Games Inbox: Astro Bot on Xbox, PlayStation 6 in 2026, and Atomfall on Game Pass-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro

Astro Bot – only on PlayStation (Sony Interactive Entertainment)

The Monday letters page is fed up of needlessly vague Switch 2 rumours, while one reader is excited to play Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom.

To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Bad timing
I know this is silly to even ask, and I know what you’re answer will be instinctively, but… do you think there’s any chance Astro Bot might come out on Xbox at any point? I’d really love to give it a go.

Have to say I’m hugely regretting my switch to Xbox this generation, now that they’ve started putting games out cross platform. Have always been happily PlayStation previously but Game Pass swayed me this generation.

Like many other writers to the Inbox that’s a mistake I won’t make again.
Chris

GC: Well… it’s more likely than Super Mario appearing on Xbox.

Forgotten generation
I see a lot of people reacting badly to the idea of PlayStation 6 coming out in the 2026 and I can’t blame them. It’s not that it’s too soon, it’d be the usual six years we always get, but that we’ve only really had two ‘normal’ years out of this generation, when Sony was working at anything like full capacity. Obviously, the pandemic wasn’t their fault and yet the first two years were still way better than the last two.

If sales of the PlayStation 5 are falling there’s one obvious reason for that: no exclusive games. How someone with the experience of Sony can fail to realise this I don’t know. Do they think people are going to be queuing up to buy it this Christmas for Concord? Or even Astro Bot? Which has got zero advertising and I doubt most ordinary people have even heard of.

I get the feeling the decision has already been taken though and I do take the point from the Reader’s Feature this weekend, where they said that it would be a useful reboot for Sony. It should’ve been easy to avoid his situation but fine, considering the trouble they’re in now bringing out the PlayStation 6 in 2026 and forget the PlayStation 5 ever happened. As absurd as it sounds, I believe that is now Sony’s gameplan.
Cauli

Press reset
I’ve no words. Well, I do. What nonsense. Another console?! Dear me. There was a time when a device had a life, developers got to know the system, and by the end (roughly six years a time) pushed the thing to the max and folks were happy to move on. Now?! Well, there is no way today’s consoles can be pushed to their limits. The development costs simply say no. So a more advanced PlayStation?! Insane.

It’s at its limit unless something changes. Gaming needs a rethink, a reset I believe. Indie gets it. Smaller but more advanced games is the way to go. Also, with that development costs drop, prices drop. In the old days I had and played 20 to 30 games a system. Today? four to five is what folks get?! And that’s 300-ish notes today. Insane. A reset is required.
Neil

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

One world
Really enjoyed the preview and interview of Atomfall.

So glad an actual English post-apocalyptic game is being made, especially when Fallout London won’t become official, like the Black Mesa mod did, and benefit from paid income.

Did GC get an idea for how big the Atomfall world is at all, and if it was one big map, or linked areas?

Also, can’t believe it will be on Game Pass, the subscription is definitely good value for this gamer.
Tundrastrider

GC: You only seemed to have a single physical map, similar to how maps worked in Metro Exodus. We couldn’t say if that was the whole game but everything we saw was part of a single open world.

Filling the void
The weird thing about the Switch 2 rumours at the moment is that the logical choice is to make the announcement in January and February. But since Nintendo never does want anyone expects does that means they’re going to do something that seems a bad idea? From their business point of view anyway, I want to know what it is as soon as possible.

I do object to the vagueness of some of the rumours though, by people that should apparently know better. In the same podcast about the September rumours the guy said the Switch 2 was dual screens, which he said could mean either like the DS or… that it can play portable or on the TV like a Switch.

That is two completely different things. It’s such a range of options why even bring it up? When there’s a vacuum of information then absolutely anything gets such sucked in to replace it.
Boney

In the red
Microsoft’s increased profits are indeed down to Activision Blizzard. I think they would have been in the red without the acquisition. But they’ve now got far more IPs to make money from, other than Call Of Duty. Doom: The Dark Ages looks like a hit. Indiana Jones, and so on. Yes, Xbox and PlayStation are going in different directions for now. Sony will be happy to take their 30%, whilst Microsoft make most of their profit from PlayStation. Think about that for a moment. It’s kinda lazy. If you can’t beat them, join them!

