Is the future of PlayStation really on PC and mobile? (Picture: Sony)

The Wednesday letters page questions whether being a video game developer is still a desirable job, as one reader enjoys Bloodborne, again.

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Multiformat future
Interesting, and rare, interview with the boss of Sony, even if it did seem very scripted in his answers. Interesting to find out he thinks the future of their game business will be a similar one to that of Microsoft, in that their games will be available on multiple systems.

I guess with the potential of cloud computing and streaming, whenever that becomes a genuine reality, it’s inevitable that Sony would want to make their games available to as many users as possible. I can imagine it would be in the form of a PlayStation Network app available through TV screens, tablets or PCs, like you get now with Netflix or Spotify.

Still probably many years away though, but it may be something they introduce alongside the PlayStation 6 perhaps?
Stephen (Switch: SW-0066-5918-0407)

All games, everywhere
So, Sony are essentially copying Microsoft’s strategy. No surprise there, at all. PlayStation games will launch day-and-date onto PC, sooner rather than later. There are PC players who have zero interest in consoles. The market is quite different. So, whilst they may lose out on some console sales, the amount they would make from software from PC would off-set this. A game released a year or two later just doesn’t hit the same.

I also agree about subscription services. That model only appeals to an audience who consume a lot of games. As you get older, with a family and responsibilities, game time is more precious. As a teenager, Game Pass would have been a godsend. I think it’s great subscription services exist, but it isn’t a one size fits all situation. The industry is changing very quickly. I think we will see far less third party exclusives. Square Enix are showing signs of this shift.

I do think first party exclusives will remain, even from Microsoft. But those days are numbered also. Xbox games are now on handhelds like Steam Deck, without Microsoft having to produce a portable device. Clearly Sony want a share of that market. Removing these barriers to entry can only be good for the industry in the long term. The only company that I don’t see changing is Nintendo. I don’t think they need to either. I can see Microsoft in particular putting several games onto their platform.

If Switch 2 does as well as I think it will, you may even see Sony follow suit. It’s about time we started associating these companies with games, as opposed to a plastic box.
Anon

Portable convert
Just a quick note to say thanks to Henshin Agogo for his Reader’s Feature on the PlayStation Portal and Remote Play. Having picked up a Steam Deck last year I’ve also been experiencing the joys of off-screen play, and it’s not an understatement to say that it’s completely changed how I consume video games: I’ve gone from maybe a couple of hours playtime a week to a couple of hours per day (either via streaming from the PlayStation or Xbox or playing natively on Steam Deck).

While I can’t see PlayStation or Xbox ever releasing a Switch or Steam Deck equivalent, having the option of remote play on a dedicated device can only be a good thing for all the frustrated gamers out there who find it hard to get TV time.

I promise I’m not on commission (yet…) but I’d rank the Steam Deck as my favourite gaming purchase in recent times, as it’s given me easy access to basically every modern gaming library that I have (other than Nintendo) without having to squirrel myself away. I’ll be keeping a very close eye on the handheld PC market in future as I’m a complete convert.
Magnumstache

Princess GOAT
I’ve been watching Bloodborne lore videos, which shows how deeply the game got its claws into me in 2015.

Turns out watching wasn’t enough, so I downloaded it. I paid for the DLC on PlayStation 4 so I have that as well.

It still looks good, and Papa G is giving me as much grief now as he did on my first playthrough on PlayStation 4. It makes me smile when I see white phantoms of players who presumably got a PlayStation 5 for Christmas and don’t know where the hunter’s drip is in the sewer yet.

My gun parry timing is back on point, I can’t parry for (slightly sweary word) with a shield, no more than a certain cowboy with 1.23 million subs can.

I know I’m preaching to the choir here, GC and the Inbox loved Bloodborne just as much as I did back in 2015, but let me tell you eight years has absolutely not dulled its greatness. It is my Princess, or G.O.A.T. for the uninitiated.
Mitchell
PS: Nintendo is going to take Pocketpair to the cleaners.

Volatile career
I don’t know anyone that would want to be a game developer. The amount of layoffs is unbelievable. Take Activision on Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) they made over a billion dollars and then said they need to save money and laid off a shed load.

I could never work for a developer not knowing if the next game is my last game at the company. I just feel so sorry for them, they do all that work and what do they get? A P45 via email. Yet, if it wasn’t for them us gamers wouldn’t have anything to play and the company’s wouldn’t have anything to sell. Got a feeling it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
David

Impossible decisions
I have a terrible time with morality in video games. Don’t worry: this isn’t the start of some tenuous ‘moral panic’ that we are used to. I love Grand Theft Auto as much as the next person. Instead, simply, I find it extremely difficult to play through choices that I personally deem immoral, to the extent that I am sure I deny myself experiences.

