Starfield – expensive and a long time coming (pic: Microsoft)

The Thursday letters page has an interesting theory about Microsoft’s 2023 game plan, as one reader laments the failure of Marvel’s Midnight Suns.

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Brace position
I agree that the video game world seems to be in a very strange place at the moment. We’ve actually had a pretty good year so far, with some great games and a lot of other interesting ones coming up – although almost none of them from Xbox or PlayStation. There’s absolutely nothing in-between though, we seem to go so long between major releases now, whereas previously we’d be complaining about them all coming out on the same day.

We’ve been blaming the pandemic but I don’t think it’s primarily that any more, it’s how long and how expensive games have got to make. It can’t keep going on like this, or we’ll have barely half a dozen big games coming out a year and absolutely nothing else. The number of companies that can afford to make blockbusters will shrink and shrink until it doesn’t matter whether Microsoft buys Activision or not, they’ll still be the only ones that can afford to make the sort of games people take for granted at the moment.

The first video game crash, in the 80s, was because they were too many badly made games spamming the market. I fear the second one could be for the exact opposite reason: only quality games are being made but not quickly or cheaply enough. It feels like something’s got to change but not body’s pushing for that change.
Bearling

Secret plans
So we’ve got an hour and a half, once you take Starfield out of the equation, for Microsoft to show off what else it’s got for this year and beyond in their showcase. That is a long time and as far as we know the only other big game that’s likely to come out this year is Forza Motorsport. Or is it, maybe the reason they’ve been so quiet about things like Fable and Avowed is because they’re going to release them suddenly, with little or no warning.

Doesn’t sound that likely at first, since it seems to have no benefit to Microsoft, but if I was Xbox I would feel very paranoid about Sony studying their plans and creating counters for them. Sony is a business, they’re only doing what’s sensible, but how many times has Microsoft been caught out by announcing something first, especially at E3, only for Sony to magically have a response to it or a way to undercut?

If Sony doesn’t think Microsoft has anything big out for Christmas, or whenever, they’re less likely to have something out then themselves, leaving Xbox an open goal. I’m probably giving them (and Sony) too much credit, but it’s something to think about.
MOW

Missing the fad
I know it’s pointless to try and change anything now but add me to the list of people really upset that Marvel’s Midnight Suns didn’t do better. I got it on GC’s recommendation (and because it was cheap) and it was one of the best things I’ve played in years. I’m not much of a strategy fan but it totally sucked me and while it probably was a bit too long, I had me gripped the whole time.

Between this and the Square Enix games I wonder if we’ll ever see any other Marvel games now other than Sony’s. Unlike Star Wars they just don’t seem to be a guaranteed seller, even though I’d say they’ve all been very good, except for Avengers (which still wasn’t bad).

Strange that superheroes have had such little impact in gaming. Only the Spider-Man games from Marvel and virtually nothing from DC during the whole movie fad.
Roland

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Co-starring Sméagol
On the last day of April, the survey on GameFAQs was which game you were looking forward to most this May. And out of over 7,200 votes cast, the overwhelming winner was… yes! That’s right! The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum! Actually, it came second, with 369 votes.

Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom got more than twice as many votes as everything else together, at over 5,200 votes! I mean, you almost have to feel for anything else that comes out this month. Even that extremely bizarre Gollum game that I couldn’t imagine anybody wanting but nearly 400 people did! And who’s to say they weren’t kidding?

But, really though… Gollum. Who watches or reads through Lord Of The Rings and thinks: ‘Yeah! Gollum! He’d make a great video game protagonist!’
DMR

GC: Maybe those 369 people obviously didn’t have a Switch.

Great minds
You have to acknowledge FromSoftware for giving value for money. If nothing else, that is indisputable. I’ve just finished my second playthrough of Elden Ring, as a different build, and it is still magnificent.

Long story cut short, I’m certain From took inspiration from Breath Of The Wild and Nintendo took inspiration from Elden Ring. You have to love the Japanese imagination.
Chevy Malibu

Glass half full
There appears to be a lot of concern around the state of the gaming industry and a poor release schedule at the moment. But honestly, this year in my opinion, is a bit of a banger! We’ve already had Hogwarts Legacy and still to come we have Diablo 4, Baldur’s Gate 3 (console port, full release), Starfield, and Final Fantasy 16! Plus, a few little extra indie wonders like Endless Dungeon and Dredge.

You Nintendo lot even have Zelda to look forward to. I for one, think 2023 is looking very hopeful.
Mr K
PS: Perhaps the most severe crime committed by Xbox over the Redfall release, was blocking the ol’ New Zealand trick. A lot of us had trouble playing early! Thanks a lot Phil.

GC: They really bothered to block that? Wow.

Still alive
I read the news about Assassin’s Creed Mirage and rolled my eyes in disinterest, assuming the franchise to be dead, but then I remembered that Valhalla had been the biggest one in the whole franchise, which is wild to me but you can’t argue with the numbers.

It feels like Ubisoft has almost disappeared from the equation in the last year or so and while I’m not a big fan of their games we don’t need the industry getting even smaller than it is, in terms of the number of independent publishers. I hope they manage to come back with something good.
Kabal

Strange timing
I’m currently playing Star Wars Jedi: Survivor on PlayStation 5 and thoroughly enjoying it so far. I’ve explored a lot of Koboh but still have lots more to explore, mostly because I haven’t got the right abilities yet. I’ve been to the next smaller planet you go to after Koboh and back to Koboh for the next main story part there. I’ve just got to the Shattered Moon and just started exploring it.

So far it is a great sequel to Fallen Order, with Koboh in particular being a lot more open and expansive. The patch that just came out has significantly improved performance, with a lot more stable 60fps most of the time and a lot of bugs have been fixed. I find it very odd they didn’t just delay it a week, especially as it seemed like a no-brainer to release it on Star Wars Day. Speaking of which if this gets printed on the Thursday Inbox May The 4th be with you!

I have The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom pre-ordered so I’ll be playing it after I finish Jedi: Survivor. Which will take me a good month or more probably because I intend to 100% it and get the platinum before I finish it. So I’ll have my work cut out dodging Tears Of The Kingdom spoilers, as I won’t play it for a while after launch! Looking forward to it.

Gaming has been awesome in 2023. I’ve played Dead Space, Hogwarts Legacy, and Resident Evil 4 which have all been excellent. I’ve recently been playing Sea Of Thieves again and loving it, with its 2023 edition and fifth anniversary updates, recently, they’ve added a lot of great new content and quality of life improvements.

Which interestingly the quality of life updates are now developed by Lucid Games, developers of Destruction AllStars. They’re doing a great job so far, so I hope they keep it up!
Big Angry Dad82 (gamertag)

Inbox also-rans
Needless to say I’m very looking forward to playing Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom. No such thing as a sure thing these days, but I’m sure it’s gonna be good.
Chevy Malibu

Interesting story about sneaking news into Russia via Counter-Strike but am I the only one that didn’t realise Valve was still doing business there? That’s pretty scummy given even people like EA have pulled their business from the company.
Watson

This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Cabal, who asks how often do you buy a video game as soon as it comes out?

Do you always buy games you’re interested in day one or do you always wait until they’re cheaper or the bugs have been worked out? If you take it on a case-by-case basis what is it that influences your decision the most and do things like pre-orders bonuses make a difference?

Price is one obvious reason not to buy a game straight away, but what else puts you off and how have you made your recent decisions, including for upcoming games like Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom?

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The Thursday letters page has an interesting theory about Microsoft’s 2023 game plan, as one reader laments the failure of Marvel’s Midnight Suns.