Games Inbox: Are you playing EA Sports FC more because of the World Cup?

The Friday letters page discusses the possibility of a GTA 6 boycott, as one reader asks what happened to Xbox’s focus on mobile gaming.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Too soon
Obviously we’re all gutted after what happened on Wednesday, but I haven’t found video games to be much of a help in trying to get over it. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’ve found myself playing EA Sports FC a lot less than usual this World Cup. Maybe that’s because I felt like we had a real choice this time or because the game doesn’t have the official World Cup licence – it’s the only thing EA don’t have from ditching the FIFA name.

I’ve tried playing it again tonight and I just can’t bring myself to do it. I think I need to go cold turkey for a couple of weeks or something. But with Football Manager having shot itself in the foot as well I feel like we’re being let down in terms of football games at the moment. It’s weird because I feel I should be playing more than usual right now, not less.

I’m not shocked that FIFA never managed to get their own game out in time for the World Cup (or if they did I never heard about it) but it’s a real shame we haven’t got a true alternative to EA anymore. I’ve heard some people say eFootball has got better, and maybe I’ll give that a go if it’s still free, but I didn’t like it at all last time I played it. I miss PES.
Booker

Doomed forever
Really appreciate the review of the Doom: The Dark Ages DLC, which I didn’t even know was a thing. I was put off buying the game when it came out, because the combat sounded dumbed down, but this seems like it’s fixing that in an interesting and unexpected way.

Unfortunately though, very few people are going to see it, especially since I believe DLC isn’t included in Game Pass. And now those people that made it, and could’ve made a really good Doom 4, are gone. Laid off by a less than 60 second message from a Microsoft corporate drone.

When you consider the history of id Software it really is disgusting, especially as their tech is never going to get an outing again now either and Unreal Engine will take over even more. I’m glad they’re going out on a high, but bittersweet doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Cranston

Reverse direction
We’ve had plenty of hints that Sony is working on some kind of portable for the next gen but I don’t think we’ve ever heard anything about a home machine, even though we all assume there will be one. But what if we’re wrong?

What if the PlayStation 6 is actually a Switch style hybrid and somewhere below the power of the PlayStation 5 (since it’s portable). Many people have been saying that these companies can’t keep making more powerful and expensive machines so what if Sony is actually taking that advice?

I’m not saying they are, because who knows, but if that is what’s going on would people accept it or would we get another flood of complaints and protests? It seems to me we should have never left the PlayStation 4 era, in terms of technology, but would people be okay with it if Sony were brave enough to take a step back?
Magus

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Forgotten King
I’d feel bad about dunking on Xbox, since everyone else seems to be doing it at the moment, but since they’re a $4 trillion dollar company that’s ripped the video games industry apart my sympathy only goes so far.

The point I wanted to make is do you remember when Microsoft was pretending that the reason they bought Activision Blizzard was because of King, the mobile phone developer? No one believed it at the time, but it occurred to me that they have done absolutely nothing with that whole side of things.

No major games that I’m aware of, no big push for mobile. They just bought the company and completely forgot about them, except when cutting stuff of course (to be replaced by AI they helped train, no less).

It just makes me very wary of believing anything Microsoft say, this business about id Software as an example. They were trying to spin it so it sounded like not so many staff have gone but now the devs themselves are saying that’s not true. I know who I believe.
Focus

Consumer pressure
If everyone wants companies to listen to us, call their bluff. When GTA 6 comes out, don’t buy it. Cancel your pre-order. Buy an indie game and don’t subscribe to GTA+ online.

Put your money where your rage is.

Buy more discs too. Avoid any console that removes your choice as a consumer.

It may be a rant but any reader that wants to affect the future of gaming needs to do something now.
Bobwallett

In before the backtrack
I was going to write in to moan about what’s the point of getting Halo on PlayStation 5 when the chances are there will be no more if the whole Gears Of War debacle is anything to go by, but… Zoomie had it covered.

I suppose I can still moan about Forza. We paid full whack at launch only to see Forza Horizon 6 was just round the corner, meaning we shelled out all that money for a game at the end of its life cycle.

Of course, we are still none the wiser on when it is coming to PlayStation 5.

I would love to bring this up with Microsoft but let’s be honest, they aren’t going to listen.

I think I will just get a Game Pass for a month to beat Halo then, and get fed up with Forza Horizon. That was my plan for Gears Of War… a stoopid decision, backtracking on multiformat. I was actually buzzing with getting Xbox titles on my PlayStation 5.

Gaming is just too expensive for multiformat these days, might as well use Game Pass until the plug is pulled on that too.
RAMB01STBL00D

Next gen pricing
In a reply yesterday to a reader you said that the demand for games, and especially triple-A games, hadn’t been high enough this generation.

So am I stating the obvious that the next gen consoles being so expensive, means less people buying the games, and that it can only get worse? Feels like a self-filling prophecy.
TWO MACKS

GC: The more expensive games get the less people are going to buy them, yes. Whether that’s obvious to Sony and Microsoft execs remains to be seen.

IndieBox
Maybe it’s the heat getting to me, but I thought that one answer to some of the many problems that are affecting the video game industry right now might be to go the other way with regards to console specifications.

My idea would involve launching a low-spec, reasonably priced console with a must-have exclusive game. I’m thinking back to the Nintendo Game Boy which came bundled with Tetris. Tetris was a real system seller in that respect, and the Game Boy wasn’t exactly high-tech or powerful. Imagine what could happen if a console manufacturer replicated the Game Boy/Tetris approach for the cash-strapped public of today?

Development costs would shrink if development houses/publishers made games for a low specification console.

If a game cost significantly less to develop there would be less need to appeal to mainstream tastes, so that would lead to more unusual and interesting titles being brought to market. I bet most potential buyers of my fictional low-spec console wouldn’t care about photorealistic graphics, provided they were having a super fun time.

Going low tech could be the answer to a lot of present day video game industry woes. Of course, as I said, the heat could be influencing my brain and so giving me an idea that’s incoherent rubbish.
Michael Veal

GC: It’s a sensible idea and we’re surprised that despite the innumerable PC handheld devices none of them is a low-cost one meant to play only low tech indie games.

Inbox also-rans
These GTA 6 fan theories are always hilarious. Not a single one is ever true and yet they keep coming out with new ones. I don’t remember Rockstar ever teasing secrets like this, so why are they so convinced they keep doing it?
Dulk

Great to see everyone keeping the pressure on Sony whenever they try to say something, although if they were all as keen on physical media as they pretend now, this whole thing wouldn’t have happened.
Slott

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

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.

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