Games Inbox: Is buying a video game day one a good idea?

The Wednesday letters page is worried what Sony’s PS5 DRM controversy is all about, as a reader wishes that XCOM 3 got announced this week.

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

Instant access
With Saros out this week, I’m very tempted to buy it straight away. I have two main reasons for this: I really want to play it and Sony games rarely go down in price for physical. I’m fairly certain I’ll do it but I feel a bit of a chump for buying something at full price on day one.

Some people seem to swear by it but while I do it often enough I usually feel like I’ve fallen into a trap. Am I just being gullible and should I just wait a few months until it’s cheaper?

And yet there are real benefits. If it’s multiplayer it means you don’t get left behind by coming into it late but even for single-player it means you avoid any spoilers (probably) and get to be in on the conversation around it, which you won’t necessarily have if you pick it up six months later.

So I’m a bit torn. My head says I should wait and save money but heart says I want to get the game now and be an early adopter like the cool kids.
Goldie

Inevitable U-turn
This PS5 30 day DRM thing is very strange. Sony hasn’t said anything about. A lot of people think it’s a bug, and it’s just come out of nowhere for no reason. I’m going to guess that it was all intentional and they somehow thought people were just going to roll over and accept it, because that’s how all these companies act… until there’s an instant uproar and they have to do another U-turn.

Why can’t Sony just be normal? They’ve already got a virtual monopoly, so just sit there and rake in the money. Why do you then need to start making it clear we don’t own anything we buy and that publishers can take it away from us whenever they want. Funnily enough, that makes me less likely to buy something, which you would’ve thought is not what they’re trying to encourage.
Cribbens

Splash damage
Had no idea it was Firaxis’ 30th anniversary this year, but if I had known I would’ve bet on not hearing a word about XCOM. We didn’t get a new video game annoucement, but we did at least get something, so I guess that’s better than expected?

It’s still tragic to me what happened with Marvel’s Midnight Suns. People don’t buy one game and an entire studio is ruined forever, a promising franchise is killed instantly, and another (XCOM) will probably never get a chance again. The worst thing is Midnight Suns is a really good game! It’s a crying shame what happened.
Wotan

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

Capcom minus Marvel
I’m not sure how I feel about a Capcom game universe. It sounds fun to have Dino Crisis and Resident Evil and Pragmata being in the same world, but I imagine it’d all get old real quick once you start all the exposition to explain it. But then again, the thought of a zombie dinosaur and a robot dinosaur sound very appealing to me.

You could even say Onimusha was from back in time and Devil May Cry was maybe the same universe too. But yeah… it’s probably not worth it.

What I would love to see though is a new Vs. fighter. We’re not getting Marvel anytime soon, and Warner Bros. owns DC Comics, so let’s just skip the middleman and make it Capcom vs. Capcom. I would buy the hell out of that, deluxe versions included.

I’m not really sure why it’s never happened before because I don’t think it’d be an especially expensive game to make, especially if they based it on the Street Fighter 6 engine. Maybe they can use their Resident Evil Requiem money to give us that Leon vs. Phoenix Wright showdown we’ve all been craving.
Klaus

Rise of the Machine
I have a lot of trouble imagining the Steam Machine is going to be a big success or change anything about gaming. Number one is that Valve never make enough of their hardware. The Steam Deck would be a lot bigger if they just produced more and made them easier to get but they don’t seem to care.

And now it sounds like they’re going to shadow drop the hardware out of nowhere in the middle of June or something. I know that worked for Nintendo but Valve don’t exactly have the same amount of experience. Half-Life 3 could make a difference, but when you can play it on any other PC does that really count as an exclusive?
Rarebit

Change of plan
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this whole Xbox releasing on other platforms was a plan that hugely backfired on Phil Spencer. If I’m right in saying that with Xbox Game Pass Microsoft forced Sony to up their game with PS Plus in order to offer realistic competition. So when Microsoft started buying everything up they had the dream of negating console exclusives (mainly because theirs weren’t selling) and thought that by releasing games multiplatform they would again force Sony’s hand, due to consumer expectations and pressure to follow suit.

This obviously hasn’t worked, except for a few games on PC which Sony have now apparently abandoned and now Sony fans are getting the best of both worlds and Xbox is failing hard. Now I’ve always had Xboxes, including the Xbox Series X, so I was actually a fan but I’ve now migrated back to Sony for the first time since PlayStation 2 and it would take a lot to coax me back.

In my opinion, I think Xbox need to go back to exclusives for the next gen (and actually make some decent ones) and probably drop the Xbox moniker, as I think most of the damage is irreversible to the brand. I do hope they do something good with Project Helix, as competition is healthy in any business and we have all seen how Sony has been acting now they are effectively the only choice for high-end gaming on consoles.
P B

GC: It’s not clear who’s idea going multiformat was, but it seemed to be something that was forced upon Spencer, after so much money was spent buying Activision Blizzard. It was certainly Spencer’s original plan to make all Bethesda games exclusive.

Chance annoucement
Every now and again I remember that Atlus still hasn’t announced Persona 6 or given any hint of when it’s out, which is so rude of them.

I’m hoping that it might turn up at the Summer Game Fest because I really don’t want to have to wait until December and The Game Awards. GC, do you think there’s a chance we’ll see it in the next couple of months?
Colin

GC: There’s certainly a chance but there’s no hint or rumour to suggest it one way or another.

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Busy month
Wow! I just read your article about all the games coming out in May. Is everyone trying to escape a GTA 6 launch or what?

It’s a nice list though. I’ll see how some of them review here before I have another look at buying any.

I had been peeking on the Bond game which everyone always hopes will trump GoldenEye 007, because, let’s face it, no Bond game has ever since. Forza Horizon 6 and the Lego Batman game I had been checking out too. They’re more a series of games I’ve played than anything I’m really excited about, especially as the Lego formula and Horizon voiceovers have got stale over a series of time.

I haven’t had anything on my must-buy radar for ages, and it’s kind of disappointing for me being a long time gamer and having an Xbox Series X and a Switch 2 and feeling like I’ve nothing left to play that I’m really into. I have done a lot of Fallout 4 recently as well and its leagues ahead of Starfield.

The last game I kept coming back to, minus Fallout 4, was the Super Bomberman Collection and that release has me scratching my head why they haven’t added all those different retro arenas into just one edition, so there’d be a ton of them and made a golden edition of the game. I don’t think they ever needed to start giving characters special moves, it was better before it on random pick-ups from bomb blasts. Your review on the collection was great and it made me buy it, by the way.

I thought Dirtystopout’s Reader’s Feature was top drawer at the weekend, I was actually disappointed when it ended. I love hearing about how people got hooked up on video games and what sucked them in over the years.

Keep up the good work.
Nick The Greek

GC: Thanks.

Inbox also-rans
Is Directive 8020 one of those interactive movie type games like Until Dawn?
Tom Twice

GC: It is. In fact, it’s by the same developer as Until Dawn, as are all The Dark Pictures Anthology games and The Quarry.

To whom it may concern: I do not want to be buried in a Mario-shaped coffin. If you do that to me I will haunt you.
Kimpo

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

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