The Wednesday letters page worries that Trump’s tariffs will delay the reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2, as a reader looks forward to Indiana Jones at Christmas.
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Unexpected bargain
It’s been a fairly unexciting Black Friday so far, despite my hopes that I might be able to pick up a Nintendo Switch cheap, but I have found a few bargains. I got Spider-Man 2 for £43.50 from the PlayStation Store and EA Sports FC 25 for £35 at the same time. I’m thinking about getting Star Wars Outlaws too, which seems to be floating around £40 at most stores.
These are pretty good deals but unlike previous years I haven’t seen anything super cheap that tempts me. There’re usually some games for £10 to £20 that I decide to take a gamble one but there’s been nothing like that this year that’s taken my fancy. Suicide Squad is the only 2024 game in that price range and that’s certainly not something I’d pay any amount for.
Interested to hear what other people’s experiences are though and if they can recommend any other deals. I feel like trying something unique, that I wouldn’t usually because of the price, but I’m not seeing anything like at the moment.
Soldat
Bad timing
All this talk about the Nintendo Switch 2 being unveiled in January might make logical sense but people don’t seem to be taking seriously all this tariff talk from Trump. He said this week it’d be 35% from China, which is a huge increase in the cost of anything made there, including all video game consoles.
I don’t see Nintendo announcing the Switch until they know exactly what’s going on, because how are they going to look if they say that Switch 2 is $300, or whatever, and then a month later they have to increase the price by a third because Trump came into office?
That is a disaster waiting to happen for them and could kill the whole console in the public’s eyes. Nintendo are a cautious company when it comes to business and I don’t see them willing to take any chances with a situation as volatile as this. It wouldn’t shock me if the Switch 2 was delayed into the autumn or even 2026.
Gablin
Christmas adventure
Kudos where’s deserved. As long as the Indiana Jones game turns out well (and based on your preview that’s looking promising), Microsoft’s actually done a decent job of an end of year line-up.
People seem to like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, and once the capacity issues on Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 are fixed that seems like it will please people into flying (not me personally).
Call Of Duty isn’t something that generally appeals to me but as I’m likely to resubscribe to Game Pass for Indie, having two campaigns to play through in December is good. Also, something about Indy feels like it fits a Xmas break.
Tim
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Time is a flat circle
I’m not sure I understand the point of the Zelda timeline. None of the games reference each other (except Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom, which aren’t on the timeline) so what does it matter? Nintendo could make a typo with their list, and nobody would ever be able to prove it didn’t make sense or was obviously wrong.
There’s barely any story in any of these games anyway, so I really don’t think you want to be tied down by continuity as well. As usual, fans focus on completely the wrong things, potentially distracting the creators from doing the stuff that matters. Imagine if Nintendo decided not to do an idea or add a feature because it wouldn’t fit the timeline. None of that matters, only the game.
Nestor
Alternative dimension
Those Metroid Prime rumours sound pretty convincing, so I look forward to more remasters. I hope they put as much effort into them as they did the excellent first one, as I’d never played any of them before but I loved that and have become a little obsessed with the series now.
I do wonder what the future of 2D Metroids are though. Metroid Dread was a big hit, bigger than Nintendo expected, but we’ve heard nothing about any kind of follow-up. I would like both styles to continue, as they’re both quite different and yet Nintendo don’t seem to make any Metroid game very often.
Hopefully, if Metroid Prime 4 is successful then Nintendo will start to go bigger on the franchise and we’ll get more new games more often.
Josc
Lack of dino crisis
I really don’t understand why Capcom is so averse to giving Dino Crisis another go. It took till now to get it properly on modern formats but there’s still no sign of a remaster or remake or sequel.
I know dinomania was strong in the 90s, thanks to Jurassic Park, but the Jurassic World films were all very successful, even if they weren’t very good, and there’s a new trilogy coming up as well. With a female protagonist no less, so now we can pretend it’s an official Dino Crisis film.
If they did a new game, I’m sure it’d be very different to the originals, so whatever problems they have with the original gameplay being outdated is irrelevant. Basically, all it needs to do is have dinosaurs in it, and be a survival horror, and it’s Dino Crisis game, everything else can changed.
Although, how were the dinosaurs there, originally? Was it a time machine or cloning like Jurassic Park? I think it was a time machine and so they were actual dinosaurs and not lab-made ones.
Geoffrey
GC: It involved a space-time vortex, or something, so they were real dinosaurs from the past.
Double threat
I see Mass Effect director Casey Hudson has had to shut down his studio before even getting to announce a game. Apparently they couldn’t get all the funding they need. Yet more proof that the whole business of making games is completely messed up. He should’ve had investors knocking at his door but now what will happen? He’ll give up making games or go back and work at EA or something?
After Dragon Age: The Veilguard didn’t blow the doors off I wouldn’t be surprised if EA were ready to shut down BioWare entirely, or at least cut them down to a shadow of themselves. What was their last hit? Dragon Age Inquisition almost a decade ago? If I was a bean counter I’d be sharpening the knives and that’s unfortunate.
Austin
Let them cook
I really hate to see people cheering on acquisitions. There was plenty of that going on when Xbox was buying Activision Blizzard and what did that lead to, exactly as GC predicted? Hundreds of redundancies. Not to mention Xbox giving up any sense of competing with PlayStation, with their new multiformat policy. In short, it was a disaster.
This company that owns FromSoftware isn’t big enough to cause that kind of trouble but it’s still not going to be good news. As Phil Spencer is now learning (but apparently never predicted) once you spend a lot of money on buying a company your boss and investors expect you to make that money back very quickly.
This will put huge pressure on FromSoftware to make new games as quickly as possible and that is going to have an obvious effect on quality. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hidetaka Miyazaki ended up leaving as soon as his contract allowed, just like all the execs from Activision Blizzard did, and then where will we be?
A developer needs two things: plenty of funding and to be left alone to do their own thing. Sure, the publisher has to make sure they’re actually working on something – they can’t waste years just prototyping or whatever – but it should be a loose leash that’s kept on them as much as possible.
I feel it’s a shame they’re even owned by a larger company, let alone that larger company now being owned by Sony. Maybe the deal won’t go through but if it doesn’t the target is already on their back and someone else will step in after Sony to try and buy them instead.
Cranston
Inbox also-rans
I find it very hard to imagine that any of Sega’s plans for movies are going to work. They just don’t make any sense, given most of these games didn’t have a story. And not even just the old ones, what’s the plot of Crazy Taxi that’s going to be winning it an Oscar?
Futterman
I remember a reader questioned recently why other publishers don’t try and copy Animal Crossing, given it’s been such a massive hit. I agree it doesn’t make much sense, no matter whether you care about the game or not, but apparently Ubisoft is rumoured to be making one with the codename Alterra. May be too little too late though.
Tom Meadows
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