Games Inbox: Are you still an Xbox fan?

The Wednesday letters page is appalled at the latest round of layoffs at Xbox, as one reader gives his verdict on Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave.

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

Not a fan
We knew it was coming but not only has Xbox laid off hundreds of people but now Rare is under Activision’s control. How long until the UK’s oldest developer is reduced to making skins for Call Of Duty? It’s awful, especially as Ninja Theory looks like it’s getting shut down too, and probably Arkane as well. Just horrible.

None of it’s a surprise, to anyone that’s been paying attention, and the fact that they have over 1,000 layoffs still to go makes me assume that The Coalition and inXile, and whoever else wasn’t mentioned this time, are going to be completely shut down.

Sony has been getting a lot of grief lately, and for good reason, but I’ve got to ask, is anyone an Xbox fan anymore? Even just based on their games they’ve seemed irrelevant for years now but add in how they’re treating their developers, it just seems impossible to support them. I wouldn’t even dream of getting a next gen Xbox now, unless it 3D printed gold bars or something.
Hammeriron

The big plan
Well, that was one rumour I knew was going to be 100% record and there we have it a few hours later: Xbox has laid off even more people. And all the developers shut down or moved around, it’s very hard for me to imagine any of this working out for the best, even from Microsoft’s point of view.

Nobody’s going to buy that new Gears Of War game and I doubt the new Fable will go down much better. The Elder Scrolls 6 is a guaranteed hit, but do they really have the brass to make that an exclusive? If they do it’ll be a flop, if they don’t it won’t help Xbox because everyone will just buy it on PlayStation 5.

I really don’t know what their plan must be and I think the easiest thing is to assume they haven’t got one. The execs are just waiting for a golden handshake when it all goes wrong, while hoping maybe a game will become a surprise megahit along the way. If they have got a plan more concrete than that I’d love to hear it, but I won’t hold my breath.
Gifford

East vs. West
I don’t like to bring up Nintendo again when Xbox or Sony are doing something terrible but the difference between the way these American companies carry on (and PlayStation is American in every way that matters) is so completely different to Japan it makes them look even worse.

You don’t even have to mention Nintendo. Just consider what an amazing year Capcom has had. Great games, including original IP and a retro reboot, that have all been critical and sales hits, but with no layoffs and no negative press at all that I’m aware of. In fact, many Japanese devs have been giving their staff pay rises, so they don’t leave, which is the exact opposite of Xbox.

Capcom even had a hit movie. Things couldn’t have gone better for them, and they didn’t have to act like monsters to get there. Will Microsoft learn a lesson from that? Of course not!
Focus

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Good Fortune
I’ve really been enjoying Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave the last few days, which I had no interest in before I read your review and saw other positive praise for it. I had played one of the Game Boy Advance games before, which I thought was alright but never finished, so I wasn’t really sure if it was going to be for me. bBut the sheer variety of what you can do and the number of characters is really impressive.

Like you said, it would be better if it was funnier because the story’s pretty silly and yet there aren’t many intentional jokes. But you get into a vibe with it and it’s a lot of fun. Queen Theodore is my favourite so far – she’s so sassy – but I don’t really like her entourage so it’s still fun to move between the different storylines.

I enjoy the combat too, but it really doesn’t seem to have changed much since the Game Boy Advance days. I’m surprised they haven’t tried to experiment with something a bit more open-ended like the Mario + Rabbids games, as I think that would be an obvious way forward in the future.
Korbie

The revolution will not be televised
Destiny 2 suddenly not being dead is a bit of a turnaround, isn’t it? I thought they’d admitted it was all over and we were just waiting for Sony to drop the hammer on Bungie. I’m glad that hasn’t happened but would it really be too much to ask for them to make some kind of annoucement and make people optimistic about their future?

I know Sony don’t like talking in public anymore, but this would be the perfect time to publicly put themselves behind Bungie and say good things are coming. Instead, I almost missed the news and only half believed it at first because it seemed so unlikely.
Tomol

Not bad
I’ve just finished Marvel’s Wolverine and I have mixed opinions really. It’s definitely not a bad game though, so I’m surprised to see so much hate against it. Maybe this is going to happen with every Sony game from now on but if it doesn’t I think that’s a bit unfair on Wolverine, which I feel is trying to do things a bit differently.

The story and characters are a lot more fleshed out than normal for a straight action game and I appreciate that. It’s probably a couple of hours too long for the story they were telling but I thought it ended well and it at least had a proper beginning, middle, and end. Although the bit where Jean Grey literally looks into the camera and says something about this only being the beginning was super cringey.

But overall, I liked it. I think they were keeping the combat simple not just for casual gamers but also the idea that Wolverine is so good at fighting that it’s not really an effort for him, especially against ordinary grunts.

I think comparing it to a scrolling beat ‘em-up is accurate because it has that same kind of rhythm but it’s not mindless, because you can get mobbed quite easy and not have any way to get out of it. Not the greatest game ever but I don’t regret buying it. A solid 7/10 from me.
Badgerman

Small print
Why is it I’m feeling extra cynical about this new PlayStation cashback scheme? There’s no way it’s going to be straightforward and fair and the only question is what specifically will be wrong about it. At a guess I’d say it’ll probably only be used for such a small number of games it’ll end up annoying people much more than if they just hadn’t done it.

We’ll see, once they announce it properly, but Sony has a lot of goodwill to win back and it’ll take some convincing for me before I think they’re trying properly.
Paradangle

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Echoes of Grezzo
Would be interesting if whoever made the Zelda: Ocarina Of Time remake did what Grezzo eventually did, when they got to make an original Zelda game after Link’s Awakening. Then Nintendo could cycle between new instalments for big Breath Of The Wild style Zelda, isometric Zelda, and Ocarina template Zelda. Plus, further remakes whenever appropriate.

There’s a risk that too much will harm the series but a new entry in one of three very different templates every two or three years would be a good way to keep Zelda fresh while also supporting Nintendo’s consoles, maintaining interest in the series and allowing the necessary development time between each new game.

I’ve still to play Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom and the reason for that highlights another risk, that consistently less well received entries end up dragging the series down a bit – but I hope Grezzo gets to continue up-skilling so they become one of (eventually) three or four Zelda pillars. Although letting third parties – including indie devs – try their hand at a new entry in one of the templates would also be nice. I’d be interested in a 2D game that does for Zelda what Hollow Knight does for Metroidvanias, making it a huge, sprawling 50+ hour experience.
Panda

Inbox also-rans
So I read Microsoft is planning more layoffs this week. Will it never end? We need these people’s skills and ideas, but I fear we are heading for AI slop games being the future. Why pay people when you can get a computer to do it? Sad times.
TWO MACKS

When will Finan Fantasy 17 be out? Not for another five years the rate people are going. Give me some breathing room and an income and we can design a sequel in three years. Please respect there are hard working people at the centre of the games.
Elia Etxegoien

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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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