The Friday letters page wants to see the return of Driver and Colony Wars, as one reader recommends Microsoft Rewards.
Marketing madness
I have nothing against Call Of Duty in general but I am so sick of seeing ads for Black Ops 6. I read that it has the marketing budget of a major movie and that seems like an understatement. I’ve never seen such blanket advertising for anything. And I got to say, it’s having the opposite effect on me, it’s just making me want to get as far away from the game as possible.
It’s obvious what’s happening. Xbox isn’t going well and all Microsoft’s profits are now are tied to Activision Blizzard’s games. So they do the obvious thing any thoughtless exec would do: they spend so much money on marketing that they end up making far less profit than they would’ve. It’s no good if you get 20 million extra sales if you’ve spent so much money on marketing that the profit is still the same.
And I see they’re saying that they expect Game Pass subscriptions to go up by whatever million because of Black Ops 6. Well, guess what geniuses, people might give it a go for a month or so but after that they’re going to drop the subscription.
As has been said by others, the problem with Microsoft is they’re always looking for a shortcut and that almost always involves throwing more money at a problem than they can ever make back. It’s kind of gross to see.
Rudie
Random remakes
That is the most random collection of older games you could possibly imagine, that they’re talking about remastering for the Switch, but I’m fine with that. I would definitely like to see Driver come back as a franchise and maybe this can be a stepping stone to that. Splinter Cell Blacklist was also definitely the best one.
I wish Sony would do something similar with some of Psygnosis’ old games. I’d love to see a route back for things like Colony Wars and G-Police. They did bring back Forbidden Siren so there is some minor hope that they haven’t forgotten all their older games.
I’m really not sure anyone cares about Rayman though. Like another reader said, I’m all for a sequel to Rayman Legends but I have next to zero interest in a remake of the original game or any of the 3D ones. When they weren’t even particularly popular at the time that is a sign that they’re not remake-worthy.
Toronce
Two-dimensional thinking
I think Klamar misses the real reason Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown underperformed. It’s a 2D game that costs more than £20.
I’m not saying that as any sort of criticism either. I loved Metroid Dread and felt it was well worth its asking price (even higher than The Lost Crown’s) but aside from the exemptions some Nintendo properties probably enjoy when it comes to 2D iterations, it’s clear there’s a big chunk of the higher end market that doesn’t think businesses have any right to ask for £35 or more for a 2D game.
That’s a real shame because it certainly doesn’t sound like it’s a content thing. It’s just the usual shallow production values argument that are causing so many problems with industry budgets. I don’t necessarily think the only metric for determining the price of something should be how much was spent to build it.
But it’s also unfortunate for the more expensive ones that there’s real price-based competition for this specific type of game. You can get some beautifully produced Metroidvanias for a fraction of The Lost Crown’s price. Animal Well is £20 on PlayStation Store and the Ori games are even lower on other platforms.
I’m sorry to say I haven’t bought the game yet either and the reason for that is something Klamar did touch on, in that I don’t like to have genre fatigue and I’d just played Blasphemous 2. But I’m keen on it and it’s now at the front of my Metroidvania queue. I hope it gets some nods during the awards season.
Panda
Late to the party
Sunabi and Abathor appear to be another two games that have gone under the radar that released within the last few weeks. From the trailers, Surabi looks like a grapnel hook samurai action title with excellent pixel art, set in a futuristic neon city.
Abathor is Rastan reborn, that’s enough to get me excited. Will you have time to review either of these titles? Has anyone who reads GC played either of these games and can recommend them?
Beastiebat (PSN ID)
Currently playing: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition (both on PS4/5), and Please, Touch The Artwork on Switch; it’s a fun puzzle game I just started that cost less than £2, I believe, and is definitely worth that and much more.
GC: Thank you. As far as we can tell it’s spelt Sanabi and it came out last year, so that’s a bit too late for a review. We like the look of Abathor though, so we’ll see if we can do that as a catch-up review in December.
Fallen Stars
So Sony is getting tight over PlayStation Stars. I thought they brought it out to give something to the players. I myself never signed up to it or the different tiers of PS Plus. In fact, I haven’t had PS Plus for about two years now.
As for points for buying games, I’d rather buy the games on disc. You save so much money by buying on the stores. When you have done with the game you can sell or trade it in and get some money back. With what they’re doing, sooner or later, I think they will give up on Stars because players will realise it’s not worth it, sign out of it, and then Sony will go, ‘Yep, let’s bin it.’
in my eyes it was a waste of time anyway. They charge £10 more than the shops and give you pennies in points, then put an out of date sticker on them.
