MrGawain

As a business strategy, spending almost $100bn in 5 years on publishers, sacking 9% of the workforce, releasing a few broken games on a subscription service that isn’t attracting as many users as anyone would suspect, and then admitting you need to sell stuff elsewhere because your user base doesn’t care about it is perhaps the dumbest way to run a company.

And yet they continue to throw money down a hole….

All it tells me is how old the people are deciding this list.

I say it every year: what's the point of a day of trying to trick and fool people on the Internet a domain that is all about trying to trick and fool people all year round?

Of course the people who do the survey are likely to be the fanatic Capcom fans that love Mega Man and Ace Attorney. I would imagine a lot of people who play Monster Hunter and Street Fighter may not have a clue who makes those games.

@JRiegler

From what my friend who owns a steamdeck tells me, is he’s been playing lots of indie games from his steam library, but doesn’t really play triple A games on it unless it’s plugged into the wall whilst watching TV at the same time. The idea of playing Cyberpunk 2077 on a 20 minute bus ride (with voice acting and cutscenes), doesn’t really work.

The biggest issue they will have is if they can design their games to fit a hand held. Nintendo games work because you can have a quick 15 minute play of a level or two. In general FPS and open world games need more time investment, not to mention the whole online connection issue for multilayer games.

In a year where there seems to be very few big games being released on all platforms, I somehow already have a stacked lineup with Unicorn Overlord, Hifi Rush, and Eiyuden Chronicle on the way. I get the feeling Princess Peach is an ‘in emergency break glass’ game if the games dry up in the latter half of the year.

Ubi (waiting for) Soft (launch numbers to drive the price down).

This game has been delayed in one form or another, hasn’t it?

Oh well, once I’ve finished Unicorn Overlord I’ll try Hi Fi Rush on the PS5. It gives me an excuse to turn the thing on.

For me Suikoden was a watershed moment in gaming where a really big story could be told well without ignoring gameplay. I actually cared about the characters and was surprised about where the story went. It was like an PG video game version of game of thrones. Final Fantasy stories have always been a bit convoluted for me with very strange reasoning for why characters did things.

Eiyuden Chronicles is the only game I’ve pre ordered on the Switch.

I really enjoyed the original Splatoon on the Wii U (that really had a better library than people remember), but there’s a law of diminishing returns as they’ve released the same game twice. Splatoon 2’s dlc was wonderful, but I feel I just paid for the same game 3 times now. They need to do something different with the series for the next instalment like they’ve updated Zelda, Mario, and Kirby recently.

It's been and is going to continue to be a very RPG heavy year. I'm not sure this isn't a little too close to Mario RPG.

Mario generally succeeds by altering the game each time. Just look at how Nintendo knew they needed a different game in Super Mario 2 in the west to keep people interested. When we got to New Super Mario Bros it felt like they were going through the motions. Although there are key things that stay the same with the feel of Mario, it always does better when they go back to the drawing board and find a new twist.

Business is simple. Find out what your potential customers want, see if you can sell them that for a price they’re willing to pay and makes you money.

It isn’t about providing something no on wants. Just like when Warner Bros made a second Aquaman film.

I’m guessing they don’t own any of the IP like Crash, Spyro, and Skylanders, but they can partner with Activision/XBox to license the characters?

I think this is sensible for Xbox because these games don’t really have an audience on XBox and they’re just paying the staff for a product they don’t know what to do with. It’s smart for Toys For Bob if they can keep their budgets sensible and make games people want to play quickly- and have access to the familiar IP. If they have to do something original without those characters it will be harder.

The eshop is selling Unicorn Overlord at £54.99. Altus is selling the boxed edition of the game on their Amazon store for £49.99- and the chances are it will be cheaper in a week, in a month, in 6 months time. And I can lend it to my friends and possibly sell it if I want to. Why would I pay more for less?

Shows you there’s no more money in music any more.

Waiting for Chris Martin, Enya, and Joe Dolce to join her.

There was a new Steamworld game?

I try to follow video games in general, but if I didn’t see any hype, perhaps that explains why it didn’t sell well?

I think I’ll get HFR on the PS5 if it’s a reasonable price. . I don’t need to play it on the go and this year looks a little thin on the ground for games I want to play otherwise.

Currently I have a PS5 I’ve owned for over 2 years that aside from GOW2 that came with it that I found very dull, and FF16 that was quite dull, it has gathered dust and not much more.

@tabris95

I got to a point where I thought I was almost near the end and had to grind to get through the last few bosses, then found out it was longer than I thought.

It really wasn’t worth it.

I would guess something Pokemon for Christmas, probably Wind Waker for October. Guessing Decapolice may be a big title as well.

But personally I’m more interested in some of the RPGs lined up.

I enjoyed Shin Megami Tensei for 60 hours.

Unfortunately I played it for 80 hours.

