The Wednesday letters page is getting very excited about the Nintendo Direct in April, as a reader asks what the connection is between Dark Souls and Elden Ring.
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The COD crowd
I honestly didn’t know that Call Of Duty: Warzone is in such trouble but I’ll be honest, I’m glad of it. I used to play the game very regularly a year or two ago but it is so completely overtaken by cheats that it’s literally unplayable. I have no idea what they must be getting out of all this, given they’re trying to cheat in a game already filled by cheaters, but it’s an absolute wasteland out there, in terms of having a proper game.
Unless there’s some major technical solution to this that’s possible, I just don’t see any way to save the game but then I also don’t see what difference rebooting it for a second time is going to do. So in that sense I can see why they Activision would just give up on it, strange as that seems.
The problem for them is that if it’s successful, and it has Call Of Duty in the name, it’s always going to attract the worst of the worst of gamers and I’m not sure there’s anything they can do about it. Apex Legends is a similar kind of game, that does similar numbers, but it’s not nearly as bad, just because it doesn’t attract the COD crowd as much.
Overtop
A lack of sincere flattery
Very excited about playing Split Fiction this week and I do think back to GC’s interview with Josef Fares, where they asked him why nobody else is copying his stuff and he didn’t know. I do find it very weird how companies let lets of other fads go by without ever trying to copy them, but the minute battle royale is a thing suddenly they’re all over that.
I get that it’s because the rewards are bigger but at the same time the chances of success are lower. You make a good co-op game and apparently you can sell 20+ million and be king of your own genre. I don’t get the impression Split Fiction was especially expensive to make and they did it in three year, so it can’t really have been.
I wouldn’t even really call it indie, given how good it looks. But how many It Takes Two clones are there in the world? Zero. And how many battle royales? Too many to count.
Gannet
Be careful what you wish for
I’d be a little wary of getting too excited about the success of Monster Hunter Wilds, because it’s been so big I fear we’re in danger of Capcom just becoming the Monster Hunter factory.
Remember, that way back in time Activision used to make games other than Call Of Duty. But the bigger that got the less interested they got in everything else, and now they only make that one game.
I don’t think Capcom are that kind of company, but greed corrupts everyone in the end, if they have things too easy for too long.
Skipper
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From cinematic universe
I do find it interesting that FromSoftware have said there won’t be a sequel to Elden Ring, only the multiplayer spin-off. I admire that, because it’s always best to get new games rather than more sequels, but I do wonder what the motivation is there, given it’s their most successful game for a long while.
Since it’s still quite similar to Dark Souls – and could quite easily have been called Dark Souls 4 – I do wonder whether the next game will be the same: a different name and world but still the same kind of dark gothic fantasy world.
At that point I feel it’s going to start seeming a bit weird that you have all these similar but not connected worlds that could easily be the same thing if they just changed the name on the front of the box. Maybe From could start to link them all together though? What is the Lands Between actually between? Maybe it’s the Dark Souls universe and the Demon’s Souls one.
Although that might come dangerously close to explaining things and I know that’s definitely not something FromSoftware like to do.
Galen
Just a theory
In response to Shipley’s letter, I have to say that I’m not sure I see the logic in ignoring a games unavailability on a format just because it’s available on multiple other formats.
As a theoretical example, if 10 incredible third party games were released on format A and format B, but format C only had 10 average exclusives – it’s fair to say you wouldn’t be opting for format C. While that’s clearly not a direct parallel (Nintendo has some amazing exclusives), I don’t think it’s reasonable to disregard the inability to play some games like Elden Ring when weighing it up.
Going forward though, with companies hitting a graphical ceiling and having to cut costs I think Nintendo will get even more third party options in addition to all first party exclusives. Thats going to make life even more interesting for Sony and Microsoft!
Matt (he_who_runs_away – PSN ID)
Reasonably excited
I am starting to get unreasonably excited about the Nintendo Switch 2. We’ve learnt very little about it this year so I’m hoping that the April Direct is going to open the floodgates and suddenly we’ll have a bunch of new games to pick over and dissect the trailers for.
Apart from Mario Kart we have no idea what any of them are either and while there are plenty of logical guesses and assumptions the fact that this is Nintendo means we can take any of them for granted, which I love.
This has been such a slow, messy, and confusing generation of consoles and even then Nintendo has been the only bright spot, even if they’re not really in a specific lane now in terms of actual generations.
I don’t want anything specific, I’m not going to wish for my favourite games to sequels or revamps, I just want to be surprised and entertained. I feel there hasn’t been enough of that lately.
Pinky
Common indifference
What a horrible letter saying you don’t know or care who makes your games, or what happens to them with all the layoffs. I know GC has said this kind of attitude is quite common, in the letters they get, but it’s shocking to me to see it.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, given how half the world seems to have turned mad lately, but to not have any empathy or gratitude towards people that are now losing their jobs, to make you the things you love, seems heartless.
Booker
Moment of opportunity
I think it goes without saying that I, and I assume everyone else reading this, has no idea what Xbox is doing at the moment. I also think the general consensus is that neither do they.
But they must have some sort of plan, because they have this next gen console they’re on about and now we have rumours that Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is going to be an exclusive for it. I can imagine some dopey exec, probably not Phil Spencer, thinks they can attract millions of people to the console because they have Call Of Duty exclusive but I hate to tell them, that’s not going to happen.
To be honest, if Warzone is starting to go down in popularity I’d be happy to see Call Of Duty in general take a few knocks, just so something else can take dominance for a while. Although really, what else is there? When you think about it, the number of guaranteed sellers that are also multiformat is kind of small nowadays, if you don’t count sports.
Seems like a big opportunity out there for someone to take the crown, especially as I don’t think Assassin’s Creed is really a contender anymore. Obviously GTA 6 is, but that only comes round once in a blue moon.
Gadfly
Inbox also-rans
I don’t get the Acclaim announcement at all. Acclaim were always a low rent, low quality publisher who didn’t really deserve to survive. And they’ve got none of their own franchises anyway? Sounds very suspect to me.
Goldman
I’m not very interested in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 but I wish Activision would remaster the Prototype games. Maybe it’s the nostalgia talking but I really liked them.
Nosegrim
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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.
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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