July 17th 2023.
The Monday letters page reacts to the Activision Blizzard acquisition news, as another reader gives a mixed review for Final Fantasy 16.
To join in with the discussions yourself email [email protected]
What happens next?
So the inevitable has happened and Microsoft is now 99% certain to buy Activision Blizzard. But what happens next? That doesn’t mean it’s going to be out of the news, because while I’m sure there’s lots of details to work out there’s also the fallout in terms of how it will affect Microsoft and Sony.
How long will it be till Call Of Duty and other games appear on Game Pass? Not very long at all, I wouldn’t have thought. Pretty much as soon as it’s legally possible, or otherwise what was the point of the whole thing?
What’s more interesting to me is how long it will be until Sony responds to it. I don’t mean Jim Ryan moaning in the press but some actual announcements and attempts to make PlayStation look like it’s still a contender and it’s going to be business as usual, etc.
That seems impossible to guess. I suppose you could be optimistic and say Sony was waiting till it was all over and then they were going to have a bonanza of announcements, but I think that would make them look very weird if they did, laughable almost. As if holding anything back made any difference (it obviously didn’t).
The acquisition is clearly going to affect Sony’s bottom line, because it’s going to make Xbox more popular, but it also seems to have turned their execs into reclusive madmen, who keep taking about making a dozen or more live service games, none of which they ever show.
I hope this snaps them out of it but I’m really not sure how confident I am of that.
Coped
It never ends
So it looks like this whole sorry story of Activision Blizzard is finally over. Maybe by the time you read this Microsoft will actually have bought them, or signed the contract or however it works. I’m sure we’ll be hearing about it all for months yet and Microsoft are going to be unbearably smug about it all.
I just hope this wakes up Sony though, and we can have some big announcements and a proper showcase. If I have to wait until next year to hear about something other than Spider-Man 2 I think I’m going to begin to wonder whether I back the wrong horse.
I’m against the buyout but Sony’s attitude during this whole business has been embarrassing and unprofessional. I hope we can all put it behind us as soon as possible.
Labrum
Three years later
A special edition for The Last Of Us Part 2? I know the show was a big hit but do we really have to waste Naughty Dog’s time on this sort of thing again? Games are taking longer and longer to make and yet they seem to be going out of their way not to get started on anything. Part 2 was three years ago now and yet we still don’t know what their next game is, especially as it sounds like the multiplayer spin-off has maybe been cancelled.
I know I shouldn’t be so demanding but it’s hard being a PlayStation at the moment, what with everything going on with Microsoft and Activision at the moment and it’d be nice to have something proper to look forward to from Sony that wasn’t just blatant filler.
Prody
Beyond Ultimate
With all this Switch 2 speculation at the moment I think we can all guess which sequels are going to be the priorities for Nintendo, simply based on how well the last one did on the Switch. But what’s going to happen with Super Smash Bros.?
Not only has Masahiro Sakurai seemingly retired but there is no way that a new game is going to have as big a line-up as Ultimate. Or at the very least it’ll never have the same characters, because licensing that lot must’ve been a nightmare and some of these companies (especially Square Enix) can be very awkward.
If they end up having a smaller roster some people are going to be complaining non-stop and I’m sure Nintendo knows that. But just as important, what even would the game be? Ultimate is well named because I really don’t know what else a new game could add or do better.
Focus
Trust no one
My theory is that Microsoft doesn’t know anything about the Switch 2 and they just read the rumours off a website, like everyone else. Like another reader said, their documents are filled with references to gaming websites as sources for their information. They just want to use anything they can as ammunition, and I guess it worked.
Nowadays almost everything leaks out beforehand and it’s usually 90% accurate but no matter how good sources get I will never believe anything about Nintendo unless it comes straight from them. Sometimes I think they change things just because it leaked out and they hate being second-guessed.
