GTA 6 is going to be big in every sense (Rockstar)
A YouTuber has pieced together various GTA 6 leaks to estimate the size of the map, indicating it could be significantly larger than GTA 5.
After the anniversary of the first trailer passed by without a peep from Rockstar, the big question is whether we’ll see more footage from GTA 6 at some point this month.
While predicting Rockstar’s next move is always a foolish endeavour, you can always rely on fans to try and do so anyway – whether through wild theories or elaborate creations of their own.
The latter is on full display in a new YouTube video, which claims to have pieced together what the map for GTA 6 will look like, based on all the leaks so far.
The video, posted by YouTuber Dark Space, directly compares GTA 5’s map to the estimated size of the one for GTA 6, which is based on ‘real range units from the leaks’.
As pointed out by a moderator on the GTA 6 Reddit, the video creates a 3D model based on another map project by Dupz0rs. While the maps outline is described as speculative, it is said to be accurate for the areas of Vice City, Port Gellhorn, and the Florida Keys, with the rest being estimations based on the trailer and leaks.
In other words, it shouldn’t be taken as gospel – but it does give a rough idea of how big the Leonida’s map will be.
In the video (at the four minute mark), Dark Space shows a side-by-side comparison of a helicopter ride across the GTA 5 map and the largely blank GTA 6 model. While it takes 3 minutes 30 seconds to fly across GTA 5, from the southernmost to the northernmost point of the map, it takes 6 minutes 10 seconds in the envisaged sequel.
If these leaks are accurate, that means GTA 6’s map could be almost double the size of the one featured in GTA 5, which was already the biggest in the series so far.
Whereas GTA 5 is set in a satirical spin on Los Angeles, GTA 6 takes its inspiration from Florida for the state of Leonida, which includes a return to the Miami-inspired Vice City.
While there’s uncertainty around whether we’ll see the anticipated next trailer for GTA 6 this month, the next likely chance is at The Game Awards on Friday, December 13.
An exact release date for GTA 6 has yet to be announced, but Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two has reaffirmed it is scheduled for autumn 2025.
Maya from the Black Ops 6 Zombies campaign (Activision)
Black Ops 6 players are calling out what appears to be AI art, as an insider claims voice actors have quit due to a lack of AI protections.
AI generated art has already become a widespread issue within the games industry, with some studios trying to use it to cut costs, while others just seem to use it as an excuse to layoff more people.
While AI can aid game development in positive ways, such as with anti-cheat systems, the biggest concern is whether companies like Microsoft and EA, which have fully embraced the technology, will use it instead of hiring voice actors or other artists to help make its games.
This concern has come to a head at Activision, after players highlighted what appears to be AI art within Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6, while rumours claim the majority of the Zombies voice cast has quit due to an AI dispute.
Over the weekend, players took umbrage with a new zombie Santa Claus image which has started popping up on the game’s loading screens. While it might seem innocuous on a passing glance, you might notice a discrepancy if you look closer at the hand.
The presence of six fingers has led many to believe it’s AI generated, as the technology has a history of struggling to create convincing hands. Others have suggested the six fingers could have been intentional to reflect Black Ops 6, but that seems like a significant stretch.
Another image from Black Ops 6 shows a gloved hand has attracted scrutiny because it similarly features too many fingers, with one player branding it ‘AI slop’.
This has led another player to create a thread on the Black Ops 6 Reddit to encapsulate the situation, titled ‘This is unacceptable at this point’.
AI may have lent a hand this Christmas (Activision)
Along with the AI art grievances, the post itself makes reference to claims from Call Of Duty leaker TheGhostOfHope, who alleges the majority of actors who portrayed characters in the Black Ops 6 Zombies mode have quit due to the lack of AI protections in their contracts.
‘This has resulted in some of the disappointing recasts we are now seeing early on,’ they stated on X, citing an apparent recast of Samantha Maxis, originally voiced by Julie Nathanson, on Zombies map Citadel De Morts.
The leaker suggests that other voice actors will be replaced in future updates, with Activision no doubt hoping the gradual change has more chance of not being noticed.
While it’s unclear if this is the case with Black Ops 6 actors specifically, members of the Screen Actors Guild union (SAG-AFTRA) are currently on strike against video game companies, over the lack of safeguards regarding AI.
The strike, which began in July this year, is still ongoing, with Activision Blizzard among the companies in negotiations.
This isn’t the first time Activision has been accused of using AI in Call Of Duty either, with a cosmetic Yokai’s Wrath bundle in Modern Warfare 3 also apparently being AI-generated.
How many fingers does this guy have? (Activision/X)
No Man’s Sky – will indie games bolster The Game Awards? (Hello Games)
The Monday letters page wonders if even Nintendo know when the Switch 2 will be out, as a reader enjoys early access to Indiana Jones And The Great Circle.
