Games Inbox: Should Call Of Duty become free-to-play?

The Monday letters page waits for the next The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel leak, as a reader hopes FIFA 2K28 becomes a reality.

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

Free at point of use
Wow, Activision almost gave the whole game away free with that Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta. To be honest, I’ve always felt Call Of Duty becoming free was the inevitable end game of the whole series. It may be hard to believe now but Call Of Duty used to be noted for having relatively few microtransactions compared to other online games.

This was back in the 2010s when value for money was a big selling point for the games and the formula hadn’t started to get old. Now though, the Call Of Duty name is not what it was and nobody talks about value anymore, just the fact that it’s the same old thing every year.

When that’s the majority opinion I think it will finally go free. I think it’ll actually fare pretty well against Fortnite and the like, because Call Of Duty is a good shooter, it’s just everything else around the game that’s slowly getting worse and worse every time.
Keister

Fan service
I have a friend that’s really into Kingdom Hearts and I have to say I do not get it. They also really like Disney in general, and Final Fantasy, so I guess I do understand on that level, but the games always struck me as really bad. Whatever you think of the story (and haven’t got a clue what’s going on) the gameplay is really bad in all of them, or at least the ones I’ve played – thanks to the friend.

Every one I’ve played barely feels like an action role-player and is basically a straight action game, but a really bad one, where the combat feels like you’re never making contact with the enemy and the platforming is awful. Obviously, Kingdom Hearts 4 could be different, but after all these years I somehow doubt that. Apparently, that’s just how fans like it.
Noisegun

Rival teams
I hope 2K is working on a FIFA game, because it is well beyond time we should have got a proper EA Sports FC rival. I really can’t see what else 2K is hinting at, especially given the people they’ve hired, but there is always the chance they could cancel whatever they’re planning, when they realise how hard and expensive it is to make.

If it does happen it’d presumably be something like NBA 2K but for football, so it’d be pretty unusual to see a massive budget sports game like that go up against another game that’s about the same thing. Something tells me it won’t happen, but with Xbox going down the drain it’d be nice to have some proper competition for at least something in video games at the moment.
Pr0metheus

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

One good game
Great to see Pokémon Pokopia doing so well, when most people would’ve figured it for being an easy to ignore spin-off. It goes to show that it’s not really marketing that determines whether a game is going to be a hit but word of mouth and reviews.

How many Pokémon spin-offs have there been in the last 30 years, and the only ones I remember are the ones that came out in the first few years, like Pokémon Pinball. But after all that time, all it takes is one good game and suddenly everyone’s excited and Pokémon itself seems more exciting than it has in a while.

The positives I’m taking from this is that it’s never too late for a franchise to come good, even after decades in the wilderness, and no game or spin-off should be discounted until you actually see what it’s like. Pokémon Pinball and Minecraft with Pokémon sound like dumb, lazy ideas but they’re great.
Limpton

Don’t drink and type
I have found the perfect gaming accessory today for us older gamers, from all companies… Phillips.

The perfect draught! And may I say it’s a good looking and well-designed machine too!

It’s much more interesting than the CD-i and I am glad to see they have moved on from that and created something that’s actually useful.

Let’s see if I can beat my best lap at Goodwood on Gran Turismo 7 tonight … hic!
G4RBO

GC: Did you mean to include a link with this? We’re not clear what you’re talking about.

Unbreakable curse
Some interesting Reader’s Features again this weekend. The Marvel curse is such a weird thing. It doesn’t make any sense and yet it seems to happen every time. If it wasn’t for Insomniac’s Spider-Man games there wouldn’t be any hit Marvel game that wasn’t on mobile. And even then, Spidey being in your game is no guarantee of anything, he has to be the main character or it’s still a flop.

I have no explanation for this either and while it is also how things work in movies now, except for probably Avengers films, this was all still going on when the MCU was at its peak. The Avengers game really wasn’t that bad – much worse has sold much better – so I’m really shocked it didn’t sell a lot just based on name recognition.

I guess gamers just don’t particularly like superhero games, even though I’m sure the majority watch plenty of the movies. It’s impossible to tell whether the same is true of DC, because it’s only Batman that gets the game but I’m willing to bet that Wonder Woman game wouldn’t have sold and they cancelled it because they knew it too.

I have no answer for the problem, especially as the quality of the games is generally pretty high. All I can suggest is maybe start giving the licences to indie developers and see what they can do with it. A this point they couldn’t do any worse and we may get some interestingly weird new ideas, and a chance to make games based around more obscure characters.
Ashton Marley

TV trends
I agree that Rockstar is going to end up making the idea of Netflix previews a common thing, because if GTA 6 does it, who wouldn’t want to copy that?

I’m not against the idea either. Who knows what the GTA 6 one will be like – probably pretty cheesy – but if it helps to get more obscure games noticed I’m all for it. Although it’d be a bit pointless if it was just stuff that sells anyway, like Call Of Duty and FIFA.
Rankore

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Next step
I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed in The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel already but I will say the Reader’s Feature has a point, at what complete non-events game reveals are nowadays. Xbox probably thought that tweet was going to come across as clever and mysterious but instead people worked out the name in five minutes and laughed and pointed at the Xbox boss pretending to know what they were talking about.

I miss the good old days when a game would be teased with a short video or logo and then you’d get a full reveal six months later or so, no questions. A proper job with the developer and publisher, people on stage, and actual gameplay footage.

Now, as people point out, it’s just endless leaks, and publishers pretending that people don’t already know everything they’re about to tell you. At no point does it ever feel like the publishers are in control of the narrative, as they say.

The exception is people like Rockstar and Nintendo, who say almost nothing, just like Bethesda, but you know when they do decide to speak up it’ll be worth waiting for. We’ve got the Netflix thing coming for GTA 6 and there’s got to be a Nintendo Direct for Zelda soon, and then we’ll know.

With Bethesda though, like so many, I’m willing to bet the next we hear about Sentinel will be more rumours. The only question now will be if it’s insiders, a bit of merch, or Bethesda/Xbox themselves revealing something by accident. There’s no way to know but just for the sake of it I’ll bet on the last option.
Zeiss

Inbox also-rans
To anyone who likes to keep their PlayStation 5 horizontally I’d highly recommend the following stand, I’m not sure what Sony were thinking with the one provided.
PjDonnelli

I’ll say one thing about it, The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel is a pretty cool name. Otherwise, I’m just as sceptical about it being any good as everyone else.
Cafe Eden

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The small print
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