Games Inbox: Is the PS5 becoming a flop?

The Thursday letters page is unimpressed by the current standard of official Olympics games, as one reader is frustrated by Elden Ring’s side quests.

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Slow decline
What worries me most about these latest PlayStation 5 sales figures is not how bad they are but how little Sony seems to care. They’re only going down because of their inaction and they’ve never explained why they’re acting like this or what their plan is. If they’re pivoting to live service games they’re sure taking their sweet time about it. And if they’ve changed their mind, then why not tell us?

The silence and lack of certainty is guaranteed to be putting people off. Nobody’s going to buy a PlayStation 5 to play Concord, but they definitely will for The Last Of Us Part 3 or God Of War 3 or anything of that same standard.

This whole situation is so baffling, as we slowly watch the PlayStation 5 starting to become a flop. No one would’ve guessed that four years ago but what else do you call a console that has had barely any new first party games in two years, and none planned for the future? It’s madness.
Gordo

GC: It’s not a flop by any measure. It’ll still almost certainly be in the top 10 best-selling consoles of all time, but it is trending behind the PlayStation 4 and sales are falling faster than expected.

Expensive times
If Sony ends up releasing the PlayStation 6 early, and I agree they are likely to be thinking of doing so, where does that put the PS5 Pro? They haven’t even announced it yet, but rumours say developers have had it for more than a year now, so I don’t think there’s much doubt that the original plan was to release it this year.

My feeling is they will release it, because it is finished, but it’s going to be very awkward if that comes out this year and then the PlayStation 6 is out in, say, 2026. I would assume that’s the sort of timeframe we’re going to be dealing with and I for one have not got two £500 chunks of spare cash laying around to spend on Sony hardware in that time.

What a mess this whole generation has been.
Tacci

Olympic disappointment
It’s genuinely funny how out of touch the Olympics organisers are with video games, from their weird tournament featuring mobile games nobody’s ever heard of to taking the official licence from Sega, so some no-name company can make trashy mobile apps. Apart from anything, Sega makes plenty of mobile games itself so what was the point of taking it away from them?

If FIFA ever do make their own game I bet it’ll be the same sort of thing. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t on console either. These companies (organisation, whatever) don’t have a clue about games, they just listen to whatever the con merchants tell them and go along with it. I mean, no great loss, because not even Sega’s games were great, but at least they were real games.
Franky

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An embarrassment of riches
The thing that interests me about the Switch 2 is that with the exception of Zelda none of the big Nintendo franchises have had a new sequel for quite a while now, so theoretically they’re all in with a good chance of appearing at launch or soon after.

Mario, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Splatoon, and even Pokémon are waiting for sequels that could, and arguably should, come very soon. But will they? Will Nintendo want to hold some of the back, until it sees how things are going, or will it feel that getting them all out as soon as possible is the best way to ensure its success?

They’ve got Metroid Prime 4 and hopefully some new IP on top of that too so there are some interesting priorities to decide on there. And hopefully some great games for all of us.
Cranston

Multiple combinations
I really hope Star Wars Outlaws is good. Reading all the previews has been pretty painful though, because they all say pretty much the same thing: it’s fine but nothing amazing and very generic. I know you’ve got to play it safe when so much money is involved but at what point does that start to make it impossible to do anything worthwhile, which his in turn going to make it harder to make any money from it?

Ubisoft aren’t exactly known as a great innovator so I hope after this they go back and create a new franchise that they can go a bit wilder with. I like a lot of their games, but they do all have too many similar parts, that makes it seem like they’re all put together from the same pieces, just in a different order.

At some point people start to see through it all and then it doesn’t matter how well the game is put together, it’s just the same old thing.
Socko

Secret quest
I am finally working my way through Elden Ring. For the most part, I agree with the universal acclaim. There is, however, one aspect of it that I’ve had an issue with throughout my playthrough which came to a head last night, and that’s the arcane way to progress the quests. I beat Astel, went to go into the chamber beyond and it was blocked.

Got straight onto Google because I knew there’d be no point in trying to work it out myself. Turns out I had to fight Baleful Shadow. Went to fight Baleful Shadow, he wasn’t there. Something to do with talking to a mini-doll apparently. Went to talk to the mini0doll. Not there. Have to have an item from Rennala’s chest. Locked. Have to get something from Renna’s Rise. Blocked. Have to talk to some character to give them an item. Turns out I’ve already done it. Frustrated, turn off console.

Is this good game design? It’s a design choice that, for me, actively gets in the way of progressing the game. Maybe I should be careful what I wish for, because I would hate for it to become all waypoints and expository character, but having to do this much research just to get to the next room makes me desperately wish they’d streamline it so I can actually get to the parts of the game I want to play. I’d be interested to hear if GC and the Inbox found this less intrusive than I do, or if anybody actively enjoyed it.
Nathan

GC: You’re talking about one of the most obscure sub-quests, that leads to a secret ending. It’s not meant to be easy to follow, especially when you’re working backwards from a random point via Google.

Delayed response
More than 2,500 performers working for video game studios like Activision, EA, Warner Bros. Games and Blindlight have been on strike in the US since 26 July and say could last up to a year, what with all the layoffs and now this.

I totally get the reason, but this will bring gaming to its knees, with games for next year delayed or even games cancelled and more small studios going to the wall as they can’t release their games on time.
TWO MACKS

GC: Actually, the small print means they can’t strike on games that have already been in production for a year, unless actors take voluntary action on their own. So most of the delays will be postponed until three years or more from now.

Limiting factors
I agree with the argument that the Nintendo GameCube is underrated. I think the limiting factor, as the other reader pointed out, is that it’s Mario and Zelda games are not great. Super Mario Sunshine is, I think, pretty undefendable and was definitely the lo-light of the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection. There are plenty of other good Mario-related games on the console but no 3D platformers.

The Zelda games are more flawed than outright bad, I’d say. The Wind Waker probably has the best collection of dungeons in the whole game, it’s just that everything around it is very thin, even before you get to the infamous truncated ending.

Twilight Princess, I would say, is actually worse as while it’s more consistent it’s very unoriginal and has had really no lasting impact on the series. Although it’s odd that they’ve never brought Midna back, even though they keep using versions of her music in other games.

So yeah, that’s what stops it from being a classic Nintendo console but I still think it’s a good one, and I wish more of its games were more easily available on Switch.
Spiner

Inbox also-rans
Can GC say when the reviews of Funko Fusion and Visions Of Mana are expected? Additionally, are you allowed to say if you have had review copies sent in yet?
TheSpectre N8 (gamertag)

GC: No, we’re almost never allowed to reveal those things. But they’re both a month or more out, so that’s far too early anyway.

Well, I’ve just spent 25 quid on Cygni, wish me luck. I used to be able to finish R-Type on the Master System without losing a life, when I was 12. I’m 54 now and my reactions are shot.
Zombiekicker
PS: Shout out to Clumpy Rhino. Good times gaming with him and Zen all night, conversations setting the world to rights.

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The small print
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