn’t really push and sold the least. We shouldn’t encourage any monopoly in the games industry but at this point I don’t care if Nintendo do dominate for a generation or two. At least I’d trust them to make some decent games.
Kanker
Longing way down
I’ve been playing The Longing on iOS for hours. On day 344, wandering around for hours with no idea of where to go to progress the game. I finally managed to figure how to climb a ledge into an unexplored area and I crept along a narrow tunnel in the dark. I come across a huge cliff. Despite the warnings, I jump off thinking there’ll be something special down there for me.
There was something special. A one way ticket to heaven! Game over!
Interesting game but I don’t have the patience to start over again at day 400.
Rave
A familiar problem
Of all the questions that still exist about the Switch 2, the one I’m most interested in is how Nintendo manage the backwards compatibility aspect. It’s the one I most see them being tripped up by and why I can’t quite cast the shadow of the Wii U from my mind.
I understand, in principle, why Nintendo has opted to include backwards compatibility in terms of coaxing consumers to the Switch 2 without sacrificing their existing catalogue of playable games (plus, it keeps software sales ticking over from now until the console launch). But what then?
It feels like Nintendo will have to work hard to convey what is a Switch 2-only title and what isn’t. Plus, at what point – if ever – will new games not have to labour the point that they are only for the Switch 2? I’m reminded of the New Nintendo 3DS, and while it was released towards the end of the console’s life (and only had eight compatible games), those huge black headers across the game boxes came across as a marketing and branding headache.
Nintendo learned a lot of lessons from the Wii U. But having a clean slate felt like a massive advantage. Yes, they committed to a Wii U version of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild. Yes, they ported many Wii U titles across to the Switch. But it was always clear from the off that the Switch was a completely new and different console. Personally, backwards compatibility is a Switch 2 feature I’d happily do without to ensure there’s no ambiguity whatsoever.
Needlemouse
GC: We understand your concern, but Nintendo has been marketing console model exclusives since the days of the Game Boy Color in the late 90s. Earlier than that if you count the Famicom Disk System in Japan.
Worth keeping
If you own a PlayStation 4 or 5 you can get free three months of Apple TV+ currently by logging into the Apple TV+ app on either console mentioned. They have the Tetris film on there for anyone who hasn’t
seen it and other good TV shows and films. You can be a new or returning customer for Apple TV+ to get the three months.
I had three free months at the end of last year on my PlayStation 5 and when I tried to get the current offer on PlayStation 5 I wasn’t eligible for this new deal, so I logged into my PlayStation 4 console and using the same Apple account I got three free months!
I’ve kept hold of my PlayStation 4 for PlayStation VR games and also some games I own on PlayStation 4 are not compatible with PlayStation 5.
Andrew J.
PS: Just platinumed Astro Bot! So pleased with that.
Not pole position
I don’t think Mario Kart will be a Switch launch title. Maybe a Christmas release or timed with the second Mario movie. I think it was picked for the trailer because it was an expected title that doesn’t need a lot of explanation.
Nintendo clearly didn’t want to do a deep dive trailer for the reveal and if they’d picked something really new, like the next 3D Mario, they’d have faced disappointment and complaints that they didn’t go into more details. Mario Kart doesn’t face similar obstacles.
It also leaves the April Direct to have more of a wow factor when each reveal is a new thing we’ve not seen yet and not just an explanation of the brief look we’ve just seen.
Mario Kart is a safe marketing placeholder and will probably sell by the truck load.
I do wish the Direct was sooner, early March or something, but I guess three months between reveal and full details worked for the first Switch.
At least Civilization 7 can keep me busy until then and hopefully we’ll see that get mouse compatibility on Switch 2.
Euclidian Boxes
GC: It’s an interesting thought, that didn’t occur to us at first, but you could be right.
Inbox also-rans
I wish EA was as determined to constantly bring back SSX and Dead Space as they are Battlefield and Need For Speed. Why does those games keep getting second chances, when they haven’t been big in so long?
Bootles
So Microsoft went from the Xbox 360 to being the biggest third party publisher on a new Nintendo console. It’s funny how things work out, eh?
