Games Inbox: What will be in today’s PS5 State of Play?

The Thursday letters page is desperate for a new Batman game, as one reader is shocked by how much money Star Citizen has raised so far.

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Prepare yourself
So here we are. Announced at the last possible moment and on at 11pm, but finally we have confirmation that there’s going to be a PlayStation showcase this month. Except it’s not a showcase, just a State of Play, and it’s only half an hour. This is going to be such a nothingburger the internet is going to be unbearable for weeks.

If there’s any bigger first party announcement than Astro Bot and Ghost Of Tsushima on PC I will take up yoga (I use that as an example of a very unlikely thing). All we’re getting are mid-level third party reveals, games we already knew about, and a terrible sense of disappointment.

I urge everyone to prepare themselves for the worst and then if, by some miracle, something interesting is announced then it’ll be a nice surprise. Personally, I don’t even know why Sony are bothering if they’re not going to make a proper job of it but who can ever understand them lately.
Garry

Better than nothing?
So there is going to be a PlayStation event after all, but it’s a State of Play and not a showcase? That is not a good sign, especially if it’s only 30 minutes long. I don’t see it having anything major to say, especially as they’ve already confirmed no major first party games until next year.

I have to question why it’s happening at all really. Casual gamers wouldn’t notice if it was cancelled but now it’s inevitably going to be overshadowed by the Xbox showcase, which probably is going to be good. It’ll certainly have lots of games and be longer than 30 minutes – they’re spending that on Call Of Duty alone!

Sony just keeps making this strange decisions, that seem to hurt it for no reason. Quietly admitting you have no new games, in a statement only hardcore gamers will be aware of, is one thing but publicly proving you have nothing with a lukewarm preview event seems like an easily avoidable home goal.
Lamplighter

Die Fledermaus Returns
Glad to hear that the people in charge of Rocksteady apparently got out early and have set up their own studio. Although I thought Microsoft didn’t believe in exclusives? Or is that only when it suits them?

I know there’s been some uncertainty as to whose idea exactly Suicide Squad was, but I think the fact that the first thing the studio is doing is a single-player game makes it fairly clear that even if Rocksteady made the first suggestion they weren’t happy about the direction it ended up going in.

It’s a shame that they won’t be able to make a Batman game though as even if they make something like it, there’s all those characters and gadgets that you just can’t do, even with a similar concept. Maybe it’s just best to do something completely different but still single-player. Looking forward to whatever it is, either way.
Cantabile

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Xenu’s favourite game
On the back of Microsoft buying Activision and spending oodles of cash, I was considering, for some bizarre reason, whatever happened to Star Citizen by Chris Robert’s and Cloud Imperium Games?

Lo, a Eurogamer article popped up and crowed about how the game/tech demo/alpha (take your pick!) has garnered $700 million, including $3 million in May alone!

All I can say is I’m flabbergasted. When Sony revealed that Spider-Man 2 cost £300 million it makes you wonder what Cloud Imperium are up to. On that point, are there any GC readers who are invested in this and could they shine a light on what they think will be the outcome?

As it stands, this must be the single most expensive game ever made by a country mile. But the expense is all on its backers, and not a publisher. So, what happens if it all goes pop and they run out of funds?
To be honest, it all sounds like Scientology to me…
ZiPPi

GC: It’s an inexplicable amount of money for something that has delivered so little over such a long period of time.

Nothing but Duty
Just seen that this year’s Call Of Duty will be on Game Pass day one, with Xbox praying it helps them. I can’t see it working. A monthly subscription of Game Pass is just under £9 a month. If you really are a Call Of Duty-only player you will play it for 12 months, till the next Call Of Duty comes out.

Over the 12 months that’s around £120 for the year. You can buy the game for £70, which is a saving of £50. I can’t see it helping Xbox or Phil Spencer, other than the money from sales alone. I really can’t see Game Pass going up in subscribers, maybe a few but not £69 billion more. But I’ll never know, I gave up on the game many years ago.
David

Opening the door
Just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of praise for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. I did play the original but barely remembered it and the remake looks a lot better than I ever expected. I love how you can tell the characters are made out of little bits of craft paper and everything is so weird and imaginative.

It’s really funny too. I love Luigi and Goombella (I second the idea for her getting her own game, maybe some kind of team-up with Toadette) and all the other characters. Everything feels so alive and surreal. It’s much more reminiscent of the original games, where things got very weird, but also with a great American made script on top of it all.

Nintendo would be crazy not to make the next Paper Mario game similar in style. I never play The Origami King but as far as I understand it still wasn’t a role-player and that seems so pointless. Make a new game that’s a full-on role-player, with a funny script, and lots more weird new characters – not just ones that already exist.

I really hope it’s going to be an early Switch 2 game but I guess The Thousand-Year Door only coming out now probably means it won’t. It does mean there’s a lot to look forward to in the future though, just as soon as we get that first announcement.
Gooberfish

Remote multi-play
PlayStation remote play is missing an important feature, that is local multiplayer. I don’t want to lug around my PlayStation 5 to play multiplayer games. Sony would be sensible to incorporate multiplayer remote play.

I have always enjoyed local multiplayer games since the N64 and am not much of an online player anymore. Any other improvements in their remote play applications, such as increased resolution, are welcome as well.
Sheel

Batman Forever
Hearing that the founders of Rocksteady are back with their own company is great and all but they’re obviously not going to be working on Batman anymore. I know Suicide Squad was bad but the first three Batman: Arkham games were so good and it’s a crime we haven’t got any more. Origins and Gotham Knights were okay but they’re just not the same. They’re okay copies of what went before but they added nothing new.

The new James Gunn cinematic universe is starting soon, and the first Batman game (not the Matt Reeves series) seems to be quite a way off and I’m not sure there’s much likelihood of us getting anything before that. We haven’t even seen the Wonder Woman game yet and that was announced years ago.

Gunn said that the games would be in the same continuity as the films and other stuff but that seems only likely to slow down their development even more. I doubt there’s any real plan for anything else anyway. Who would be making the next game and what formats would it even be for?

I just want a good Batman game again, it’s been almost a decade now and I’m sure it’ll be many more years before there’s another one – and no guarantee that it’ll be any good.
AndyL

Inbox also-rans
What happened to that reader who was away to play Sekiro a couple of weeks ago? Have we heard from them since, do we need to arrange a welfare check?
ANON

GC: Heh, we don’t think so. Maybe they gave up gaming in disgust at its difficulty.

Glad to see Stellar Blade has been a success because it’s a great game. But this is only going to encourage them to do more pervy stuff. There are special websites for that kind of thing, just make me a game I can play in front of my girlfriend.
Loftus

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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.

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