The Thursday Inbox suggests Waluigi for the final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC, as one reader asks why Microsoft bought Bethesda.
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Waiting for Fallout
So, The Elder Scrolls 6 may not be ready for another five years?
That’s actually crazy when you think about it. That’s a 15 year wait between sequels. That is Shenmue levels of wait between 2 and 3.
I mean, I get wanting to take your time, especially when you are known for buggy releases, but this is kinda extreme, no?
And with that news, I’m guessing it will be equal amount of time for the next Fallout too.
I hope Microsoft just gives the Fallout franchise to another studio at this point. Waiting 15 years for a sequel to your favourite franchise is a little bit insane. (I’m not counting 76, the game is kinda fun but doesn’t feel Fallout to me). They own obsidian now. And a plethora of other studios.
They could lose a lot of their fanbase doing this. I could be 50 by the time the new Fallout is out. People will move on.
Matt
GC: Buying Obsidian and putting them to work on a Skyrim clone is looking like an increasingly unfortunate move.
Change of heart
Regarding the long wait for The Elder Scrolls, 6 etc. it does seem timely when you count peripheral goings on in the games industry as whole.
Why is Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 production taking so long?
Well, the clues are plain to see. All their games have been buggy, likely because they were rushing games no-one else makes with made huge scopes (hence why I and other still play Skyrim to this day).
Todd Howard said they greatly increased their engineers from a couple to like more than a dozen for Creation Engine 2.
Also, in recent years the crunch and mad outsourcing has come under scrutiny. I cannot remember Bethesda being one of the main culprits.
It seems to me they might of took a decision to scope the now current hardware, not burn their staff, and build a solid foundation for the future.
I hope that Creation Engine 2 is a solid competitor to, say, Unreal, etc. now and it will enable their teams after Starfield to content create quicker, than get bogged down.
Tundra_Boosh
GC: At what point are you suggesting Bethesda became obsessed with stamping out bugs at all costs? Because Fallout 76 only came out three years ago…
Majority rules
I was curious. In the Xbox 360 era most reviews would be on that console, as they were usually the better version, with PlayStation 4 following that generation.
I’ve noticed most of your reviews lately are still on PlayStation 4. Surely with the ease of backwards compatibility the Xbox Series X would be a better choice? Or is there another reason? Such as publishers sending more PlayStation review copies. Just a thought anyway. Love the site. Been here since Digi days.
Phil
GC: Thank you. It’s partly that publishers send PlayStation 4 copies as default but that in turn is simply a reflection that more people own PlayStation 4s than Xbox Ones and, at the moment at least, more PlayStation 5s than Xbox Series X/S.
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No swords
Just to throw my two pennies into the whole last DLC character for Smash Bros Ultimate. Logic would predict Waluigi and I’ve said it before on these pages I would like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
What I think would be a really fitting end to it all though would be Lego man/woman. Especially after the two companies have decided to work together for the foreseeable future. The level could also resemble the Lego Mario starter pack and, if you think about it, it’s kind of free advertising for both companies so it’s a win-win situation.
Also, I don’t think there would be too many people disappointed with his inclusion as he is a pretty iconic character worldwide.
Yet I fear, like one of your other readers already suggested, it will probably be just another man with a sword.
freeway 77
GC: We could maybe see it being Waluigi, especially if his moves revolved around various Nintendo in-jokes.
Put a ring on it
RE: Rocky. I’m not sure it’s really Sony’s style to buy up developers just to stop Microsoft buying them. It seems more likely that they have worked closely with them over several years now, identified a talented team and decided they represent a good business move to bring them in house and have them work on their own projects.
It’s cheaper than outsourcing to them regularly and paying for exclusive content, and from developer’s point of view it gives them stability, and maybe a chance to try bigger projects.
kiran
GC: It’s not really a question of natural preference. If Sony hadn’t bought Housemarque there was every chance Microsoft would have. If it was merely a question of saving money they could’ve bought them a decade or more ago – but at that point Microsoft wasn’t aggressively buying up studios.
Ultimate offer
So I have just recently picked up an Xbox Series S, to take advantage of Game Pass, and I was wondering if they still convert Xbox Live Gold to Game Pass Ultimate for £1?
I read online that they still do it if you have three years’ worth of Gold on your account, but if you take the three months Ultimate for £1 offer on top does that still work and give you three years and three months of Ultimate? Many thanks in advance.
