Games Inbox: Is a portable PlayStation 6 a mistake?

The Thursday letters page is not shocked that so many people play so few games, as one reader hopes for a F-Zero announcement this month.

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PlayStation Deck
I know it was said before that the Steam Deck had only sold a few million, but I had no idea that that whole type of handheld device was such a small piece of the overall gaming pie. Six million is an absolutely tiny amount overall. Even the Wii U managed to sell more than twice that much.

It doesn’t matter in itself – I’ve never heard anything but good things about the Steam Deck – but you are right to question why Phil Spencer and Xbox seems so obsessed with it. We know they’re working on a handheld but I don’t think he’s ever once compared it to the Switch, it’s always been ROG Ally and other PC gadgets.

At this point, I don’t think it really matters what Xbox does but Sony seems to have got the same idea into their head, with rumours that the PlayStation 6 is a handheld too. Sony has a strange habit of copying what Microsoft does, even when they’re completely outselling them, and now we face the prospect of all next gen’s consoles being portables or hybrids, even though we only know the Switch sells and the ones that Xbox are copying definitely don’t.

This seems a very bad ideal to me, especially for Sony who are doing so well with the PlayStation 5 right now. Just make a sensible follow-up and have it be a plastic box under your TV, Sony. That’s all that’s needed.
Boswell

Same old games
We’ve had information like this before, about how most people only play the same increasingly old live service games all the time, but the latest data just really rams home how the video games industry is becoming impossible to continue in the old way.

Why spend six years making a single-player game when you know most people are still off playing Fortnite? But then it’s even more madness to make a live service game because players have absolutely no reason to switch to it. The only big hit recently has been Marvel Rivals and all that’s done is swap in for Overwatch – it hasn’t increased the number of games being played at all.

I think a lot of gamers don’t appreciate the trouble we’re in here, assuming you’re not one of those people happy to play the same game endlessly. COD and FIFA were one thing, but now casual gamers are playing even less unique games than ever. I’m not happy with it but I’m beginning to understand why Sony’s release schedule looks the way it does.
Korg

Not mediocre
Just finished Mad Max on the Steam Deck, which is pertinent on a number of fronts. I agree wholeheartedly with your review, that it’s a solid 7/10 which nicks from lots of other games but adds just enough to make something fun and worthwhile. The Ubisoft, open world, icon-clearing, structure of the game felt a bit less repetitive on the handheld (up to a point, I reached my limit eventually) and I’d have been interested in what a follow-up game could’ve looked like had Warner Bros. not been the absolute worst overlords in the industry.

It’s also another game I bounced off of on home consoles that I’ve completed on the Steam Deck. I don’t think we can ever expect the handheld PC market to grow as large as the handheld/hybrid console market; consoles (historically) are the gateway to the exclusive games from that company, whereas Valve don’t need to do an awful lot to bring gamers to Steam.

I hope the devices are profitable enough that we see more iterations of the format, even if handheld PC users will always remain in a small, devilishly handsome niche.
Magnumstache

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Goddess of War
It is a crying shame that the Wonder Woman game got cancelled as it seemed such an easy thing to get working. Old school God Of War (including all the Greek monsters) combined with the Nemesis system and bosh, it writes (programs?) itself.

It sounds like that’s pretty much what they were aiming for but years of bad management and now a company whose old games I remember playing on a 486 have been shut down. It’s a crying shame and I blame Warner Bros. for it all. Especially now the Nemesis system will probably never be used again in anything.

Warner say that their plans revolve around more DC Comics games and yet they’re not going to have one out for five or more years. You’re tell me there was absolutely nothing that could’ve been salvaged from Monolith’s game that was in development for three years? It’s just a disaster.
Gantry

Movie tie-in
So, as The Super Mario Bros. Movie is on Netflix, it got me thinking about a sequel to this film. Quick search on IMDB and it says April 3, 2026. I am going to have a punt that the new Mario game will be released to coincide with this date.

The movie uses Donkey Kong a lot, maybe the rumours of Donkey Kong being in the new Mario game could link to the film somehow? Only time will tell.
Will

GC: It’s worth noting that the only thing Nintendo did to tie into the first film was a sheet of movie stickers in a Switch hardware bundle.

Goodbye Switch
So, I see the rumours of a last minute Nintendo Direct have returned, which means that talk of a final goodbye fan game for the Switch still has some life in it.

I find it hard to believe this might be true but since it’s Nintendo you can never rule out anything. If there is to be such a game though – an unexpected sequel to a poorly selling franchise – then I would like it to be F-Zero.

Nintendo have said in the past that they’ve not made a new one because they can’t work out how to do something new and different enough and that’s fair enough and probably at least partially true.

You could do things with the settings and characters, but that would basically become a different game. But I think what F-Zero fans want is just F-Zero GX but dialled up to 11, and I really don’t think that’s going to happen. It wouldn’t sell and I don’t know who they’d get to make it.

But… if they are purposefully making something for the fans, then suddenly F-Zero is back on the menu. I hope (but do not expect).
Geoffries

Musical memories
Listening to video game soundtracks when I’m not playing the game is not something I’m particularly into, but I opened up the Nintendo Music app when I saw Super Mario Bros. 2 had been added and have now ended up listening to the Mario Kart 8 soundtrack, aargh!

It does have some banging tunes though.
John Atkinson

Golden remake
I guess it was obvious Atlus would be looking to remake Persona 4 Golden after the success of Persona 3 Reload. However, despite being a fan of the franchise I’m a little sceptical. Or at least they’ll need to do a much bolder job to make it worthwhile, compared with what they did with the last one. I picked up Persona 3 Reload at launch, as while it’s still a fun time the game feels more like a remaster than a remake, as it just restates the original game again as closely as possible, beat for beat.

The extremely conservative nature of it made sense in a way; its success wasn’t proven and the budget was obviously set low. However, with Persona 4 Golden out on modern formats and still looking and playing pretty well today, just another redo in Unreal Engine won’t cut it.

I never see the point of remakes that just give you the same experience again but shiny new, and why do so many gamers demand that from them? The Resident Evil or Final Fantasy 7 titles show what can be done, a complete restatement of the game’s principles not beholden to the technology of original development. Those games feel fresh because they started from the drawing board and didn’t just trying to recreate the old experience with better graphics and modern conveniences.

With Persona 4, why not make Inaba an open world to explore, full of stat raising mini-games, design intricate handcrafted dungeons full of secrets, make the story and social networks more impactful to player decisions, and further revamp the combat system from what even Metaphor: ReFantazio accomplished?
Marc

GC: We agree on all counts.

Inbox also-rans
Nokia N-Gage? Now there’s a name I’ve not heard for a long time…
Boson

Valve’s obsession with ultra expensive VR headsets is so weird to me. I almost get the feeling they’re making them for Gabe and no one else.
Hatchet

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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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