PLEASE NOTE: We are currently preparing our content for over the Christmas period and will need a number of Reader’s Features, so if you’ve been meaning to write one but never quite got round to it we could do with as many as possible before Monday, December 23.
A good year I hope the rumours about The Game Awards being ‘a good one’ are true because we really could do with ending 2024 on a positive note. It really has been a terrible year for gaming and just about everything else. Yes, we’ve had some good games out this year, but that was all stuff started five years ago, even before the pandemic. As we start to get into next year and beyond I fear the number of interesting games is going to drastically decrease.
I really want The Game Awards to prove me wrong though, because it’s obvious that Sony can’t be bothered to calm fears on their own. But I just don’t know who’s going to swoop in and be the hero we deserve here. Who’s expecting Take-Two, EA, or Ubisoft to turn up with games so good they suddenly make everyone optimistic about the games industry again?
I just don’t know. Hopefully Capcom can do something, but I doubt Nintendo will be there. There’ll probably be a lot of indie games so maybe they can pick up the slack. No Man’s Sky was amazing when it was first unveiled, even if it took years to actually come good. Reiko
Crazy year It’s amusing to me that even Nintendo are reportedly worried about competing with GTA 6. I know we don’t know for sure what they’re planning for the Switch 2’s release date, but this talk of May makes sense while also smacking of being the absolute last moment Nintendo can release it, without doing it in the middle of the summer games drought.
I suspect everything is still up in their air though, as not only do we know nothing about GTA 6’s release date yet but it’s not clear if these Trump tariffs are going to affect the US price of the Switch 2 either. It may feel like fans are being left in the dark, but I’d be very surprised if Nintendo had a cast iron plan yet, given how crazy things are going to get next year. Lumpy
Sleeping giant With Sony and Microsoft seemingly losing the plot, a lot of people have wondered whether someone else will swoop in and become a big player in gaming. Someone like Apple, Google, or Amazon. All of these are very rich companies, but they’ve all had some involvement in gaming already and mostly made a hash of it. I’m not sure they really want to go for round two and even if they did, what’s to say they’d do any better?
But this news about possible Steam-based consoles makes me wonder if the next industry leader is already here, lurking in the background. More people use Steam than any console so they technically are the biggest format already, but if they did choose to make new, easy-to-use, hardware I do think they could make an impact.
I don’t know if that’s their intention – they don’t seem to push the Steam Deck as much as I thought they would – but they may be slowly realising that they have an opportunity and the competition is not looking too clever at the moment. Colm
Early payment Well, I did what I said I would do and buy Indiana Jones And The Great Circle day one. I actually thought it was out next Monday for some reason. So buying it today, Friday the 6th, brings a tear to my eye as I wait for the 131GB to download. I did go all in and buy the Premium Edition, by the way. Xbox needs a game like this right now.
I’m a MachineGames fan, having loved the Wolfenstein reboots, so I’m glad it reviewed well and I’m happy to throw some money their way to support their game. I didn’t mind the last Wolfenstein with the girls, but it did get old before it should have. I played It single-player and I know it was meant to be played with a two-player team-up. It looks like they’ve learned from their mistakes at what went wrong with that anyway, with no mention of replaying areas with respawning enemies.
I look forward to playing when it finally downloads. Nick The Greek
GC: It didn’t officially launch until today. The Premium Edition gave three day’s early access.
Too much of a good thing I mentioned it earlier in the year, but Timemelters seems to fit the bill for your December indie catch-up: only reviewed by a handful of critics but seems to have some interesting ideas and has been well received by those who have played it (I bought it but haven’t even loaded it up…).
Since rediscovering PC gaming with the Steam Deck, I’m always amazed at the number of games being made. I was looking for a new indie boomer shooter recently and found about 10 I’d never heard of, all apparently very good. Can’t review ’em all. Magnumstache
Blame it on Skynet I can absolutely see what the reader is getting at with their Reader’s Feature about the Switch 2. I’m already worried about whether it’ll be unsustainable for Nintendo and other Japanese companies but trying to do anything beyond the PS5 Pro seems like such a pointless effort, that’s doomed to failure.
As dumb as most publishers seem to have been acting lately I can’t believe that they haven’t considered this problem and I keep coming back to that Microsoft comment about the next gen Xbox being the largest technological leap ever.
We have two options here: either they’re completely off their trolley and/or just straight-up lying or they have a plan. To me the only thing that comes close to making sense is AI, which Microsoft has lots of leeway with.
