Was Fable delayed for the PS5? (Xbox Game Studios)
The Wednesday letters page is appalled by Warner Bros. closing down Monolith Productions, as one reader celebrates 15 years of Deadly Premonition.
Past decisions
I think it’s pretty obvious the reason Fable has been delayed is so that Microsoft can release it on PlayStation 5 at the same time. They said that some developers weren’t set up to do it or hadn’t planned to when they first started and Fable definitely wasn’t designed for PlayStation 5, given how long ago it began.
It’s obvious Indiana Jones And The Great Circle would’ve had a bigger impact if it’d been multiformat from the start. I don’t think it was to give the Xbox a little bit of exclusivity, I just don’t think it was ready. And I think the only reason a release date hasn’t been announced yet is because it’s not finished.
There are no Xbox exclusives now, there’s just games they haven’t got round to porting across yet. I’d be surprised if there was a single game that wasn’t released multiformat by the time we get to next year. I think things like South Of Midnight being Xbox only are just putting people off and they don’t realise that the change has already happened, there’s just a bit of lag on the implementation.
Purple Ranger
Ever decreasing circles
Just seen the news about Warner Bros. shutting down multiple developers and I just don’t know what to say. If it’s not buyouts shrinking the size of the games industry it’s layoffs. How is Warner going to improve its profitability if it doesn’t release a new game for five or more years?
OK, it won’t be spending any money on development, but it won’t be making any either. You need to actually make a game to be able to sell and earn money off it. I mean, that seems pretty basic logic to me.
My sympathies to all those affected by this latest short-sightedness and I really hope you’re not all replaced by AI, even though you probably will be. Can’t wait for that new Wonder Woman game where she’s got six fingers on each hands and the background size and perspective keeps changing every time you turn the camera.
Gadfly
Definitely delivered
I just wanted to write in and say how brilliant Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is. A real breath of fresh air compared to many recent games. It’s the first game in a long time that I find myself thinking about when I’m not playing it. The game world seems so real it’s a pure joy just to walk around and see what you can find. I haven’t completed many missions but the ones I have seemed interesting and not just fetch quests.
Maybe I’ve missed them, but I’ve heard very little about this in the Inbox. Hopefully readers are too busy enjoying it to write in. I hope it sold well. It deserves to.
Keep up the good work.
Manic Miner 100 (gamertag)
GC: It sold very well. Better than the original, with 2 million sales in less than two weeks.
Shaolin superheroes
I’m not really sure what James Gunn knows about making video games. All he seems to do is talk about trivial stuff like who’s doing the voiceovers. He did work on Lollipop Chainsaw, so maybe he picked up something, but I really could do without Injustice 3.
I think the positive reaction to the Superman movie trailer shows that people are sick of evil Superman and Injustice is very Zack Snyder adjacent. I’d be happy for NetherRealm to either reboot the series with more positive portrayals of the characters or do something new. They keep putting off a Shaolin Monks sequels so why not make one but with DC Comics characters? Or something similar at least.
Pr0metheus
Jurassic larks
Been seeing a lot of talk of Dino Crisis talk lately. Nothing major, just things like the fact it actually outsold Onimusha (which is getting a new game) back in the day and GOG advertised it coming to PC in Times Square. Little things but I hope it’s all leading up to some kind of remake and/or sequel.
I know the Inbox likes to joke about dinosaurs in games but with a new trilogy of Jurassic Park films coming out soon surely now is the perfect time for Capcom, and others, to take advantage of the fact that everyone loves dinosaurs and yet almost no games have them.
Turning them into movie monsters is one thing but you could have them be friendly too, in a Dino Riders sense. How that hasn’t become a thing after all these years, even in just an indie game, I have no idea.
Snatcher
Slop machine
I completely understand people’s revulsion at the thought of Xbox firing lots of talented developers to pump out AI sludge, and while I have no doubt to some extent that will probably happen, I can’t help but see some benefit to Microsoft’s Muse tools and their ilk.
If it speeds up developments of assets for games that can be curated by a discerning human hand, especially in this and the next generation where games are getting more and more complex to build, surely that’s a net gain? Especially for indie developers.
Am I exposing my ignorance here in thinking it couldn’t at the very least correct glitches within real-time based on player feedback? My Star Wars Jedi: Survivor playthrough would certainly be a lot smoother.
ArmandxUltra (gamertag)
GC: We don’t know about that specific example, but AI can absolutely be used for lots of useful things, that would be difficult, time consuming, or simply too tedious for people. These are not creative tasks and yet so much AI tech is aimed at wholly replacing artists and developers, who are already underpaid enough it’s hard to imagine the savings equalling the cost of creating the technology in the first place.
15 years of Zach
I know how much people love/hate hearing about anniversaries so here’s another one for you: Deadly Premonition is 15 years old this week.
For me personally it’s one of those where it feels both too old and not old enough. One thing’s for certain you’d never get a weird, half broken game like that released on consoles nowadays. Maybe an indie game but for me part of the appeal of the game was finding this bizarre hidden gem in Tesco that was actually one of the best games of the year. I’ll never forget that original IGN review that just did not get it.
Mackalo
All or nothing
Just horrible to see what has happened to Monolith Productions, whose only crime seems to be that they were mismanaged by a clueless exec. Warner Bros. are already one of the few big publishers left and now they’re considerably less big.
Once again, we see how the ridiculous length of time it takes to make games nowadays is destroying both developers and publishers. Unless Warner Bros. is suddenly very good at keeping secrets they’re going to have nothing new out until 2030 at the best, by which point we’ll likely be halfway through the PlayStation 6 generation.
This problem has been going on for years now and I’ve not seen anyone make any attempt to solve it. Even when there are very obvious things they can do in terms of cutting budgets and play times, especially when so many people are complaining that games are too long anyway.
It feels like the games industry doesn’t want to help itself. If it can’t make infinite money, instantly it’d rather just crash and burn. The people in charge of these companies are deranged.
Goober
Inbox also-rans
Good for Bloober Team getting more work from Konami but can I have my new Castlevania game now, please? I really hope the talk of a reveal during the Switch 2 becomes true because that’s the only thing that would even slightly explain the lack of news.
Austin
So are Sony actually going to give any compensation for the PSN blackout? I know I haven’t received anything.
Lobar
GC: They are if you have PS Plus, but not if you haven’t. But they don’t seem to have done it yet anyway.