David
By comparison
I have been close, a few times, to writing in and having a grumble about Microsoft Rewards, how they constantly make it harder to earn and even redeem points, i.e. I had to wait a month to be able to use my number as a sign-in to prove it was me.
After 20 years as a Microsoft customer, and finding they would only let yout redeem 25 quid credit, around 30,000 points at a time – not five, not 10, but 25 – when I was down to about 16,000 points they were like redeem a tenner? Then my last 6,000 points, redeem a fiver? But those options weren’t available as an option to start with!
However, I’ve used Microsoft Rewards many times to get anywhere from a tenner to about 25 quid off my purchases: Hogwarts Legacy, Resident Evil 4, Mortal Kombat 1, Tekken 8, WWE 2K24, among others and just last month I spent the lot on Star Wars Outlaws – 60 quid, I paid a whole tenner for it. ‘Only’ took me six months to save and now they’re busy building back up for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which has been put back now, so ching, ching, more points, more savings.
So reading that PlayStation owners have to actually spend nearly 2,000 dollars to get Hogwarts Legacy or Outlaws ‘free’ was a shock and really doesn’t make Microsoft Rewards seem so bad after all.
big boy bent
PS: Most points are earned by doing daily searches on Bing, doing daft little daily quizzes, and are earned on any actual money spent too.
Business logic
With the various rumours surrounding Switch 2 launch date (despite my words coming back to haunt me, given Nintendo’s unpredictability) normal corporate behaviour would lend itself to a launch in April/May 2025.
Like any listed business where share price performance is critical, they will manage their business that allows both a positive message to the market (it’s all about sentiment) and shows growth (investing is all about seeing growth in performance). Nintendo execs will also have their personal performance linked to share price (at least in part).
Nintendo’s fiscal year ends March 2025 – they would want to see 2025-26 significantly out-perform 2024-25 (to not do so with a new console launch would be cataclysmic).
I don’t believe they’ve promised the market a 2024-5 launch of a new console, so to maximise the growth in 2025-26 launching April/May (or even a little later) makes sense as they will hit their existing revenue targets of 2024-25 with existing Switch sales anyway.
Also, this is not the same as the Switch launch post Wii U – then they needed a stronger market message sooner, since Wii U was underperforming – with Switch selling relatively well, they won’t message a Switch 2 too soon, so as to not cannibalise Christmas sales of the Switch.
Messaging the launch for early 2025 also manages the market and provides ample time to ramp up marketing. No early adaptors will change their buying behaviour, whether there is a six month or three month pre-launch announcement window. They then have six months to grow and then go hard for Christmas 2025.
This is similar to Apple’s core strategy to launch new iPhones around the start of their financial year, which runs October to September, so they have a sales shout for the first quarter of their fiscal period (October to December) and then have nine months to manage the market before the cycle repeats.
Greg
Original bonus
Got my Deluxe Edition of Alan Wake 2 all in a box. I still enjoy having the packaging on my collection shelf and feel physical copies gives that ultimate feeling of ownership, more than a digital version would. Not that I really need the box, but it is nice with a reversible inside cover of a parody movie/TV poster.
I originally was just sticking with the digital version, but it is one of my all-time favourite games and I love the Alan Wake series very much! I just went for it and with the three Night Springs expansions included, why not?
So, when I was studying the box, I saw that there was another expansion called The Lake House and some cosmetics also. So, yes, more gameplay and story – awesome! Plus, the Crimson Windbreaker looks well smart on Saga, along with the Lantern Charm. Plus, the celebrity suit for Alan and the Nordic Shotgun skin for Saga and Parliament shotgun skin for Alan.
So, I was just putting the box down and then noticed it included Alan Wake Remastered digital edition. I’d been wanting to revisit the original for a while now and was happy with viewing just a YouTube recap video! I always seem to think about the original game when walking or watching TV or films set in the Pacific Northwest.
Got to admit that I did not research this deluxe Alan Wake 2 edition very well, really, as I thought I got the main facts of what it was all about. But definitely a most welcome surprise and now I can’t wait to be going back to see where it all started in Bright Falls, Washington state. Nice to have a surprise now and again for sure.
Alucard
Inbox also-rans
I don’t know if it’s a bug or what but I can’t even redeem in-game currency any more with PlayStation Stars and the store credit has completely disappeared. Have to wonder what the point is at this stage.
Klone
At the end of your Kill Knight review you were wondering about any other great indie games. Let me introduce you to Shogun Showdown. Whoever knew turn-based 2D combat would work so well? Please. Investigate. Amazing.
