The Tuesday letters page struggles to see a way forward for Microsoft and Xbox, as Kickstarter responds to Sony’s new digital-only policy.

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

Shrinking franchise
So Xbox has done exactly what we all knew they would and sacked even more people and lost five studios in the process. I can easily see why they picked on these ones, because they only made art house games no-one ever played. You can’t even say that Microsoft shouldn’t have bought them, because it was the new boss’ idea anyway.

But where do they go from here? They haven’t got any studios left that make anything other than Halo, Gears Of War, and Forza, so are they stuck doing that forever? I totally believe the rumours that studios are being moved to work on Halo and nothing else, but what I don’t believe is that there’s enough people left that care.

The peak of these games was in the mid-2000s, so you’re talking 20 years ago now. Anyone that liked them then is going to be in a totally different place in their lives now and I don’t see any evidence that anyone younger cares about those franchises. Xbox is backing itself into a corner, banking on nostalgia that I don’t think is really there. It really does feel like the whole business is doomed.
Cranston

Chain of command
Absolutely disgusting that Microsoft can just lay off 3,200 people like that. As far as I understand around 200 people is pretty big for a triple-A studio, so just imagine what they could’ve used all those talent developers for if Xbox wasn’t run so badly.

All those people who have their livelihoods taken away, although they may almost feel it was worth it if they’re dealing with 14 layers of management every day. How that could’ve been going on under Phil Spencer, and he thought was alright, I don’t know. But as far as I understand Matt Booty was in charge of games and he’s still there! That company has been run so terribly the last few generations.
Benson

Just one more remaster
I don’t know how Bethesda has got away with doing so little for so long. I can imagine the Xbox boss asking for an Elder Scrolls update and being given various elaborate excuses while nothing gets done. Not even a short preview.

They’ve been riding their luck, and I think Microsoft are on to them and will demand results. Or maybe they’ll just do another Skyrim remaster or anniversary edition to buy time.
Mark Matthews

GC: We said exactly as much in our article today.

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

Never again
With regard to only digital games in the future, I’m not too surprised. The choice between physical and digital is being removed, that’s a shame. Pros and cons for both methods. The obvious pro for physical is being able to trade in. What’s needed when things do go completely digital is a refund policy that is fair, many more, than are currently available, free game demos to try before you buy and a trade-in system for digital vouchers to spend in the store. If one company implements such a trade-in system then I’ll guarantee that the other will follow suit.

The ability to trade-in might well encourage me to buy more digital games at, or near to, full price than I do at present.
Paul C.
PS: Currently playing Project Cars 3 again on Xbox Series X. I love this game (it was much maligned at release for various reasons). The game has a tendency to drop frames, very badly, if it’s running from a full-ish hard drive. I have 360GB of free space at the moment and the game is running perfectly.

GC: Publishers pushed for digital in large part to kill the concept of trade-ins, they’re not going to willingly bring them back.

Don’t miss Gaming news! Add us as a Preferred Source

As a loyal GameCentral reader, we want to make sure you never miss our articles when searching for gaming stories. We have all the latest video games news, reviews, previews, and interviews, with a vibrant community of highly engaged readers.

Click the button below and tick Metro.co.uk to ensure you see stories from us first in Google Search.

Add us as a Preferred Source

Advertisement

New small print
This thing with games on disc isn’t Sony’s fault, it’s the people that bought them digital only from the very start of gaming. If you didn’t walk down to your local shop and buy the game, guess what? You didn’t play it and now no one can be bothered to walk to a shop to buy the game.

Sony showed you the problem of digital years ago, when they was removing digital movies and TV shows you had bought already. The amount of gamers that have written in saying I download has done this. Sony has just updated their terms and conditions, saying if your account isn’t used within 36 months you may lose your account all together, including games and other stuff. Why don’t people learn that, yes, digital games are better for the planet but if you don’t own something it’s not yours to keep.
David

Destined replacement
I played Borderlands 2 but not to any serious degree. But I played a lot of Destiny 1 and 2 and Diablo in the time between that and Borderlands 4, and I have to say I’ve found it great fun. The campaign was OK but some of the side missions were genuinely funny. The ones with the guy being weirdly obsessed with mating his pet thresher and the existential rocket were highlights.

