Games Inbox: What will be in the Nintendo Direct today?

The Tuesday letters page struggles to understand the Xbox exclusivity policy, as a reader encourages more games to go head-to-head with GTA 6.

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

Direct assumption
So the Nintendo Direct we’ve all been waiting for is finally here. 50 minutes of pure Nintendo showcase, ready to disappoint us all!

Will the Zelda: Ocarina Of Time remake be there? I have no idea, but I do know that Nintendo will hate the idea that it leaked and that if there’s anything they can do to shuffle it around the schedules, and not make it this year’s game, they will. But yeah, overall I think it’s likely.

I just hope they don’t waste too much time on Splatoon Raiders and Fire Emblem and other things we already know about. That quote from the boss seems to prove they know they need to impress but I’m not convinced, Nintendo hates to do the obvious and they did say it was only games for this year.

Personally, I’m guessing maybe a couple more Switch 2 editions (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, anyone?) and maybe this rumour about a new Wario Land game, or something else small scale. That and The Duskbloods and you’re doing okay, although I really don’t see 2026 being a classic year for Nintendo overall.
Bagul

Small hopes
I’m excited about the idea of a Zelda: Ocarina Of Time remake as anyone but at the same time, does it not seem a bit disappointing that the biggest game of 2026 from Nintendo is going to be a remake? We’ve had virtually nothing from them so far this year (even their best game, Pokémon Pokopia, they didn’t actually make themselves) and Splatoon Raiders and Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave are hard to get that excited about.

And what else will we have other than Zelda, if that is true? Probably not much else. Maybe some smaller games but I can’t imagine them suddenly pulling two or three triple-A games out of the bag, that are all going to be released this year. I agree with GC’s summary of the Switch 2’s first year, it’s not been a disaster, but it’s certainly been a disappointment.
Cubit

Just as you remember
Anyone a bit disappointed by Persona 4 Revival reveal? I was left feeling silly for expecting the graphics and character models to be a bit more lifelike; I mean of course it’s anime style (duh). But I’m therefore wondering what the point of it is. In fact, the graphics themselves still look last gen at best.

Meanwhile, I think Fumito Ueda’s new project looks very exciting. I recently played through ICO again on the PlayStation 2 and it has aged so well, even the graphics. There’s an example of perfect art direction.
Owen Pile (NongWen – PSN ID)

GC: Persona 4 is also a PlayStation 2 game, so there are improvements in the remake. But we agree, it doesn’t look any different than you remember it, especially as it’s clearly using the Persona 5 engine.

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The only way is up
Yes, good bring back exclusives. Either people want Xbox to have exclusives or not, which is it? Seems to me they can’t win either way, people will complain regardless. Besides, the only annoying thing about that showcase for me, as a Xbox Series X owner is that I know I don’t have the time or money for all those games.

I haven’t played Gears Of War and Halo since the sequels, but I will go back to Game Pass for those two games.

I was kind of hoping Xbox would announce a price cut, no matter how modest. Or perhaps £25 off the Xbox Series X25, which would be clever marketing, I think.

Also, I have to mention Metro 2039. Wow, it looks incredible. Metro Exodus, in my opinion
had one of the best campaigns for a first person shooter I have ever seen, with such well written characters. So I’m really looking forward to that one.
Stephen

GC: Thanks to the memory crisis, hardware prices are never coming down, for anything.

The long haul
I hate falling for the rumour bandwagon.

There is some great stuff coming out in the next year, but as nostalgic as I am, I was excited to see a new WipEout game from Sony, but I think they do not realise how important the original games sold the PlayStation in Europe, and helped establish the brand they are today.

Also, another gripe. Where are the PS5 Pro official console covers already?
GarBo

GC: If the rumours are correct – that Sony is only now looking to bring back some of its older brands – that would mean any new entry is many years away from actually coming out.

Logical decision
I have been struggling to come up with an explanation for Microsoft’s exclusive announcements and I just can’t do it. Nothing about it makes any sense, including everything they’ve said to try and explain it.

Maybe they’re doing it to please hardcore Xbox fans but you’re talking about a noisy minority there, that’s never going to be happy with anything you do. You have two exclusives they’re going to demand four and more until they’re not satisfied with anything but all of them.

The obvious problem with doing it, is that you’re not making as much money, because you’re not selling on PlayStation 5 and less people have an Xbox nowadays. Plus, you’re not getting people into the Gears Of War franchise, which is especially going to annoy those who bought last year’s remaster and planned to get E-Day as well.

But at the end of the day the question that cuts through all the nonsense is why those two games? Why are Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution exclusives but others aren’t? Either they made that decision based on logic that they can explain to us or they just picked them at random, which is it?

What worries me is that the answer is likely to be closer to the random explanation, because I really don’t have any confidence Xbox knows what it’s doing anymore.
Focus

Counter-programming
I think it’d be neat to see more games going up against GTA 6 this November that are completely different to it. A collection of Barbie games is pretty extreme but I’m sure there are plenty of other games that are nothing like GTA and would interest people that are not interested in the game.

I mean, statistically, there’s got to be far more people that don’t care about GTA 6 than do, so I don’t see why you can’t release some cosy games, strategy games, maybe even some horror games, since it will be dark out by that point. GTA 6 isn’t going to cover any of the angles and some people are going to prefer that kind of thing to just another gangster sim.
Taylor Moon

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Wrong audience
It’s been obvious for a while now that the average age of gamers is skewing very old (in comparison to the stereotype of what a gamer is). As someone in their thirties this should please me, as it should mean that companies will try to design games more to please people like me.

However, I do not find this to really be the case. We are seeing a slight turn towards more single-player games at the moment but mostly publishers seem frustrated that the average age is creeping up and that young people are not buying their games, and so they target them even more.

Sony and Ubisoft aren’t making these endless live service games to appeal to thirtysomethings. Coming up with the new Fortnite is not something that’s going to excite anyone that’s 37.

It makes me think of The Mandalorian and Grogu movie, which was made primarily for younger audiences. Except they weren’t interested in it and since older fans never wanted it in the first place it ended up being a movie for no one.

I think there’s a danger of a lot of games falling in the same category, because at the end of the day companies prefer to have younger fans, because then they can get their claws in early and keep them spending for decades.

They know that anyone approaching their middle age and beyond is going to have less time to play games and probably won’t fall for microtransactions gimmicks as much, so we’re not really the audience they want.
Gaston

Inbox also-rans
The big Nintendo Direct we’ve all been waiting for is Tuesday? You better have that Mario peaking from behind a curtain photo or it won’t be tradition!
Onibee

GC: You betcha!

It was so weird to see the Activision logo come up and it wasn’t for Call Of Duty. Even better that it was Spyro. Let’s hope it’s Prototype next!
Stoz

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