The Wednesday Inbox hears from more PS5 owners who bought an Xbox Series S, as one reader wonders if there’ll ever be a PlayStation 6.
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Too big to replace
The news about GTA 5 hitting 150 million sales is just staggering considering the only things close to it are Minecraft and 35 years of Tetris. There’s been a lot of talk lately of GTA 6 and when it will be released, and I certainly don’t expect it to be for several years yet. The problem is that GTA 5 is just too successful. As GC alluded to, GTA 5 is a golden goose that has constantly been making money for the last eight years and stopping that doesn’t make any kind of business sense. But next gen versions certainly do.
Now, presumably GTA 6 will be just as successful, but you don’t know that for a fact. A lot of GTA staff have left in the last few years, including the producer and the main writer, so that is a lot of talent that’s going to be very difficult to replace. Based on its name GTA 6 will likely be just as massive, but it’s not the simple guarantee some might think.
What would be easier to guarantee would be GTA Online 2, because obviously they’d just use the same team as they current have for that. I could easily see that happening too, as Rockstar seems to have generally lost interest in single-player as a whole. When they only concrete rumour at the moment is that GTA 6 will have a map that changes like Fortnite, that doesn’t make me think that the story campaign is their priority.
Casper
Money talks
Looks like there’s some real consequences for Activision Blizzard carrying on the way they do. As you say, as soon as the bottom line is hurt then change arrives. That’s awful in a way, but at least you can say that it shows no favour or exception. Whatever the reason, good or bad, if a company starts losing money for any reason then whatever’s causing it will go.
I have no idea who any of these people are at Blizzard but if they’ve been around for 15 years, or whatever, then clearly they knew and did nothing about the problems. I still can’t believe the Cosby Suite stuff, that is just so blatant and seemed to involve so many people – who saw no problem with it at all – it really is gross.
Now have to wait and see if Call Of Duty does get delayed as a result of it. Personally I don’t think it will. There hasn’t been enough disruption for that and I imagine Activision has made promises for change so they can ensure it gets out on time. Like I said, once money is on the line things can change quickly.
Golem
Slow start
I really don’t know what to think of eFootball. On the one hand I appreciate that they’re being honest about it being a demo and everything but on the other hand… why? I know it’s a new name but it’s not as if they’ve never made a footy game before. Presumably it’ll still play a lot like PES, so why the need to be so hesitant?
The problem with PES is that no one was buying it, not that it wasn’t a good game. The free-to-play aspect should, hopefully, solve that problem so I’m not sure why they’re being so coy about the rest of it. Sounds like it will likely only put people off from trying it out and you’ll be back to relying on old school PES fans. Who would probably prefer you give it its proper name back.
Diocloys
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Go-to sim
I read your review of Microsoft Flight Simulator last week and thought you were pretty much spot on. Although I don’t think I could recommend it at full price to everyone I would certainly encourage anyone who has got Game Pass to give it a whirl.
Me personally though, I have gone from being very curious about it, to being interested, to it now being one of my go-to games (sorry titles) when I fire up my Xbox Series S.
I love the sightseeing part of it, although it has to be said Stonehenge and Mount Rushmore were an absolute disappointment for me.
Having said that, I’ve been gaming since the Game & Watch days and here I am critiquing something because it hasn’t quite got every detail of the whole world on show yet – how times have changed, eh?
It’s got me to the point where I want to learn how the whole aeroplane dashboard works and it’s quite happy to teach me.
It can only get better in terms of visuals and details from here and I suppose a VR home version would be a natural next step for it. Which has got to be good for people’s mental health who are housebound or immobile. I will certainly be considering one to take with me into an old people’s home when I’m all grown up.
Anyway, give it a go guys if you haven’t already, you never know it might just surprise you, like it did me.
freeway 77
Darks Souls: The Movie
I realise the Dark Souls difficultly debate is almost as played out as the increasingly petty conversation about the relative pixel pushing power of this console over that, but this latest episode of Viva La Dirt League’s Souls Logic Series is one of the best, and most poignant, messages to anyone struggling with the games or even just starting out I’ve ever seen.
For anyone who hasn’t seen the series generally, I’d thoroughly recommend checking it out, even if you’re only aware of the Soulsbourne phenomena and have never played any of them. Some of the episodes of the two series they’ve done are bound to tickle you. True, they’re not exactly guides to get you through the actual games, but as a cheeky snapshot of what the experience of playing through them is like, it’s pretty bang on.
yourhomeisatrisk
Next gen dynamite
I’m a South African and with the ZAR currency as low as it is versus the US Dollar, I had to make a distinct decision of what I wanted to pay to upgrade to a next gen gaming console. The choice was easy, as the Xbox Series S cost only 6999zar vs. 9999zar for the digital PlayStation 5 and 11999zar for the standard PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X.
I’ve had the Xbox Series S now for almost 9 months, hence I have a lot of play time with this console, as I’m playing games on a daily basis.
Having owned both a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One S at the same time, I was pleasantly surprised how big a difference there was between the old and new gen consoles.