The quality of AI-generated videos seems to improve almost by the week so I wonder if that can be leveraged in some way to make games on the fly? That seems impossible but I really don’t know what else Microsoft could be thinking of. Having everything look 10% more realistic is not a technological leap, so what are they talking about? Orion
Princely sum Smyths currently has the Switch version of Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown for £9.99 and Xbox/PlayStation 5 versions for £14.99. Absolutely ridiculous price for a Game of the Year contender.
I can thoroughly recommend the excellent DLC too. I’ve already lamented its poor sales, meaning Ubisoft won’t be following up on it, but people get a chance to play a fantastic game for an incredible price. Euclidian Boxes
Unintended bullet time We expect a lot from video games these days.
We talk about constant high frame rates and complain when they drop in busier moments of play, often jarring that immersion that captivates us. But I remember a time, and maybe this was isolated to experiences I had with friends as a younger video game fan, where we would be quite impressed when there was so much going on in a game that everything slowed down for a couple of seconds while the console caught up with the action on screen. It was actually a joyous moment, and we often celebrated the event with exclamations.
In tougher moments there was a knack to taking advantage of the hardware’s limitations, using the gifted seconds to compose oneself, almost like it was a built-in perk to manipulate time. Because, of course, it was all the player’s doing, pushing the game to its limit. Or at least that’s how it felt, as no developer would intentionally try to crash their own game, would they?
For example, during a match in Street Fighter 2, you could send your opponent crashing through destructible background props and if you were proficient enough, already having jumped into a close quarters situation performed an uppercut, followed by a shoryuken before the game was ready – almost like you were using a programmable pad.
Or perhaps you and your buddy are raising hell in the alien-occupied streets of Contra 3 and let off a bomb while you continue firing in all directions. You can practically see your heroes’ pectoral muscles jolt as the gun recoils with each bullet, that leaves the chamber recreating something of an 80s Schwarzeneggar action movie with complementary slowdown for cinematic effect, your exclamatory yells ring out like a war cry.
The same can be said for a multitude of 2D shmups giving you some grace to contemplate your next move in bullet time, while the game behaves like a tranquilised sloth with zero ambition in life. Of course, slowdown wasn’t always helpful, but then neither is the solar powered torch I bought from Amazon, which worked fine until I really needed it.
I guess with the way the world is today, so many more people are tech savvy and your latest console better act like it because there are boxes to be ticked, when the truth is a steady high frame rate shouldn’t be noticed, just like an unsung hero doesn’t get sang at.
However, the reality is the complete opposite, we focus a lot on what a console can or can’t do for the games before it’s even released, regardless of what the games can do for the console.
I think this generation is a great example of that notion. Bad Edit
Inbox also-rans As a keen fan of the original I was wondering if you are going to review The Thing Remastered? Dangeraaron07 (PSN ID)
GC: Probably not, no. Shadow drops are a very foolish concept, in our opinion, especially for lower profile titles, since it all but guarantees less coverage than normal.
The nearly £100 Digital Deluxe version of Suicide Squad on Xbox is now only £4.99. I’ve always loved Rocksteady’s games and I redeemed £5 voucher from my rewards points so got it for nothing. As much as I hate digital downloads, I got something for nothing. Cassius2K
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.
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Civilization 6: Platinum Edition – available on Netflix (Netflix)
The regular look at the last four weeks of mobile games includes three PC classics, two of which are on Netflix, and the artsy Miniatures: A Story Collection.
This month’s mobile releases include the fine-looking Zelda wannabe Airoheart, the touchscreen version of strategy game tour de force Total War: Empire, and two more crackers from Netflix in the shape of The Rise Of The Golden Idol’s mobile debut and their re-release of the mighty Civilization 6.
The Rise Of The Golden Idol
iOS & Android, included with Netflix subscription (Netflix)
Set in the 1970s, the sequel to The Case Of The Golden Idol presents you with a series of crime scenes that you need to scan for clues, each of which gives you a set of keywords.
Your job is to identify all protagonists and assemble the abstruse list of keywords into a statement describing the incident or crime that took place, in a set of discrete scenarios that eventually turn out to be very much connected.
The port to touchscreen is like coming home, feeling even more intuitive than it did with a controller.
Score: 8/10
Miniatures: A Story Collection
iOS, £2.99 (Other Tales)
Miniatures’ collection of four totally unrelated stories spring from objects you find inside a box on the title screen, each leading you into its own surreal little world.
Pitched somewhere between a digital art piece and a set of tiny point and click adventures, its beautiful, minimalist art style, mellow ambient sounds, and sparse dialogue are mesmerising while they last.
Originally released on PC, the touchscreen version works even better, although at around half an hour’s total play time, with little to draw you back for a replay, this will appeal to a fairly select audience.