But I am not level 60 on my first character on UVH5 (Ultimate Vault Hunter 5) and still seems like a huge amount left after 90 or so hours – including getting to UVH7, about 30 missions/side missions, tons of collectables and the takedown to do still. And that’s not even thinking about a second or third character.

The amount of different builds you can make is also superb, with so many options (although as usual only a few top tier ones for the highest difficulties).

I would highly recommend if you like looter shooters and maybe coming off the back of Destiny 2.
Tom

Kicked to the curb
This is one of the other Kickstarter campaigns I am going to back, which I will probably late pledge, it is called Dark Queen of Samobor and it is a side-scrolling action combat puzzle game with amazing visuals, inspired by classic Disney animation and dark fantasy movies of the 80s for PC. I will probably go for the digital copy with my name in the credits for £23. There is an option for a digital copy for £9 too.

With the announcement of Sony ending the production of physical PlayStation discs this is affecting Kickstarters too, as a way to raise money for a Kickstarter campaigns you can usually can buy a digital copy or spend more to get a physical copy on Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation.

A couple of the Kickstarters I have seen mention what will happen with the PlayStation physicals in the rewards of their campaign. I have seen one Kickstarter creator say they will have to research about what to do with the PlayStation 5 physicals in their rewards because of Sony’s announcement.
Andrew J.

Legend of Goemon
The first Super Famicom Ganbare Goemon has always been one of my favourites. I had rented the Western version of Legend Of The Mystical Ninja and then saw the Japanese version cheap and it became one of the few imported games I had for the SNES; I loved that it had bits that were removed for our version. I knew that a sequel existed from magazines at the time and was disappointed it never got released over here.

Owned the first N64 game and loved that, it was the first time I’d seen some of the other main characters now being shown as allies and my introduction to the giant robot Impact. Dash dash dash.
It was years later that I discovered there are multiple Super Famicom sequels plus loads of games before and after on other consoles.

The Japan-only Goemon collection is fantastic, some of the games are pretty much locked away from me as they are full role-playing games and being unable to read Japanese is a hindrance. But the way Konami experimented with the franchise was great, just chuck in platforming, minigames, role-playing, whatever else and just see if it works. It did mean the games could be a bit hit and miss depending on your preferences, but when they hit the spot they really are brilliant.

Konami also smashed it out the park with the graphics and sound on the four main Super Famicom games, for a company that really knew how to get the best out of the SNES sound chip I would say the soundtracks for all four games are possibly the best they ever did in that era.

Enough waffle, if you are interested in slightly obscure (in the UK) games from that era, I would definitely recommend getting a copy of the new collection, I even enjoyed fumbling my way through the menus just to get the display settings I wanted, it reminded me slightly of carefully writing down the enormous save codes for my import copy of Goemon, all in kanji. All I learned from that experience was that battery backed saves were better.
John Atkinson

Inbox also-rans
So who do we think has bought Undead Labs and Ninja Theory? I don’t actually care about State Of Decay 3 but I wonder if Sony will buy Ninja Theory and have them make a new Heavenly Sword? I’d be up for that.
Johnson

So I guess Psychonauts 3 isn’t happening now. Oh well, I’ve much more faith in Double Fine surviving on their own than if they were still under Microsoft.
Breaker

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

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.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: Is Nintendo Switch 2 and PC the perfect combination?

MORE: Games Inbox: Giving up consoles because of PS5 going digital-only

MORE: Games Inbox: Why is Sony going digital-only with the PS5?

By BEN WILLCOCKS, ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Published: 00:58 BST, 7 July 2026 | Updated: 02:06 BST, 7 July 2026

Cristiano Ronaldo has vowed he will wake up tomorrow with no regrets after crashing out of his final World Cup following Portugal’s late 1-0 defeat against Spain in the round of 16.

The Portuguese superstar, 41, broke down in tears on the pitch after Mikel Merino’s stoppage-time winner snatched victory for Spain in Dallas, calling an end to Ronaldo’s historic World Cup career.

Ronaldo, who is the only player in history to score at six World Cups, will now finish his glittering career without international football’s greatest prize after confirming prior to Portugal’s last-16 clash with Spain that this summer’s tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico would be his last.