For example, I still feel the occasional guilt over brutally killing a mother bird defending her nest, just so I could raid it for treasure in Final Fantasy (7 or 8?) when I was around five years old. I’ve also felt a general unease around the implicit cruelty in the poaching and forced fighting of pokémon. This latter is particularly relevant given the more explicit cruelty and exploitation which seems to be at the heart of the Pokémon-like, Palworld. Oddworld would have made me vegetarian if I knew it was an option at that age, though it has coloured my view of industry in general.

The Last of Us Part 2 was, to me, such a major step forward for the genre, because its tight linear narrative makes the player complicit in the events of the story. Following the lessons of Spec Ops: The Line, I often found myself questioning whether I should instead simply stop playing. In the end, the game stands to me as a pillar of gaming as art and narrative.

However, the reason this is most pertinent to me is because I plan to play at least another three run-throughs of Baldur’s Gate 3. And yet, I feel like I will in the end make the same decisions as I did the first time around. I’d love for one of the runs to be as the Dark Urge, and I’m certain this will be a true test of my resolve.

I’d love to hear other people’s experiences in the intersection of video games and personal moral compass, and ways they’ve impacted people personally or challenged their outlook. Enough meat for a Hot Topic?
Kris

GC: Possibly, but it’s the Readers’ Top 20 next week.

Back and loving it
Elden Ring brought me back after a five year hiatus and Palworld is gonna keep me here.

Loved the YouTube vids and cannot wait to get on this ASAP.

Obviously could say a lot more but come on!

Fun, adventure, new experiences, we are living in a great time!
Black Pearl

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Star crash
Starfield. Oh boy. I had high hopes for Bethesda’s opportunity to shoot for the stars, albeit with tempered expectations after the developers announced that you could explore a thousand planets, many of which would be procedurally generated. Unfortunately, the end result was unambitious and painfully anachronistic. I feel like even if it had been released before No Man’s Sky and Outer Wilds, and their modern space-faring ilk, I would’ve found it categorically underwhelming.

I played Starfield for nearly 15 hours on Game Pass, before deciding to pump the brakes and move on to something else. I consider myself extremely patient when it comes to video games and rigorously seeking out any potential positive qualities, but Starfield is just undercut by a myriad of shortcomings such as subpar enemy AI, mediocre combat, an obtuse inventory system, cosmically inconsistent graphics, a fun-deflating encumbrance mechanic, dull companions, and janky character interactions and animations, and a near non-existent, illusionary sense of space exploration.

The most egregious flaw for me though is the actual planet surface explorations, which almost entirely consist of you walking in a straight line to a point of interest on your compass, often times for a considerable amount of time, on the most structurally uneventful, uninspired areas in an in open world game I’ve experienced in a while.

I mean, most of these planets I had combed through hardly featured any interesting alien flora and fauna, or even distinctive, immersion-enhancing geographical features like waterfalls, canyons, mountains, dunes, valleys, seas. There’s barely any cool alien topographies, biomes, architecture or weather/gravitational anomalies. it was just mostly flat sweeping plains of nothingness of the highest, most unimaginative magnitude.

A vital component that made The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 3 (the only other Bethesda games I’ve played) so compelling to play, the rich, emergent exploration, is severely missing here and that’s just a crying shame. I still enjoyed some aspects of the game, like the robust ship construction/customisations, decent spacecraft combat, and a few of the characters you run into are certainly colourful, and there were some pretty engaging side quests.

I’ve since been assured by some fans that investing more significant time into the game would eventually make me realise that Starfield is actually much more than the sum of its parts. However, 15 hours in I’d argue that Bethesda missed several open goals, goaded the fans with lewd gestures, and slapped the ref by failing to comprehensively recalibrate the navigation system of its epochally outdated approach to open world game design.

I don’t know, perhaps I’ll return to it once Bethesda casts some luminosity into its static, rudderless galaxy by rolling out some incentivising updates for the game. I was hoping for something similar in quality to the original Mass Effect trilogy and The Event, what we got instead was the video ame equivalent to unremarkable Netflix sci-fi series Another Life.
Galvanised Gamer

Inbox also-rans
I’m fascinated to see what might happen if Nintendo gets Palworld taken down. Will they become public enemy number one amongst the game’s millions of fans? I have little sympathy for the game but I think by letting it get this far they probably haven’t got much of a legal case.
Cubby

Interesting comments from the director of Dragon’s Dogma 2 about fast travel, especially as it’s unusual to see a Japanese developer be that outspoken. It’s immediately made me more interested in the game.
Rosti

This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Franky, who asks what is your favourite modern video game music soundtrack?

Assuming that means any game released in the last two generations, which has been your favourite and why? How do you think the use of original and licensed music has changed in the last decade and how would you like to see it further evolve, in regard to the type of music and how it’s used?

Do you own any game soundtracks from the last two generations and how do you think they compare to older titles?

E-mail your comments to: [email protected]

The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

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The Wednesday letters page questions whether being a video game developer is still a desirable job, as one reader enjoys Bloodborne, again.