7/10
Vinland Tales
iOS & Android, Free (Colossi Games)
Presented as a Viking-based survival role-player, Vinland Tales has you gathering materials to construct a great hall, then all the different buildings and crafting stations that make up a village – from huts to the shrines that let you unlock new primitive technologies.
You need workers to perform building and collection tasks, which requires new settlers, who only arrive if you maintain your settlement’s happiness ratings, which in turn requires everything from adequate housing to food rations. And that’s just the start of your chain of dependencies.
Despite that, it’s a curiously rudderless experience, providing insufficient explanation of its systems and starting lengthy timers when you want to do practically anything. Even visiting a neighbouring piece of landscape involves sitting and waiting several minutes, which either forces you to pay or close the game and come back later.
Apart from its setting and central crafting and construction mechanics, nothing about Vinland Tales feels quite right, from its random collection tasks to its continual, unsatisfying waits that seem to offer little in return.
Score: 4/10
Total War: Empire
iOS & Android, £1.99 (Feral Interactive)
First released on PC in 2009, Total War: Empire is a full-blown 18th century military real-time strategy that includes the European powers, America and India, in a proper worldwide rumble.
Battles take place on land and at sea, while the stirring martial music rouses your inner commander and his or her instinct for historic victories. It’s a shame it’s not just a tiny bit smoother.
It was buggy on its release 15 years ago and is consistent with that today, with occasional crashes and visual glitches even on a recent iPad Pro. It does work though and it’s a lot of game – and a chunky 10GB download – to take with you on the train, even if its touchscreen controls can sometimes be a bit fiddly.
Score: 7/10
Airoheart
iOS & Android, £1.99 (Soedesco)
With its cute, 16-bit pixel art looks, and text-only top down adventuring featuring sword, arrows, and bombs, Airoheart wears its inspiration on its sleeve, namely The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past.
The problem with taking your cues from a game at the pinnacle of its genre, is that comparisons are never going to be kind, and that is unfortunately the case here.
From its bizarre, possibly mistranslated text interludes, to its ditchwater dull conversations, clumsy interactions, lacklustre puzzles, and poor checkpointing, this is Zelda in looks alone.
Score: 4/10
Rebel Skies – Clash Royale but slightly different (Rebel Skies Interactive)
Rebel Skies
iOS & Android, Free (Rebel Skies Interactive)
Rebel Skies offers one-on-one battles in the mould of Clash Royale, except it’s a sci-fi setting rather than fantasy, mana is now called energy, spells are command powers, and it’s played in landscape mode instead of portrait.
Levelling your deck’s three factions is also done a bit differently, but in most important respects it’s business as usual, with rounds involving deploying units from your deck, which then fight autonomously, slowly advancing on the enemy HQ.
Inevitably it’s not as polished or complex as Supercell’s now eight-year-old game. It also has a far more obvious paywall, where progress all but stops as your first faction’s cards get to around level 10. It’s not easy to predict how live service games will perform, and despite its immediate charms we suspect this one’s unlikely to reach classic status.
Score: 6/10
Civilization 6: Platinum Edition
iOS & Android, included with Netflix subscription (Netflix)
As if one full bore global scale real-time strategy wasn’t enough for one month, Netflix has released the Platinum Edition of Sid Meier’s turn-based classic for its subscribers, which includes all the game’s many add-ons and pieces of DLC.
First released on mobile four years ago, and on PC in 2016, it really stands the test of time, its absorbing tactical play surviving the move to small screen better on iPad than it does on a phone.
Annoyingly for a re-release there are still bugs knocking about, but as with Total War: Empire its scale and ambition may help you wearily overlook the odd technical hiccup.
It Takes Two – just one of many great co-op games (EA)
A reader recommends the famous and not so famous co-op games he’s been playing online with his friend from Sweden.
Each week one of my oldest friends and I play online Switch games. We grew up together and have a shared love of gaming that has spanned a few decades, from childhood to adulthood. Now in our mid-forties, he lives in Sweden while I live in England, and playing online has been a wonderful way to stay in touch and have fun together.
We’re always on the lookout for new online co-op games we can try, but it can be hard to find a good list. Many of those I’ve found online don’t distinguish between co-operative and competitive online games (though we do play a few of them too), while others focus on couch co-op rather than online co-op.
Here then, as a reference for others as well as a celebration of two friends’ shared gaming experiences, is a list of our favourite Switch online co-operative games. It comes in two parts: part 1 covers some well-known titles you’ve probably heard of already, while part 2 reveals our favourite lesser-known titles and hidden gems.
We hope you enjoy reading this feature, and that you find a new game or two to enjoy with your own friends and family, wherever they may be.
