The Wednesday letters page worries that Battlefield 6’s popularity is on the wane, as one reader thinks Sandfall Interactive should make a Pokémon game.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Better late than never?
So, we know that Xbox is going to be the first console maker with a showcase this year and I think Fable and Forza Horizon 6 is a pretty great double punch for them. Forza is easily their biggest franchise now and while Fable has a lot to prove it’s by the same people and it’s been in development for so long there must surely be something to it.
As far as I’m concerned Xbox’s first party line-up is in better condition at the moment than it’s ever been, and much better than anything we know about Sony or Nintendo’s line-up for the year so far.
What I question though is whether there’s anyone left who has any interest in a new Xbox console. The majority of those Forza Horizon 6 sales are going to be on PlayStation 5 and I can’t think of any reason anyone would buy an Xbox console anymore.
Even if it is basically a PC in a box, the Steam Machine sounds like it’s going to do that better anyway. And Valve don’t have nearly the stink on them that Microsoft does.
It’s a shame the game success has come to late to save their console business but with EA shooting itself in the foot and Activision lucky if they don’t do the same, we need another big third party publisher that we can rely on.
Goto
Birthday arrangements
People are going to tie themselves in knots speculating about the Resident Evil showcase and its multiple games, but it’s so obvious that it’s just going to be those other Switch 2 ports.
No company in their right mind is going to announce two games in the same franchise at the same time. Why would Capcom give you a reason to not buy Requiem and instead wait for something else that won’t be out for a year or two? It makes no business sense and Capcom has been pretty on the ball lately.
That said, I would like to get some kind of hint about their 30th anniversary plans. It’s only March 22 and I don’t think they’ve said a thing about it yet. I’m certainly hoping for more than just some new ports.
Heathcliffe
A tale of two superheroes
At this point there must be more cancelled Batman games than ones that actually came out, not to mention DC games in general. The whole concept seems to be cursed, and I really worry about what’s going to happen to Rocksteady with the Warner Bros. purchase.
I can see some bean counter erasing them, and the rest of the games division, with just a sweep of a pen (or prompt for AI, more like) and then that will be it. I’d guess that’s even more likely to happen if Paramount buy them, but Netflix has run hot and cold on gaming lately too.
It’s a horrible situation, especially when you see how well the Spider-Man games have done and they took all their best ideas from the Batman: Arkham games. It’s really not fair.
Focus
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Prime Metroidvania
Twitch has been good this week for bringing to my attention a couple of 2025 games that completely passed me by, but look like my cup of tea.
The first was Arthurian role-player Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. The second is challenging retro-inspired Metroidvania Zexion. It genuinely looks a blast to play and the few that have played it are very positive about it.
It’s currently just on Steam for £16.75 but the solo dev was apparently in one of the streams of the streamer I watched play it and the dev said they’re working on console, but I don’t think said what formats.
Simundo
Honeymoon period
Is it just me or has the hype for Battlefield 6 almost completely disappeared in the last couple of months? I still play it sometimes but none of my friends do and I see they’ve just delayed Season 2 until the middle of next month.
Funny thing is though, I don’t see there’s any obvious reason for it. There’s no big problems with the game, that I’m aware of, but maybe this is the fact that it doesn’t do anything new coming to bite them. Being good and getting back to what made Battlefield 2 and 3 great was an achievement but when it’s still the same old thing once you get used to it… there’s not really anywhere else to go from there.
Yugo
Once were giants
With the current talk about Anthem being shut down it just underlines how EA has wasted BioWare over the last decade or more. Mass Effect: Andromeda wasn’t even by their main studio and yet as soon as that came out they seemed to be in the doghouse and EA never trusted them again.
I’m sure there was lots of complicated things going on behind the scenes but how EA never put them to work on a new Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic I will never know. They made the series and the whole concept and it never even seemed to be an option that they considered.
Now that they’re the other side of Dragon Age: The Veilguard I know I’m not the only one that expects them to be shut down at any moment. The new Mass Effect is still years away and I’m sure it won’t take long for it to become obvious what a bad idea this buyout was, where EA is suddenly forcing huge amounts of debt on itself.
It’s a real shame, because there was a time in the early 2010s when they were accepted as one of the best developers, of any kind, in the business and I would easily take their best games, especially Mass Effect 2, over anything from Bethesda or any other Western role-playing company has ever made.
If they’ve still got the mojo for another great game I’d love to see them prove it, but I worry that even if they do manage to get Mass Effect finished that will be the last game for them.
Korey
Low budget, high profit
It was obvious Pokémon was going to be a licence to print money for Lego but at this point someone should just send them a mint and let them literally do it themselves. I can’t believe that giant statue set is the one that sold out first. What’s even the point of complaining about the prices when the most expensive one sells out before it’s even released?
Once again, we see just how popular Pokémon is and yet still the games seem to have the budget of a low rent indie game. But why bother spending more when you’re making money hand over fist with the most minimum effort possible?
Zeiss
What comes next
After winning all those game of the year awards I imagine we’ll start getting some hints about what Sandfall Interactive are working on next soon, after Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. If I was a Japanese publisher I would sign them up immediately to make a new game.
Square Enix, Bandai Namco, and Nintendo could all afford them and I think they could work wonders on Final Fantasy, Tales, and/or Pokémon if given the chance. Given how Clair Obscur is I imagine they’d be most interested in working on Final Fantasy, since that’s what they seem to be most influenced by, and I think it’d be great to have the first mainline entry not by a Japanese team.
It’s Pokémon that would benefit the most but also Nintendo that is the least likely to ask for outside help, even though Game Freak are clearly not up to the job anymore. Can you imagine a Pokémon game with the production values of an Expedition 33? I think it’d be great, even if they’d have to make the plot more family friendly.
I’m there for whatever they do next, but I can’t help but wish they’re able to spread their influence more widely than just making another indie game. Everyone says the way they make games is the future, but I can’t see any publisher copying how they work. But I can see them employing them to do the same thing again but for them.
Cranston
Inbox also-rans
I say kudos to the guy that deleted his own game because he realised the truth about AI. Hopefully it won’t be too long before it goes the way of NFTs and Web3, and it’s just another forgotten scam by techbros.
Ochre
I’ve just beaten Metroid Prime 4 and I really don’t understand what all the complaints were about. Only joking! What a horrible disappointment, and a terrible ending.
Tonk
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