The teary superstar doubled down on this decision after Portugal’s heartbreaking elimination at Dallas Stadium, admitting: ‘It’s been my last World Cup, yes – but now I will have time to think, stay with my family and life continues.’

Advertisement

Ronaldo, who guided Portugal to European Championship glory in 2016 and to two separate Nations League trophies in 2019 and 2025, went on to insist that he will not look back with regret at not having won the ultimate international honour.

‘I will wake up tomorrow with a clear conscience, because I gave my all,’ he urged. ‘I won three titles for Portugal, and Portugal had not won any before me. 

Your browser does not support iframes.

Advertisement

Cristiano Ronaldo has urged that he will have no regrets after crashing out of his last World Cup

The devastated Portugal legend walked down the tunnel at the World Cup for the final time

Advertisement

‘My biggest title with Portugal is Euro 2016. That trophy means the same to me as the World Cup.’

After finishing his post-match interviews on the pitch, Ronaldo headed down the tunnel cutting a heartbroken figure as the realisation that this would be his final World Cup act sunk in.

Footage of Ronaldo captured by cameras inside Dallas Stadium appeared eerily similar to his emotional elimination from the World Cup in Qatar four years ago.

After Portugal were dumped out by Morocco at the 2022 tournament, footage of Ronaldo bursting into tears as he headed down the tunnel went viral.

Advertisement

Despite managing to fight back his tears in the tunnel this time around, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid forward showed similar signs of devastation as he walked alone with his head bowed down in contemplation.

Ronaldo had initially resisted questions about his World Cup future prior to Sunday, when he eventually revealed that this year would be his swansong.

‘It’s about enjoying it as much as possible,’ Ronaldo said ahead of the round of 16 clash with Spain.

‘This will be my last World Cup, but let’s hope tomorrow isn’t my last game.’

Advertisement

Ronaldo confirmed this World Cup would be his last before Spain’s late 1-0 win over Portugal

He insisted that Portugal’s Euro 2016 triumph means the same to him as any World Cup

Ronaldo, who has plied his trade domestically in Saudi Arabia since his lucrative move to Al-Nassr in 2023, has made no indication that he plans to retire from football altogether any time soon.

The all-time great is chasing the remarkable feat of reaching 1,000 career goals, now just 24 goals away after netting in Portugal’s 2-1 round of 32 victory over Croatia last week.

Advertisement

How much is David Beckham set to pocket from his World Cup brand deals? Take on our quiz in our newsletter HERE

Matches would be held at Acomb Working Men’s Club and Institute on Wednesdays and Fridays from 6pm to 11pm if York Council approves its licensing application.

The club’s plans stated it also wanted to extend its beer garden’s opening hours until 9pm.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Approval of the club’s application would see the Front Street venue licensed to sell alcohol from 11am to midnight daily.

It would be allowed to hold sporting events indoors from 7pm to 11.30pm from Monday to Wednesday and from 11am between Thursday and Sunday.

Live music would be permitted indoors from 7.30pm to midnight Thursday, Friday and Saturday and until 11.30pm on Sunday.

Recorded music would be allowed from 10am to 11pm Monday to Saturday and from 12pm to 10.30pm on Sunday.

Acomb Working Men’s Club, in Front Street, Acomb, York (Image: Google)

Indoor dance performances would be permitted from 8pm to 11.30pm from Thursday, to Sunday.

The club’s application stated its opening hours would remain unchanged if the application is approved.

It currently opens from 12pm to 3pm and from 7pm to 10pm from Monday to Wednesday and until 11pm on Thursday.

Evening opening times start at 6pm on Fridays.

The club opens from 11.30am to 11.30pm on Saturdays and until 8pm on Sundays, according to Google.

Its licence also allows it to serve drinks until 2.30am on New Years and from 7.30am until 10am on 12 member trips a year.

By JASON GROVES, POLITICAL EDITOR and MARK NICOL, DEFENCE EDITOR

Published: 22:00 BST, 6 July 2026 | Updated: 02:09 BST, 7 July 2026

Labour’s defence plans were branded a ‘pantomime’ – as new figures revealed Russian jets are testing Nato‘s defences an average once a day.