The best-known Nintendo Switch co-op games
The first game we played together, and in fact the reason my friend bought his Switch, was Super Mario Maker 2. There’re thousands of levels to play, including many specifically designed for co-op. And on the subject of plumbing, be sure to try Super Mario 3D World too.
From Koopas to turtles, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is everything you could want in a scrolling beat ‘em-up. That said, it can’t beat (heh) Streets Of Rage 4. In our childhood we were huge fans of Streets Of Rage 2 and this fourth entry superbly updates and modernises the game while remaining accessible, fun and true to its heritage.
If you like retro brawlers, then be sure to grab the Capcom Beat ‘Em-Up Bundle too. This collection of classics has seven scrolling beat ‘em-ups that all offer online co-op play, from Final Fight to Knights Of The Round.
One game you might not realise has a co-op mode is Portal 2, part of Portal: Companion Collection. Solving the devious co-op levels will leave you feeling like absolute geniuses.
If it’s unabashed fun you’re after it’s hard to beat It Takes Two, which is perhaps the single best co-op game we’ve played. It provides a huge variety of everchanging situations, settings and challenges across a whimsical and engaging story. It’s a real love letter to co-op gaming and a joyful experience from start to finish.
Finally, the Trine games – all five of them – receive a strong recommendation. Numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5 are 2D puzzle platformers where you swap between characters with different abilities to overcome environmental challenges and make progress across a likeable fantasy setting. The third entry attempts the same format in 3D – it’s fun though feels unfinished, but definitely still worth a go, especially as all the games often appear on sale.
The hidden gem Nintendo Switch co-op games
We finished part 1 talking about the Trine games, so we’ll start part 2 with a game by the same developer, Frozenbyte: Nine Parchments. Aesthetically similar to Trine, it plays as a 3D magical-combat adventure game, with elemental powers and enemies with corresponding attacks and defence. Like Trine, it’s a lot of fun, with some memorable boss battles too.
Another one similar to Trine is Degrees Of Separation. The name of the game is using contrasting but complementary powers to overcome 2D spatial and environmental puzzles. It’s very well thought-out and hugely satisfying.
Fans of penguin-based hilarity should try Bread & Fred, a co-op game about guiding two penguins up a mountain. Always staying just the right side of frustrating, Bread & Fred is challenging in just the right measure and a whole heap of fun. (Tip: turn on the setting that allows checkpoints before you start.)
Similarly charming is Ibb & Obb, a 2D puzzle-platformer with simple graphics and equally simple controls (move and jump). It has a ton of heart and some very challenging puzzles.
Phogs! is our next choice – a 3D platformer where you control two ends of a two-headed snake-dog, taking part in an inspired range of ridiculous challenges and wearing some excellent hats.
On a smaller scale and no less bonkers, KeyWe tasks you with running a postal service by controlling two small flightless birds. You have to work together to send mail, sort parcels and decipher messages. It can be a little pernickety but is still a good time.
Knights And Bikes is our next one – and is a difficult game to categorise. It plays a bit like a Secret Of Mana game, looks like a retro point ‘n’ click adventure, and feels like something very much its own. It’s full of quirky humour, excellent visuals, and fun shenanigans.
Nobody Saves The World is a huge adventure with a ton of stuff to do and loads of different characters to play as and skill trees to unlock. It takes a fair investment of time, but it’s worth it. And if you like that, try Full Metal Furies too, which offers inventive combat, varied stage design, and a significant challenge.
For those after a more cerebral challenge, both Tick Tock: A Tale for Two and The Past Within offer some excellent head-scratching puzzles based around time travel and co-operative communication.
There are plenty of other games we’ve tried too; some we’ve completed, others weren’t quite for us. Blanc is a fun but flawed arctic adventure with a wolf cub and a fawn. 20XX is a lively Mega Man-esque roguelike (we haven’t tried the follow-up 30XX yet).
Hammerwatch and its sequel are gloomy Gauntlet-style combat quests. Guns, Gore & Cannoli 2 is a riotous 2D run ‘n’ gunner and Warhammer 4,000: Shooters, Blood and Teef is a carbon copy based on the popular Games Workshop universe. (And if you like those check out Broforce too.)
Next up we’re going to try out spy adventure Operation: Tango, and revisit ToeJam & Earl 2: Panic On Funkotron, a new release on the Switch’s Online service. By that time there’ll hopefully be some news about Switch 2 and the prospect of even more online co-op games to look forward to. Thanks for reading and happy co-operating!
By reader Tim F
Operation: Tango – not even we’ve heard of this one (Clever-Plays)
The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email.
XDefiant – another failure to add to the list (Ubisoft)
A reader is worried that publishers like Sony and Ubisoft will destroy themselves before they give up trying to copy Fortnite and other live service games.