Tim Rogers
Good bugs and bad bugs
What are your thoughts on when developers patch out useful exploits and glitches for their games, like Nintendo recently have (again) for Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom? This time, the very lucrative duplication glitch that you could use in Tobio’s Hollow, where you could take a multi-shot bow and then duplicate almost any item you could lay your hands on in the game.
If careful, you could fire one line of something, say… diamonds, then another line just beneath that, then another and another – so you could have perhaps five or six rows of duped item! And with a five-shot Lynel bow, that could be as much as 29 free diamonds or bomb flowers or Keese eyeballs per volley!
Now, yes, this is very much cheating. But, while there are YouTube videos telling you how you could get to the desired location early, it was very awkward to pull off. So, you were best advised to wait until the point in the story where the location is opened up. Which is the Fifth Sage point! So, I very much felt entitled to, um, game the system by then. Know what I mean?
By the time Nintendo patched this out, I had racked up quite a fortune, as well as a horde of diamonds, rare dragon parts, and the extremely useful silver Lynel horns. Oh yeah…
It would be easy to now say: ‘Aw, Nintendo! You spoil sports! Now I have to play the game properly!’ But then again, I know nothing about coding – does it have something to do with the Enigma machine? It could well be that this so-called beneficial glitch was harming the game in some way I can’t immediately appreciate. Especially over time…
DMR
GC: They’re bugs and you’re cheating. We don’t have any sympathy.
Football Club
Yep, EA Sports FC 24 sure does look a lot like FIFA. I guess they really did just change the name and not much else. Judging by how many views the trailer has got it seems like people are already on board and realise what it is, so I guess job done for EA’s marketing department.
What are we going to call it though, because that’s a pretty clunky name? I guess FC24, FC25, etc.? I guess it’ll have to be that, but it sounds like a food additive, not a football game.
Tegron
Enjoyable, but no cigar
Well, a few weeks in and I’ve finished Final Fantasy 16. Whilst I love the series, and this game was superior to 15, I highly doubt I’ll ever replay it and wish I’d bought it on disc rather than digital, so I could recoup some money back.
I think you can tell when a series isn’t doing well, I know sales is a dead giveaway even with the lines blurred by digital sales vs. hard copy sales, but just going on the mailbox I’ve seen very little chatter about it, compared to say Elden Ring which had user stories flooding in for weeks (suppose it’s a harsh comparison to measure it versus one of the greatest games)
Greatly frustrating for me there was no party selection; hardly any role-playing elements (you upgraded weapons every chapter but it was all swords); the story, although improved, was not great – first half seemed to be Game of Thrones style machinations, then second half was a story about crystals. The cut scenes were beyond long with what I assume was meant to be meaningful pauses just dragging out the scene.
I can’t see how Square Enix turn it around, they seem to be trying to crowbar Final Fantasy into other inspirations and end up with an inferior product. It was an enjoyable game but I don’t want an AAA game I’ve waited years for to be enjoyable, I want it to be platform defining, spectacular experience.
Michael, Crawley
Inbox also-rans
RE: EA Sports FC 24. Why did Erling Haaland turn up in his silk pyjamas?
Sootie607 (PSN ID)
I love how PlayStation Pasta is the first official new Sony product we’ve had in months. I’m surprised they didn’t mention that in the showcase, it’s more exciting than half the games they featured.
Fifet
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Marbon, who asks what is your favourite type of role-playing game?
With Final Fantasy 16 just out, and Starfield set to be one of the biggest games of the year, the role-playing genre is as popular as ever, but few people enjoy all the many different types. It’s not just a case of Western and Japanese style role-players, with many other sub-genres, including action role-players, tactical role-players, and variants like dungeon crawlers, roguelikes, and massively multiplayer online games.
Which do you enjoy the most and which particular game do you think is the best example of its type? Which sub-genre do you wish was more prevalent and how would you like to see it evolve in the future?
Please note: Due to an error, the above Hot Topic description only ran on a limited number of days last week, so we’re re-running it this week. If you’ve already written in there’s no need to do so again, as we’ll use your letter this weekend.
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The small print
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