Keir Starmer will head for what looks set to be a bruising Nato summit in Turkey on Tuesday morning amid warnings that he has failed to protect Britain.

Downing Street is braced for a final blast from Donald Trump after US officials accused countries like the UK of ‘lagging behind’ Nato spending targets.

And, in an ominous development, it emerged that a Russian aircraft buzzed the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales last week.

Advertisement

The warship scrambled two F-35 fighter jets to shadow the Russian maritime patrol aircraft, which also dropped a number of sonic buoys near the British carrier in an apparent provocation.

Downing Street branded the manoeuvre, which took place in the Norwegian Sea, ‘unsafe and unprofessional’.

Government sources revealed it was one of 700 incursions that Nato jets have had to deal with in the last two years – an average of almost one a day.

Kemi Badenoch said the action by Vladimir Putin was a ‘test’ that the government is failing.

Advertisement

Humiliation: Officials fear Donald Trump could try to embarrass the PM over defence at this week’s Nato summit (pictured together in August last year) 

Confrontation: An F-35 jet launched from HMS Prince of Wales shadows a Russian military aircraft as it drops a sonic device, inset

Targeted: The HMS Prince of Wales was in the Norwegian Sea

Advertisement

Reckless: Vladimir Putin

In a speech on Tuesday, the Conservative leader will warn that Britain’s defence policy is becoming a ‘pantomime’ at the moment that the threat has grown to the most serious since the end of the Cold War.

Mrs Badenoch will urge Andy Burnham to take up her offer to help push through welfare cuts to help fund defence investment. But she will warn that the would-be prime minister has ‘said nothing’ about the growing threats facing the UK.

‘We are sending an outgoing Prime Minister who is now completely powerless to that Nato summit,’ she will say.

Advertisement

‘And he is taking with him a Defence Investment Plan which he knows is not fit for purpose. With barely half of the additional funding that our armed forces need.

‘So little that the former Defence Secretary quit the government because he thought the plans would put British troops in danger.’

Sir Keir will tell Nato allies this week that his controversial Defence Investment Plan (DIP) represents a major step on the way to hitting Nato’s target of spending 3.5 per cent on defence by 2035. But it only commits the UK to reaching 2.7 per cent by the end of the decade.

New Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis said Labour would ‘commit the resources to evidence the trajectory to 3.5 per cent’ at a spending review next year. But neither No 10 nor Mr Burnham have so far agreed to the timetable.

Advertisement

Nato chief Mark Rutte said he expected member states to produce ‘clear, concrete and credible’ plans to hit the 3.5 per cent target.

No 10 fears that Mr Trump may use this week’s summit to humiliate Sir Keir over defence spending.

Speaking at the weekend, he said ‘weak’ British leaders had allowed the country to become a ‘deindustrialised welfare zone unable to stop Third World men arriving on boats’.

The two leaders are not expected to hold a formal meeting this week, despite it being Sir Keir’s final appearance on the world stage before leaving office. But Downing Street said they would be seated next to each other at a summit meeting tomorrow and insisted that their relationship remains ‘constructive’.

Advertisement

Ahead of the summit, Putin sent a clear message to defence chiefs over Russia’s willingness to threaten its member states, including Britain.

It emerged how a Russian aircraft conducted a ‘danger close’ low pass of the HMS Prince of Wales while the £3.5billion carrier was operating in the Norwegian Sea.

After ignoring requests from the carrier’s control room, the Bear-F maritime patrol aircraft then dropped tens of sonobuoy projectiles in close proximity to HMS Prince of Wales which could have injured sailors or damaged the carrier.

British commanders scrambled two F-35 jets from HMS Prince of Wales to shadow the Russian aircraft in the carrier’s first ‘real-time’ engagement with enemy forces.

Advertisement

The Royal Navy has released information about the July 2nd incident for the first time.

At the time HMS Prince of Wales was sailing as part of the UK’s Carrier Strike Group which also consisted of the Type-45 destroyer HMS Duncan, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Tidespring which were conducting freedom of navigation patrols in the High North.

The Arctic Sentry patrols are intended to reinforce security. The engagement came just weeks after the UK seized a Russian shadow fleet vessel in the English Channel for the first time and after a Russian fighter jet flew within feet of a Royal Air Force intelligence gathering aircraft conducting a patrol over the Black Sea.

