Games Inbox: What if Sony bought Kojima Productions

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The medium one
So Sony might be buying Hideo Kojima’s company, eh? I know it’s only a rumour but things are getting nasty now I see. We’ve gone from Microsoft flashing its wallet to Sony trying to sabotage their deal with Kojima by buying him out. It’s not nice, and I’d like to see anyone defend it, but it is business so I guess there’s nothing we can do.

I’d personally be surprised if it did happen though, because not only will it make Sony look petty and aggressive but I’m not sure Hideo Kojima is really ‘the big one’ when it comes to acquisitions. Not even Metal Gear Solid was ever that big a seller and Death Stranding certainly wasn’t. He also tends to work quite slowly and he’ll be 60 next year. If he has an idea for something using cloud computing I’d rather just see him work on that with Microsoft.

As to what Sony’s ‘big one’ could be, I would assume it’s a Japanese publisher, possibly Square Enix. That would make sense in terms of Sony no longer having a first party Japanese studio and being Japanese they’d likely manage them a lot better than Microsoft ever would. We’ll see I guess…
Korey

Just business
Very interesting to know that some investors are unhappy about the Activision Blizzard deal. I can totally understand it too. Microsoft got them for a song and that means they make less money than they would’ve.

Not that I care about them, or who owns Activision Blizzard (haven’t bought one of their games in I don’t know when) but I definitely didn’t like the way Phil Spencer was so two-faced about criticising Activision and then, on the very next day, negotiating to buy them when they were at their weakest.

I imagine Microsoft will get their way in the end, not because I have any knowledge of law or business, but just because they’re richer than everyone else, but I’d prefer it if they didn’t just for that.
Rowbot

Positive benefits
Of all the unexpected things to happen in gaming I don’t think CD Projekt plumet from hero to zero will ever be bettered. Companies buying each other is one thing but who would’ve guessed that the beloved makers of The Witcher 3 would become one of the most hated and mistrusted developers in the business? That Cyberpunk 2077 would become a punching bag and the news that the next gen version of The Witcher 3 have been delayed is met with nothing but a shrug of a shoulder.

Don’t get me wrong, they’ve got no-one to blame but themselves but it’s wild to think of. The one upside is that companies have become at least a little more cautious about releasing broken games since then. I certainly don’t think Lego Star Wars would have got the TLC it did if it wasn’t Cyberpunk 2077, so there is a silver lining even if it’s not for CD Projekt.
Crombo

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Too exciting
The rumours of Shenmue 4 being a reality is terribly exciting news! I know that the series is a bit of a punching bag for some folk (some comments justified, others very much not) but there is a reason why the series is so precious to so many people. To this day, the games have a wonderful way of getting lost in its world. You have to work to its rhythm, but when it works very few games can match it. I tried to get into games like Assassin’s Creed, Horizon, etc. and whilst a big open world is technically impressive, I longed for a smaller world that had more depth; something that the Shenmue and Yakuza games are very good at.

The TV show is wonderful too and strikes a great balance; for older fans, there are bits of lore that we weren’t privy to and for newer fans it allows a quick way of catching up with the story. But what’s really impressive is that if the curious were to try the games, the show fills in some gaps, but not to the point that playing the games is worthless.

I think that if people are willing to put up with its quirks and adapt to its rhythm, the series is very rewarding. Over 20 years later, the games still have the ability to surprise and amaze.

I truly hope that the rumours will be true, It will make a lot of people very happy
-bcdcdude

GC: Terribly exciting doesn’t seem a very Shenmue state of being.

Three times lucky
I don’t know why that reader was being such a sourpuss about the Nvidia leak but I do suspect his Zelda theory will be proven correct. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised that Breath Of The Wild 2 is actually finished and it’s actually the Switch 2 that’s being delayed, not the game. That’s probably finished too but obviously it’s not easy to manufacture new hardware at the moment.

Twice Nintendo has released a new Zelda as a launch game across two generations and seeing as that was for the Wii and Switch I don’t think you can blame them for seeing it as a good omen. So, yeah, I suspect the footage is from the Switch 2 but that there will be a standard Switch version as well.

I’m perfectly okay with that and will happily buy a Switch 2, or whatever it is, as soon as it’s available.
X68K

Time well spent
Wow, just wanted to say as a lifelong wrestling fan (dating back to my early teens when I first watched SummerSlam 1992), how much fun I’m having with the new WWE 2K22!

Like so many others with Game Pass, paying the full £64.99 when it was released is a hard sell, but it just had 25% off on the digital store at the weekend to £48 and I couldn’t resist snapping it up – I’ve now played almost 24 hours in just three days!

The last time I truly enjoyed a wrestling game was Here Comes The Pain way back in 2003, and obviously before that spending many, many hours playing the all-time classic No Mercy in 2000 on the N64. So after the mess that was 2K20, I can honestly say the extra year that developer Visual Concepts has put in has really paid off!

The graphics are mind blowing on the Xbox Series X (admittedly some character models aren’t the best looking, like Ric Flair ’88, which was surprising, but the vast majority are photorealistic – Papa Shango, Ultimate Warrior, etc. wow!) But it’s the flow of the hard-hitting action (chair shots, ouch!), the amazing Rey Misterio showcase, and the simplicity of controls that really shine and just make a wrestling game what we as fans want: pure, unadulterated, escapist fun!
Pete Reynolds