While some people complain about Sony’s lack of announcements recently, or Xbox’s apparent cluelessness, I think the real problem in the last few years is that it’s shattered any illusion that the people in charge of games companies – at least those in the West – have any idea what they’re doing or any concern other than the shortest of short term gains.
Obviously, all these companies care about is money, that’s no kind of revelation, but I think the shock has been that none of them have any concern about maintaining the industry at large. They’d let the whole thing burn down rather than make the tiniest effort to do something that doesn’t instantly and directly benefit them. Short-sighted isn’t the word, not when someone like Sony stops making games and then wonders why less people are buying their consoles.
Rather than address the problem of games costing too much to make they instead just stop making them and sack hundreds of people. They replace talented artists with AI but never think of doing the same with their brain dead CEOs. In short, they make the worst decision possible at every moment and absolutely never learn their lessons.
This, of course, brings me to live service titles. It’s been seven years now since Fortnite Battle Royale became the biggest game on the planet and still it hasn’t got through to publishers that copying its success isn’t easy, not through all that time and all the dozens, if not hundreds, of failed copycats.
It’s very hard not to think about the Far Cry 3 quote about the definition of insanity being to do the same thing again and again and expect a different result.
No matter how big the pile of evidence gets, that it’s near impossible to manufacture a hit live service game, especially not on the scale of Fortnite, they keep trying. And almost always with lame copies of games that already exist, instead of anything actually new.
This week we had XDefiant (a bland Call Of Duty clone) throwing in the towel as well as FoamStars (a bland Splatoon clone) and before that Concord (a bland Overwatch clone). They spent eight years making that last one, and XDefiant seemed to have hundreds of people working on it, and yet nobody thought that maybe these weren’t the most appealing games in the world?
I am not the first person to point these problems out and yet it never seems to have occurred to anyone at the publishers. Execs who are no doubt being paid millions a year to make big decisions and who think they understand the industry.
I can only imagine these execs and bosses have dollar signs in their eyes, like some old cartoon, and it’s blinding them to the reality of how difficult live service games are to get right and how it doesn’t make sense to waste time and money on something that has such a small chance of success, versus something that does.
Not only has the prospect of making the next Fortnite turned them mad, but it’s made them blind to the damage they’re doing to the games industry. Sony has wasted almost the entire generation on live service games and even if it’s made a U-turn recently (which we don’t know for sure) it’ll take them another five years or so to get anything close to normal again.
Or consider Ubisoft, who are already in talks with Tencent and with every new failure their bargaining position gets worse and worse. These companies are destroying themselves in their obsession with making live service games and in turn the industry itself.
When Ubisoft are gone the number of independent third party publishers will be tiny compared to just five years ago. Sony has risked their market position on a stupid gamble everyone else could see would never succeed. You might say that they’re only lucky Microsoft isn’t much in the way of competition but at least they haven’t got the live service fever that everyone else seems to have.
The obsession is ruining everyone that gives into it and I’m very worried where all this is going to end, because at this point it’s beginning to seem like only going bust or another industry crash is going to stop this madness.
By reader Ishi
Concord – are lessons being learned? (Sony Interactive Entertainment)
The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email.
The PS1’s most important launch game (Bandai Namco)
A reader shares his fond memories of playing Ridge Racer on the original PlayStation and explains why it was so influential on the rest of his gaming life.
I have enjoyed all the discussion of PlayStation’s 30 years in the business over the last week or so and after feeling so pessimistic about Sony for so long it’s been nice to feel warm and fuzzy about them again. They’ve even had a good marketing campaign for it, with the kids through the ages unwrapping their presents, which adds to the cosy feelings.
The original PlayStation was my first console when I was 12. Before that I’d just played on a friend’s Mega Drive and another’s Amiga, but I’d never owned either myself. There’re no embarrassing photos of me in my pyjamas, ripping the wrapping paper off as if my life depended on it, but I was definitely super excited. Especially as I knew it came with a top notch game: Ridge Racer.
Or at least I’d heard it was top notch. Unlike GC, I had never seen it in arcades as, in my experience, it was actually quite a rare coin-op and so all I knew is that it was a racing game where the graphics looked completely real. That seems laughable when you look at it nowadays and yet I still think there’s an elegant simplicity to it that matches the equally simple but still very fun gameplay.
People talk about the moment they first saw Super Mario 64 as a milestone event, a switch from 2D to 3D that has never been matched again. But I missed out on that too. I didn’t know anyone that had a N64 and I never saw the game until years after it first came out and it was no longer a groundbreaker.
For me, that special moment of realisation, where I felt the gaming world morph from 2D to 3D, happened right there in Ridge Racer on the PS1. It may have had only one track, but I don’t know how many hundreds of hours I happily put into it, trying to unlock everything, get better times, and do weird things like hit the helicopter.