Twenty five years after Goran Ivanisevic became the first wildcard to win Wimbledon, Britain’s Arthur Fery is three wins away from becoming the second.

Born in Paris, raised in Wimbledon, this cross-Channel Fery is chugging further and faster than anyone could have anticipated. 

On his Centre Court debut, on the biggest day of his life he produced the best match of his life – and all with Roger Federer looking on from the Royal Box.

The 23-year-old beat Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 and, for the second match in a row, the 5ft 9in pocket rocket proved he could squeeze through the narrowest gap; wriggle out of the stickiest situation.

Having come from 4-1 down in both the fourth and fifth sets of his second-round win over Zizou Bergs, Fery, trailing Dimitrov two sets to one, twice recovered from a break in the fourth set. 

The man who began the grass court season with two Tour-level wins in his life has forgotten how to lose. 

Fery takes the acclaim of Centre Court after dispatching of Grigor Dimitrov

He has played four tiebreaks this fortnight and won the lot, and here is one illustration of his priceless ability to bring his best in the most pregnant moments: across three hours and 55 minutes Fery struck seven aces – and two of those came within five minutes of each other in the deciding tiebreak.

‘It’s incredibly hard to describe what I have just felt on that tennis court,’ he told the crowd afterwards, and as he continued his ability to form full sentences deserted him: ‘First time on this court, against an absolute legend of the game…I grew up five minutes from here…we’ve got the greatest of all time watching…’

On another comeback: ‘It’s been the story of the tournament, I’m playing really well with my back against the wall.’

He will face Italian No 9 seed Flavio Cobolli in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Even to parochial eyes, there were compelling narratives on both sides of the court: the Ferytale and the fairytale, if you will.

This was the first time in Grand Slam history two wildcards had faced off in the fourth round or later. Fery’s reason for being handed that golden ticket was obvious; in Dimitrov’s case the story is a little darker.

Britain’s Fery is three wins away from becoming the second wildcard winner at Wimbledon

Advertisement

The 23-year-old beat the wily Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6

It was on this very same second Monday of Wimbledon last year, on this very same court, when Dimitrov tore a pectoral muscle when leading eventual champion Jannik Sinner by two sets to love. 

Eleven months and two weeks of the subsequent time has been hellish for the Bulgarian as first the physical and then the mental pain threatened to end the 35-year-old’s career. 

Suffering from flashbacks and crippling uncertainty, he came into the grass season with a seasonal record of one win and 11 defeats – including seven in a row.

But a couple of wins apiece in Dublin and Mallorca sparked a flame and that has grown into an inferno at Wimbledon as his talent has blazed into light.

Dimitrov was known in his early career as Baby Fed, his flowing single-handed backhand and all-round style reminiscent of the great Swiss. 

The man himself, Roger Federer, was there the night of the Sinner match, looking on in horror from the Royal Box as his friend limped from the court; and here both men had played five-set matches coming into this fourth round, Fery that act of escapology against Bergs, Dimitrov an absorbing tussle with Matteo Berrettini.

In theory, this was a match between the 114th (Fery) and the 146th best tennis players in the world – the quality of the spectacle told otherwise.

As the surfaces have homogenized over the past 20 years, men’s tennis has largely become a baseline battle of power and endurance.

This was a throwback to old school grass-court tennis. These two can give the ball a wallop – Fery had a forehand clocked at over 100mph this fortnight – but they can wield the surgeon’s knife as well as the butcher’s cleaver.

Roger Federer was looking on from the Royal Box as Fery made his Centre Court debut

After a couple of shanks in the first couple of games Fery settled well. There has been a serenity about his play here that suggested he would not be discombobulated by the occasion.

At 5-5, having thus far won only two points on the Dimitrov serve, Fery broke to love, cracking a couple of backhands and then hammering a forehand return.

For all the aesthetic beauty of the Dimitrov backhand – whether sliced or driven – it is his weaker side and Fery directed the majority of his fire in that direction.

Off his own backhand wing, Fery was simply not missing. Incredibly, he got through a set and seven games with one single unforced error on that side – and then it all fell apart, as he made three unforced errors in a row to concede the break at 3-4 in the second set.