The quality resolution at 1440p, ray-tracing, 120fps (if your TV supports it), high speed SSD, and quick resume are just a few of the functions that really boost new gen gaming to another level.
The only negative that one could mention was perhaps the small storage space, but that is easily overcome by adding a normal Western Digital external HDD (I have both a 2TB and 1TB) which solves this issue quickly at an affordable price, hence you don’t have to resort to buying a highly overpriced SSD.
To summarize, the Xbox Series S is arguably one of the best buys in this price range I’ve ever made in my lifetime and am very happy with it. I call it my little dynamite console, small but powerful.
Anon
A long generation
Console shortages for another two years is not a good thing. Apart from being irritating to people there’s the fact that publishers won’t be able to move fully across to the new generation until at least 2023 and probably not until a couple years after, following the logic of previous generations.
It’s nobody’s fault but this generation is going to a very strange and a very long one. If it does end up being the last traditional generation it won’t be just because consoles have reached a logical end point but simply because the whole thing got so stretched out that alternatives, most obviously streaming, had time to establish themselves before anyone could even start to think about a PlayStation 6.
Iceman
Second console
To answer Gordon’s question about whether to get an Xbox Series S to accompany his PlayStation 5, I would say absolutely!
I too was inspired by the great Reader’s Feature at the weekend, bagging a PlayStation 5 myself in November last year and playing amazing games such as Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Sackboy: A Big Adventure (so underrated, it’s up there with Super Mario Odyssey!) and recently Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
However, as noted, the well of new PlayStation 5 games soon dried up and the appeal of replaying upgraded PlayStation 4 games (currently Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, one of the best adventure single-player games ever!) at 4K 60fps has limited appeal.
So inspired by your article, I too managed to get an almost-new Xbox Series S off an online marketplace with £50 quid knocked off, so very reasonable!
I’m only a few days into playing games off Games Pass, but I’m literally like a kid in a chocolate factory with all the new games I now have available and, has been noted, I’ve been playing games that I wouldn’t have bought otherwise!
Being a PlayStation 5 user, some very quick observations compared to being a brand new Xbox One S owner:
- Quick Resume is probably the best feature on Xbox! It’s so amazing to do a few races on Forza then jump straight into, Ori for 10 minutes, then a flight or two on Flight Sim seamlessly! PlayStation 5 games load quick, but you still have to go through start-ups and not just jump straight in.
- Game Pass is again so incredible, the best value £10 a month can buy! I’ve just started Gears 5 for the first time and I’m so excited to play others like The Medium and Yakuza that I just had no intention to buy.
- I was surprised at how comfy the Xbox controller is (I love the textured feel, which helps grip) and, yes, the PlayStation 5’s adaptive triggers blows it out of the water, but I found it’s haptic feedback is still very pleasing, for example on the gravel sections in Forza Horison 4.
- The Xbox Series S is tiny compared to my PlayStation 5 and looks so good! Really ideal if you don’t have a lot of room around your TV set-up.
- I loved my Xbox 360 back in the day and can’t wait to replay some classics I have fond memories of like Alan Wake – the only reason I switched to a PlayStation 4 was for the amazing exclusives like The Last Of Us, Uncharted, etc.
- Finally, I’m a bit of a 4K 60fps minimum snob now I’m a PlayStation 5 owner, so while a few games are at this level on the Xbox Series S (Ori is such a sumptuous looking game), there definitely is the feeling that I’m not experiencing the full graphical quality of the Xbox Series X. But I have the LG CX series TV, which does a great job upscaling quite a bit, as it does for my Switch too which runs at just 1080p – so that’s a downside to bear in mind.
So, if like me, you’re reading this and pretty bored of your PlayStation 5 now, I would wholeheartedly recommend trying to get yourself a cheaper Xbox Series S with Game Pass to accompany your PlayStation 5 for that next level gaming fix!
Thanks Metro for the awesome job you guys do, I’ve been an avid reader for years and always find your reviews and articles so informative and thought provoking, keep up the excellent work!
Pete Reynolds, Manchester
GC: Thanks.
Inbox also-rans
$20 million for having some of your music streamed on Fortnite for 10 minutes? The world’s gone made. Can’t blame the musicians though, it’s not like they’re forcing people to buy a themed backpack or whatever. I just hope the kids themselves are paying for all this and not borrowing their parents’ credit card.
Loomis
Am I the only one that’s really interested in both the rumoured new games from Take-Two? A Marvel themed XCOM and Cthulhu meets Saints Row sounds great. I’m not sure I’ve bought a Take-Two game, as opposed to a Rockstar game, in my life but I’m very curious to see how these turn out.
Gabbo
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Julian, who asks whether you’ve ever been reminded of a game by something mundane in real-life?
His examples include car journeys reminiscent of driving games and summer holidays that make you think of Far Cry, but it can be anything from a location being similar to a game to some small detail about an in-game object or gadget.
Was it just a one-off or have you had it happen a lot, and has it happened more as game graphics have become more realistic?
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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, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.
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