Cu8e5 (gamertag)/Cubes (PSN ID)
GC: We don’t have much experience on that side of things with Game Pass, but we’re sure a reader can help.
Bethesda bundle
Probably daft to speculate but what do Microsoft get out of the purchase of Bethesda?
Obviously offices, maybe a game engine, but then they fund that for five years or so.
As a business I can only really think of Elder Scrolls Online and licensing on figures and that stuff.
I always think of game development as splat and splurge, no income for a while then you are swimming in money.
What gives!
Paul
GC: We’re not sure we understand the question? They get half a dozen major studios and control of some of the most successful franchises in gaming history, the current entries of which they can immediately put up on Game Pass.
Last chance to buy
I was just writing in a short message to remind people that the PSP Store is closing soon, I think July 2nd but GameCentral can correct me on that if that is not correct. So, remember to buy anything you want before it closes and download it once to have it in your library for re-download in future.
I’ve recently bought Persona 3 Portable on the Store.
Andrew J.
PS: The Spectrum Retreat is free on Epic Store from today at 4pm.
GC: Yes, it’s July 2nd, so this Friday.
Trouble at Home
Just wanted to have a little whinge about Nintendo and its handling of data to make myself feel better. My children and I all love Pokémon. I have a healthy/unhealthy amount of them trapped in my phone thanks to Pokémon Go and my son asked if I would transfer some of them to him to help complete his pokédex in Shield. I thought why not? So, I downloaded Pokémon Home on my phone and the Switch, linked it to my Nintendo account and tried to help him out.
After half an hour I realised this wouldn’t work as the two versions of Home and the Home transfer function within Go would all need to be linked to my son’s Nintendo account (itself an offshoot of my main account) in order to get Bulbasaur where he needed to be. So I deregistered everything, set it all up for him and away we went.
Then I saw that there is a limit on how many pokémon can be held in Home unless you shell out for a subscription. Plus, you can only send a certain amount of pokémon dependent on how much Go Transporter energy you have. This is a meter that runs down gradually refills over days or quicker if you spend pokécoins. What. On. Earth?
Aside from the unnecessary hoops and restrictions I’ve mentioned, let’s not forget that if I wanted to send any pokémon via this method to my daughter or myself I would need to de- and re-register Home 2.5 times every time I wanted to get them to a different account. Plus, when they do end up in the intended account they are themselves locked to the save data for that game on that Switch and not in the type of cloud-based save system you would expect in 2021.
As I have experienced firsthand, if you can’t turn your Switch on and send it to Nintendo to repair, your save data gets wiped and all the pokémon die. A quick Google search reveals that Nintendo have now enabled Pokémon save data to be moved from one Switch to another but that requires more steps than anyone would be interested in reading here.
And don’t get me started on the The Isle Of Armor and The Crown Tundra DLC, which my children can only play on one of our two Switches at a time as it will only work on whichever one is set as the ‘main’ Switch.
I just don’t get it. Nintendo have these made-up characters locked behind more firewalls than NFTs and cryptocurrency.
RedRobN
GC: Pokémon Home has always been weird. It always seems like it’s purposefully designed to discourage you from using it.
Inbox also-rans
GTA 6 in 2025? Now that’s one rumour I can believe instantly. Although unlike Skyrim at least I can understand why Rockstar is taking so long, what with GTA Online being so popular still.
Gunship
Xbox is the official console of Battlefield 2042? EA and Microsoft have always been thick as thieves, so I’m not surprised. I imagine Microsoft has looked into buying EA on more than one occasion. I’d be curious how close they got.
Tension
This week’s Hot Topic
On Wednesday we’ll be exactly halfway through the year, so for this weekend’s Inbox we want to know what you think is the best game of 2021 so far.
The game has to be one that was released new this year, so not just whatever you happened to be playing from a previous year (if it helps you can find our list of our top 10 favourites here). How many 2021 games have you bought in total this year and how well do you feel publishers have coped with the problems caused by the pandemic?
Whether they’re new or not, have you bought more or less games in general this year and are there any you’re already planning to get in the second half of 2021?
E-mail 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, 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: The Elder Scrolls 6 delay, Ghost Of Tsushima 2, and Uncharted 2 remake
MORE : Games Inbox: Battlefield 2042 vs. Call Of Duty, the best Mario Golf game, and Shin Megami Tensei 5
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