Fery headed off-court for an eight-minute loo break – sadly standard practice these days. Of course, if you gotta go you gotta go but if it was more of an attempt to recentre himself, there is always the possibility you go further off-kilter.

And, upon his return to Centre Court, Fery played a second ragged service game in a row. The quality of the Brit backhand in the first period of the match meant Dimitrov was largely forced to employ his delightful but less offensive slice. 

As Fery’s level dipped Dimitrov began unfurling his majestic single-hander. One he unleashed down the line at the start of the third set would have made Federer himself purr – sadly the great man was off court at the time, no doubt tucking into afternoon tea.

The man who began the grass court season with two Tour-level wins in his life has forgotten how to lose

As Fery went an early break down in the fourth set the scoreboard looked imposing. But having come back from 4-1 down in both the fourth and fifth sets of his third-round win over Zizou Bergs, Fery was not about to panic.

He broke back; Dimitrov broke again; Fery broke back again. At 4-5, 0-40 on the Dimitrov serve Fery had three points to take it into a fifth set. On the third he hammered a backhand past Dimitrov at the net and launched into a wild, fist-pumping jig of delight.

The fifth set was fearfully tight – even Federer was leaning forward in his chair, in tune with the tension of the match. At 4-4 and again at 5-5, Fery extracted himself from sticky situations.

And so to a match tiebreak – first to 10 points – Fery’s second in a row here. He opened it with only his fifth ace of the match and went 4-2 up with a punched backhand return and a rush to the net – the modern equivalent of the Henman chip and charge. Dimitrov won three points in a row, then double faulted.

Another wonderful volley combination from Fery made it 6-6. Then another ace. Dimitrov went wide and Fery led 8-7 – win two points on his serve and he was home. He dug a backhand deep into the corner and Dimitrov sliced into the net – how often had we seen that play pattern? 

A Dimitrov return into the net and Centre Court erupted in noise. It may not be the Azteca but when Fery needed it most, this grand old arena roared him home.

One person was taken to hospital while others were treated on the scene.

The incident took place on the M62 Eastbound at around 6:10pm, according to National Highways North West, between Junctions 18 and 19.

All those involved in the collision were transferred into the care of North West Ambulance Service, and one was taken to hospital for treatment.

(Image: Traffic Cameras UK)

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) said: “Shortly after 6:15 this afternoon (Monday 6th July), two fire engines from Heywood and Whitefield fire stations were called to attend a road traffic collision involving four vehicles between Junction 18 and 19 on the M62.”

“Crews arrived quickly and worked alongside Greater Manchester Police to make the area safe. All casualties were transferred into the care of North West Ambulance Service and one casualty has been conveyed to hospital.”

“Firefighters were in attendance for around 45 minutes”

The incident led to delays on the M62 for around three hours, though the road was never fully closed – one lane remaining open.

Two lanes remained closed well into the evening, allowing workers to undertake repairs to the road.

(Image: Traffic Cameras UK)

A National Highways spokesperson said: “Throughout the incident, traffic has been able to keep moving by using the services.

“Two of the lanes are open and two are still closed.

“The closed lanes are closed due to necessary ongoing recovery work, including repairs to damaged street furniture and electrical work.”

As Xbox prepares to lose five development studios and over 3,000 staff what is it that they’re planning, that makes Microsoft so confident for the future?

Even if Monday’s mass layoffs at Xbox hadn’t already been rumoured, they were easy enough to predict. After all, laying off thousands of developers is exactly what Microsoft did this time last year and the year before that. Over 9,000 people have been laid off from the Xbox division in just the last three years and there’s little reason to think that number won’t rise again next year. There’s even less reason to think any of this is helping Xbox as a business, if that’s even the goal anymore.

There are already conspiracies, propagated by one of the original founders of Xbox, that new boss Asha Sharma has been brought in to wind down the business. That does seem like it could be true, not necessarily based on what she’s doing but because Xbox as a brand feels like it has nowhere to go and, if it wasn’t owned by the richest company in the world, would long ago have been sold off or mothballed.