It looks a lovely game, if slightly marred by the amount of hype we’ve had from a few clips for the past 20 months.

I had it on the N64. I can remember it being really fun and different, but making me feel a bit sick playing it too long. Now I'm pretty sure the framerate was a bit low for all the action and would give me a headache.

I’m of the mindset that Gamepass damages creativity. Instead of trying to make the greatest game so people buy it, Gamepass needs ‘CONTENT’ that’s on time to fill a schedule, and satisfy the algorithm that says what people play on the service. It’s why there are so many first person shooters.

It’s just like films on Netflix- how many Adam Sandler comedies and cheap horror films do they churn out because the Algorithm shows people settle on watching them?

Personally I don’t own an Xbox because I don’t play First Person Shooters. I can understand why they’ve chosen to put these games out on other platforms- they fit better on the Switch and the Playstation.

In the meantime Xbox holds a monopoly on FPS.

The Switch successor needs to be higher powered but the same price, use exactly the same infrastructure so we can play old Switch games on it but have a completely unique selling point, and be more like the competition but stay true to Nintendo's quirky and innovative design mantra.

See, I solved the problem for them.

Redfall on Switch.

Yay.

It all comes down to good software, but I will say Switch 2 will already start at a disadvantage without the Wii U library, the Switch Online libraries, and the massive amount of remakes and remasters the Switch had to bolster it’s lineup.

What does it mean?

Miyamoto is taking advantage of the 2 for 1 tickets deal.

No, I was told by Ubisoft I should get used to not owning their games.

Apparently they’ve got the R’s about it.

We don’t make art. We make ‘content’.

This all seems to do with how they categorise Amusement Machines from part of their software division to part of the toy line. I’m guessing they’re going to do less Arcade games and concentrate on claw machines and gacha games?

There are some people playing long games like TOTK for a long time, and there are lots of people playing shorter games like Mario Wonder. And then there are kids playing match after match after match after match of fortnite.

Not entirely sure this tells us any valuable information.

Very much the educated guess of what is happening else in gaming will happen to Nintendo.

But knowing it’s Nintendo, expect taste’o’vision, a mandatory Diving Bell add on, and graphics not being any different than they are now.

I’d much prefer a little of special gameplay than a lot of churned content.

Nintendo tends to wring the most out of every console it has for its tentpole franchises. I believe we got the best Pikmin we could from this machine. Same as Animal Crossing, Smash, Mario Kart, 3D Mario, and Zelda world. That’s why we rarely get 2 different engines for these series on one console.

It’s not just about can Nintendo still make games with the Switch hardware, it’s what big IP hasn’t been used yet? Maybe Donkey Kong? and A new console makes it acceptable to get a new Mario Kart, a new Animal Crossing, and a new Splatoon.

Reading this I thought they had sabotaged the patch to replace him.

Tears of the Kingdom is an absolutely mind blowing game, but I must admit I have the most fun memories this year playing Bayonetta Origins. Pikmin 4 was also a perfect gem. Mario Wonder would be in my top 3 if it had been a bit longer.

The biggest issue the Switch 2 faces is 99% of the classic games- especially from Japan- are available to play on Switch.

Except Miles Edgeworth 1&2.

It’s an advert. The sponsorship? Advert. The guests who just happen to have a film or tv show out? Adverts. The adverts in between? Adverts. The nominations? Adverts.

It’s not about respecting art for tackling a deep issue, it’s saying you should buy this game if you haven’t already.

This has been the only real news about Xbox since Starfield released and was forgotten about quickly. And it looks like there won’t be any other big game to talk about for a while, so expect more hypothetical news of Gamepass being put on toasters or cans of beans until they can get an exclusive triple A game to run on the service.

Admittedly Microsoft is offering a way to get a lot of games cheaply, but it also seems this business model is also driving the quality of their product down. What’s the point making the best game if you’ll be paid no matter the state it arrives in?

That and the fact they have a very narrow concept of what genres gamers beyond the XBox faithful care for.

Seeing you can watch all this stuff on most tellys, phones, or tablets, I don’t really see why you need the Switch doing the same thing worse.

Maybe just don’t announce something years in advance?

I think we’ve come to the point with indies where everything looks like something else that came before it- both in graphics and gameplay. There are so many games now, and probably only 1 in a 1000 stands out now. Even now I couldn’t tell you anything that happened in the direct that I remembered.

I like Level 5, they make fun games.

Not sure if I’m willing to buy 5 games in a year from them however. They have a way in taking different genres of game and making the presentation of them all oddly the same.

I'm guessing they talked about it releasing it at the same time as the Hobbit films, and then not releasing it while Game of Thrones was around.

I own a Playstation 5 and I don’t see myself as part of the Playstation community. I definitely don’t think I’m part of a community where I don’t own the console or play any of their published games.

An awkward, self aggrandising statement by Phil.