I still feel the game looks good today and seeing it in action it makes me feel nostalgic in a way I rarely ever am usually, about games or anything else. I’ve joked before that the PlayStation has never got better for me since then and obviously that’s not really true – there have been plenty of better games on each PlayStation console.
But in terms of that magic feeling, that sense that a new age has come and you are right there at the start of it… nothing has ever beaten that. I understand it was the same for Super Mario 64 players and it’s sad that improvements in graphics have now slowed to almost a stop, so it’s never likely that feeling will be repeated.
That doesn’t mean we can’t be wowed by graphics anymore, as there are tons of amazing looking games every year, but it’s never the same quantum leap as it was with the first PlayStation and Ridge Racer. VR is the closest thing but while I don’t own a headset I have played them before and while the effect is impressive all the games still seem like tech demos to me.
I suppose you could argue that Ridge Racer was as well, to at least some degree, but for me it will always be my fondest memory of the original PlayStation and the most influential game when it comes to my love of gaming.
By reader DaleL
Wow, what a start! This is just what I wanted to see (Bandai Namco)
The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email.
A reader worries that it will no longer make business sense for Xbox and PlayStation to make new consoles after the Nintendo Switch 2.
I’m writing this on Wednesday and, so far, the Switch 2 has not been announced. I feel safe in assuming it won’t have been by the time you read this either. Nintendo said we’d hear something before April though, so at some point relatively soon the boil will be lanced and the first console of the tenth generation of consoles will be revealed.
I’m not going to try and predict what it is or what its games are going to be, because apart from anything that’s irrelevant to the point I’m going to try and make. What we can reasonably assume though, is that the console is going to be more powerful than the first Switch and that means that the games are going to be more expensive to make and will take longer to create.
I’ve seen some fans express concern about this already, but what I’ve not seen anyone mention is the negative effect this will have on smaller Japanese publishers and developers, who have just about been able to keep up with the Switch but now face a future where it’s too expensive and time-consuming to make games for Nintendo’s new console. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my concerns about the tenth generation.
It will be harder to make games on the Switch 2, and more financially risky to experiment, but I have faith that Nintendo will be able to adapt and still put out the great games they are justly famous for. But I feel that is the absolute limit. If an imagined Switch 3 was more powerful again – on par or more so than the PlayStation 5 – then that’s it, not even Nintendo can make innovative or unusual games with the huge financial burden that would imply.
Now think about the PlayStation 6 and Xbox Series Y (please, for the love of sanity just call it Xbox 6, Microsoft – you can pretend the Xbox Series S was number 5, nobody will mind). Neither Sony or Microsoft has ever done anything other than make their next console more powerful and increasingly it’s been very hard to tell where the improvements are.
I’ve been watching trailers of Indiana Jones And The Great Circle this week and the characters look great, there really is no point in trying to do better because they’re still not going to be 100% photorealistic and yet the amount of money it’s going to cost to get them from 70% to 80% will be exorbitant – and I’m not even talking about the cost of the console to ordinary fans.
But I have my doubts as to whether there will be a traditional generation 10 Xbox and PlayStation. There’re rumours of both making portable consoles but they can’t be more powerful, or even as powerful, as the current gen because it’s just not possible on a small handheld, even an ultra expensive one.
They might make portables based on the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, but I predict that’ll be it. It just doesn’t make business sense to keep making ever more expensive consoles, that need ever more expensive games, when nobody can even notice the improvements they supposedly bring.
Xbox has heavily hinted at a new portable (Microsoft)
So, I think the Nintendo Switch 2 will essentially be the last console, at least in terms of the sort of generational improvement we’ve been used to over the last 40-odd years. At first this might seem like a good thing, since companies will have to just concentrate on the games to distinguish themselves, but I think we all know that’s never going to happen.
No new console generation means no more growth and so Microsoft and Sony are going to look elsewhere for it, to subscriptions, streaming, and whatever new band wagon they can jump onto – AI probably, or something even more useless.
You’d think shaking up the paradigm would be a positive, but I can’t see it like that at all. These companies are not going to want to be sitting there just making games on the same hardware for the next 40 years, they’re going to push everything they can to make you spend more and more money because hardware sales are going to slow even more.
That’s why they’re not giving up on live service games. Even if it takes 10 tries till each publisher gets a hit that’s enough for them if that hit generates endless microtransactions for a decade or so. The next generation, or lack of it, is going to make the actual games in the games industry even less important than ever, they’ll just become vessel for microtransactions – especially as the mobile market is stagnating and they can’t do the same there anymore.
To be honest, I’m not sure gaming will survive the upheaval. I hope I’m wrong, because I have a really bad feeling about the future.