But Microsoft is still refusing to admit defeat and for a company that has over 225,000 people worldwide 9,000 is just a drop in the ocean. But that’s part of the problem, because if they were a normal company, where that volume of layoffs would be keenly felt, they’d be forced to take a more objective view of the situation.

Xbox will be 25 years old this autumn, but it was only really a power player for the first five years of the Xbox 360’s lifetime, after which it gave up its comfortable lead over the PlayStation 3 to chase the success of the Wii. This demonstrated one of Xbox’s longstanding faults: a complete lack of patience. The original Xbox was abandoned early in favour of the Xbox 360, then the Xbox 360 was abandoned in favour of Kinect, and then there was a bizarre obsession with TV for the launch of the Xbox One and, well… you know the rest.

We covered all this when Microsoft raised the price of Game Pass back in October, a decision that, true to form, they didn’t stick with. Xbox’s problems are manifold but their obsession with always looking for a short cut and never nurturing and growing the successes they do have are a recurring theme. One it seems Sharma may have identified.

It’s hard to tell exactly what Sharma thinks, given the indecipherable corporate speak she indulges in (which already sounds disarmingly like one of Phil Spencer’s scripts, right down to the bizarre goal of having 1 billion daily players) but this time she emphasised having ‘greater focus’. She didn’t say on what but based on her previous comments the obvious guess is those franchises most closely associated with Xbox (Halo, Gears Of War, Forza, and perhaps Fable) and Bethesda’s big hitters of Fallout and The Elder Scrolls.

Microsoft is legally obligated to keep Call Of Duty multiformat for several more years, so that franchise doesn’t factor into anything but their bottom line – especially after they stopped releasing it day one on Game Pass.

Sharma’s already expressed frustration at how long it’s taking to make a new Elder Scrolls and Fallout and she’s every right to do so, as Bethesda has been underperforming, in the quality and quantity of their releases, since at least Fallout 4 in 2015. A bold decision would’ve been to replace Todd Howard with new management but of, course, it’s the ordinary wage slaves that are made to suffer for a publisher’s failures, not the executives.

What will be done about Bethesda’s franchises is unclear but the obvious thing is to farm new entries out to other studios. The fact that Microsoft has owned Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian for eight years and hasn’t got so much as a remaster out of them is just one more example of bad management decisions and an inability to prioritise and schedule new releases sensibly.

People do at least want new Fallout and Elder Scrolls games though, as well as more Forza Horizon, but it’s unclear whether they feel the same about Halo and Gears Of War. Both are outdated in terms of gameplay and the latter in almost every respect, with its roided-out machomen seeming so 2006. Neither franchise prospered outside of the Xbox 360 era and while you could say that’s also due to mismanagement sometimes games are just of a certain time and place and don’t travel as far as their publishers would like them to.

Nevertheless, it seems likely Microsoft is planning to focus squarely on these franchises and to give up on the more avant-garde titles that the likes of Double Fine and Ninja Theory trade in. The latter is perfectly reasonable – a company like Microsoft should never have bought them in the first place, as Sharma seems to recognise. But focusing Xbox on Halo, Gears Of War, Forza, and Bethesda? They’ve tried that before and it didn’t work.

Having lost so many staff, and so many studios, the options for Xbox are now limited. They will need to rely more on third party developers (not that there are many big ones left, after they inspired a buying spree across the whole industry) and they will have to make a proper decision about going multiformat, rather than the nonsensical excuses they made for Gears Of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution.

The sensible decision would be to drop plans for Project Helix (even if there is anyone out there still willing to buy Xbox hardware the price alone will make it an irrelevance) and become a full-bloodied third party publisher, something like EA were back in their heyday, when they released more games than just sports titles and Battlefield. But everything Sharma has said, especially this week, seems to imply they’re not doing that.

Instead, Xbox continues to live in denial, of the fact that nobody was buying their hardware even before the memory crisis raised prices, and that except for Forza Horizon nobody is very interested in their first party games either. If Sharma is secretly winding down Xbox, or planning to sell it off, she’s really committing to the deception, but the far more likely truth is that she’s doing exactly what it looks like: trying to turn the clock back to the pre-Xbox Series X days, if not pre-Xbox One.