As I stated, I think PlayStation will learn more into PC and maybe the occasional Switch 2 port. You stated Sony need to sell their consoles. Absolutely, they don’t have the amount of studios or bankable IPs Microsoft now owns. The leaked Insomniac documents indicated how much Disney were taking from Marvel licensed games, like Spider-Man.

Sony need to bring back old IPs like SOCOM. They’ve got plenty to choose from. Dropping Factions 2 was a bonehead move, in light of Concord. Who knows what the hell Microsoft are doing? Other than killing the Xbox brand. But in terms of profits, it’s going to get crazy when the next Fallout, Elder Scrolls, etc. join their money-making scheme.

Will Sony become the green-eyed monster, that’s my question? Totoki seems the sort of executive who will pay attention. A desire for more original IP is an indication of where his head is at.

I will add, Activision Blizzard is an asset. This isn’t a case of Microsoft needing to make the $69 billion back immediately, otherwise they would never have made the purchase in the first place. The idea is Activision Blizzard is a better investment than leaving the money in the bank to gain interest.

It has put pressure on Phil Spencer to justify the purchase, however. Which obviously means increasing profits. Not necessarily paying back the investment, like some loan. If the investment doesn’t retain its value. Then they have a problem. But if Microsoft were to sell Activision Blizzard tomorrow, to say Amazon or Apple, it would be for more money than they paid for it.
Si

GC: The acquisition cost them $75.4 billion. That’s more than the gross national product of Panama. Doom and Indiana Jones are not going to even scratch the surface of that.

Day one, year 2025
Just a quick email to say that Capcom and Microsoft have solved the MT Framework problem regarding Capcom’s up and coming fighting collection games.

They will now be coming to Xbox platforms in the first half of 2025. Can’t wait to play Rival Schools and Power Stone on the big screen alongside all the other included games. They will both be a day one purchase for me.
Chaosphere616

Solo careers
Excellent preview of The Legend Of Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom, along with Astro Bot being given a warm welcome by critics. It does show that the gameplay is always king, no matter the age group that the graphical style appears to be appealing to. I personally loved Astro’s Playroom introduction of the PlayStation 5 and found it fun and very well designed, with great game design physics with the controller use.

The same can be said for all games where characters and storylines take second place to actual fun gameplay. The Link’s Awakening remake was fantastic and the cutesy style graphics were great to look at and so rich and vibrant, which is what appears to be the same in Echoes Of Wisdom. The videos I’ve seen of Zelda’s gameplay and GameCentral’s description of their time on the game is why I need Nintendo in my life.

It is the magic formula of maybe not a massive amount of new gameplay ideas but definitely some new ones and, most importantly, refining and fine-tuning familiar types of gameplay ideas which will still appeal to the general community.

Nintendo’s Mario, Luigi, Link, Zelda, and basically a lot of their Super Smash Bros. panel of characters just never seem to retire! It’s the different developers who have created the magic, while advancing the gameplay ideas to keep in time with the gamers of today.

So, the fact that at last Zelda has the starring role, and Link takes a step back like he did with the amazing Freshly-Pickled Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland game on the Nintendo DS, shows that, like Mario, Legend Of Zelda also has a panel of characters going solo. Echoes Of Wisdom looks very open-ended in solving puzzles and taking out enemies, like the main core game, but with a definite unique quality not usually seen in the Zelda main games.

So here’s to gameplay taking the lead and hopefully people will try these games and not be put off by the more family friendly graphics.
Alucard

Inbox also-rans
So this is the state of modern day gaming, is it? You now need a launcher to launch a launcher, to launch a game? I haven’t played a Call Of Duty title on PC for a good number of years, so you can imagine my surprise at all the steps you have to go through to get the Black Ops 6 beta running after it had finished downloading through Battle.Net!
PsillyPseudonym

Well, I’ve bought Astro Bot after your review and gotta agree with you, it’s a fantastic game. But the bosses are too easy. Hopefully they will do a New Game+ where the bosses are a lot harder, but I do love it. Great game and so fun.
David

GC: Yeah, the bosses are a bit too easy. It’s really only the optional levels that are hard.

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The small print
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