By reader Zeiss
Will there even be a PlayStation 6? (Sony)
The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email.
We might have a little while to wait for the Switch 2 (Nintendo)
More rumours have emerged about Nintendo’s next console, as an insider claims another Kirby game is heading to Switch next year.
Nintendo’s successor to the Switch is set to be announced before next April, but there’s still a wealth of speculation as to when it will actually launch.
The rollout of the original Switch saw it revealed in October 2016, before it launched in March the following year. Since it’s missed the chance to replicate that schedule, many now suspect that Nintendo’s next console won’t be out until some point in the second half of 2025.
However, several new rumours have suggested the console might be pushed out before or during the summer next year, in what feels like unusual timing for a game console launch.
The question of a summer launch was discussed on Nate The Hate’s podcast, where he suggested that he had heard of a similar release window, based on ‘industry chatter’.
‘What I can say on this topic is, as of late September, early October, there’s been a lot of industry chatter around the release window of the Switch 2,’ Nate said. ‘And that release window in this chatter has been late May to June.’
While he clarifies that this ‘is not gospel’, he claims it is the timeframe industry ‘partners and companies have as their internal expectations’.
Expanding on this report, Nate further claims an event for the Switch 2 is set to take place at some point in May next year. While he doesn’t have any details on the event specifically, he speculates it would be ‘similar’ to the press event for the original Switch, which took place in January 2017, two months before the console launched.
‘One piece of information I do have, that these reports do not, is that I’ve heard Nintendo is preparing and planning to host an event in May that will be focused on Switch 2,’ he added.
While this doesn’t entirely align with the previous two-month gap between the Switch media event and its launch in March, it’s certainly possible that Nintendo could have a shorter timeframe between these milestones for its next console.
It’s time for a new console (Nintendo)
The bigger question is why launch a console during the summer, which is traditionally the quietest period for video game sales and not a time of year when most people are thinking of buying new hardware.
There could be various reasons but the launch of GTA 6 in autumn is certain to take the air out of the room for anything else video game related, even including the Switch 2.
Elsewhere on the podcast, Nate, who has a fairly decent track record for gaming rumours, also claimed Kirby: Planet Robobot will be released on Switch in 2025. The platformer was originally released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2016, and as Nintendo has a habit of rolling out Kirby games at the end of a console’s lifecycle, it certainly sounds plausible.
While Nintendo has confirmed nothing about the Switch 2, except that it’s backwards compatible, leaks earlier this week appeared to show the new seemingly magnetic Joy-Con controllers with a back pedal.
The studio behind It Takes Two and A Way Out looks set to announce its next game this month, and it might be out sooner than anticipated.
While Hazelight Studios saw some success with its first co-op game A Way Out, the studio’s big breakthrough hit was its successor It Takes Two.
The co-op platformer has sold over 20 million copies since it launched in March 2021, and picked up multiple Game Of The Year awards.
As such, expectation is now much higher for its next game, seemingly titled Split Fiction, and it looks like we’re mere days away from a reveal.
According to reliable leaker billbil-kun, a trailer for Split Fiction is set to be unveiled at some point this month – with the only logical conclusion being at The Game Awards on Friday, December 13.
This is particularly likely as both of Hazelight’s previous projects were revealed at the event, so it makes sense the third would follow suit.
Beyond the existence of a trailer, the leaker also claims Split Fiction will be announced with the release date of March 6, 2025.
While this might seem like a surprisingly quick turnaround, It Takes Two followed a similar rollout, where it was revealed at The Game Awards in 2020 and subsequently dropped on March 26, 2021.
It’s still unclear what Split Fiction actually is, but it’s highly likely it will be co-op orientated again. Hazelight founder Josef Fares previously teased it will ‘take everything to the next level’, so it’s no doubt attempting to build on what the studio has accomplished so far.
As we approach The Game Awards, several insiders have teased it could be a significant year in terms of reveals. VGC’s Andy Robinson has said to ‘fire up the hype train’ as he’s ‘expecting a VERY big Game Awards next week’.
He then clarified that this is ‘definitely not a guess’, when asked if it was a hint on X. This same post has been shared by The Verge’s Tom Warren, with the caption ‘same’.
Next week’s bash marks the 10th anniversary of The Game Awards, so there might be more big announcements than usual.
Last year, a trailer for GTA 6 was shown a few days prior to the event, but the much anticipated second trailer could also debut there. There’s a chance it could be a big showing from Xbox too, considering the Xbox Series X was revealed at the 2019 event.
It’s likely more leaks will emerge in the days leading up to the ceremony, with The Game Awards set to air on December 12 in the US and on Friday, December 13 in the UK from 1am.