No doubt that sounds like a good idea in the boardroom but it makes no practical sense. You can’t make games that cost hundreds of millions of dollars exclusive on a console that too few people own, because it’s impossible to make your money back. And nobody’s going to buy new hardware in order to play new entries in franchises that reached their natural end 15 years ago. Not to mention the folly of even thinking about making The Elder Scrolls 6 an exclusive.

If that’s not Sharma’s plan then good, because maybe it’ll have a chance of succeeding but it’s the only obvious option for her, based on her recent statements and her current resources. If she has an ace up her sleeve, that no one is yet aware of, then that would be the best news possible for the whole games industry, as we’ve already see how Sony is carrying on when they have no serious competition. But it’s very hard to believe there’s any magic wand about to be waved and, in all probability, Xbox really is as doomed and desperate as it seems.

Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.

To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.

For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

MORE: Wolfenstein and Doom still in development despite Bethesda cuts confirms insider

MORE: Nintendo Switch consoles to be discontinued in 2027 — but only in Europe

MORE: Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced best pre-order deals on PS5 and Xbox

​An election for Whitby Town Council’s West Cliff Ward will be held this week on Thursday, July 9.

​The election will see two candidates compete to take up a seat on the parish council, which consists of 19 councillors who generally serve for a four-year term.

​The candidates are Bev Breese and Amanda Louise Everson.

​All councillors’ roles are voluntary, and members do not receive remuneration for the work.

​Residents of the West Cliff ward will be able to vote at Whitby Leisure Centre’s Community Room on Thursday.

​The polls will open at 7am and members of the public will be able to cast their ballots until 10pm on July 9.

​The by-election arose following Sarah Blackwell’s resignation earlier this year.

​The next full meeting of Whitby Town Council is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, July 28.

​

(Image: Newsquest)

Director and actor Jayden Robinson, 22, a recent journalism graduate from York St John University is the man behind Triesverse: Cataclysm, which premieres at the Savoy Cinema in Doncaster on Saturday, August 2.

The film was shot across York, Doncaster, and Nottingham and is the latest instalment in the Triesverse action-comedy series which Jayden said features a small appearance from Paul McGann, who also recorded an exclusive message for the audience attending the premiere.

The TV, film and theatre actor from Liverpool is best known for roles as “I” in the 1987 independent British film Withnail & I.

He also potrayed the eighth Doctor in a 1996 Doctor Who TV movie, and the BBC drama serial The Monocled Mutineer.

Well-known British actor Paul McGann has a very brief cameo in the film and recorded a message for audiences attending the premiere (Image: Jayden Robinson)

Recommended reading:

Jayden Robinson said: “I’m over the moon to see the series I started working on as an 11-year-old has reached heights such as this.

“I can confidently say that I have never worked as hard on anything in my life so far, and I am ecstatic to show everyone how we bring this wacky world to a close.”

Jayden said the new film is part of the Triesverse franchise (Image: Jayden Robinson)

Beginning with Jayden Tries: The First Movie in 2016, Jayden said the low-budget series has developed a following for its self-aware humour, eccentric characters, and expanding mythology.

Triesverse: Cataclysm forms part of a two-part finale and is described as the franchise’s most ambitious entry yet.

Izzy Jeeves, who plays Izz Fury, said: “As someone who joined the Triesverse more recently than other performers, I feel very honoured to be a part of such an incredible project.

“Cataclysm has been so much fun and a very fulfilling experience, introducing me to so many great people.”

Jatden said ‘Cataclysm’ promises the franchise’s biggest adventure yet (Image: Jayden Robinson)

Daniel Chapman, who portrays the lead villain, said: “Triesverse: Cataclysm has been an absolutely incredible experience, filled with action-packed drama and a highly emotional core which is rarely seen in films of its genre.”

Ethan Stringer, who appears as himself, said: “Working on this film has been a truly wholesome experience, making films and memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

“I can’t wait for people to see our latest addition to the narrative.”

Following its theatrical premiere, the film is expected to be released on the Jayden Robinson Media website shortly afterwards, making it accessible to fans worldwide.

Triesverse: Cataclysm will receive a special limited-edition theatrical premiere at The Savoy Cinema, Sir Nigel Gresley Square, Waterdale, Doncaster on August 2.