Games Inbox: GTA 6 becoming the biggest ever

The Thursday letters page is not excited by the idea of 11 new Assassin’s Creed games, as one reader gets a Starfield delivery.

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Number one or bust
So we’ve had a lot of stuff on sales figures lately, between the Final Fantasy info and the Horizon series, and it got me thinking about what we can expect from GTA 6. Not in terms of the game itself but its sales. The fact that GTA 5 has sold as much as the entire Final Fantasy franchise in total is mind-blowing but it’s also sold almost the same amount as all the other GTA games put together.

GTA 5 has sold 180 million copies (and counting) but GTA 4 only did 25 million and at the time it was the biggest seller of the series. So does that mean GTA 6 is only going to do that too? Was GTA 5 lightning in a bottle? It doesn’t seem like demand for GTA 6 would be any less, but it’s best not to make assumptions.

I think it will do extremely well but given the small userbase of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S at the moment its absolute maximum would be around 60 million, not accounting for PC. But obviously not every single next gen console owner is going to buy the game.

I assume this is one of the main reasons why Rockstar is in no rush to release the game. Why even release it if it can’t be the biggest game ever? I mean, it probably will be eventually, but will it break GTA 5’s record and be sold across three separate generations? I think people underestimate what an amazing achievement that is.
Targetsir

Horizon without end
I imagine he thought he was sounding very impressive and confident by the idea of 16 new Horizon games, or whatever the real number is, seems absolutely horrifying to me. Not because I hate the franchise or anything but because such an anodyne series is being milked for what sounds like a decade or more worth of content.

If a big budget game now takes around six years to make how long is even just a handful of games going to take? The idea of planning the series’ future for that far ahead and in that amount of detail is horrifying. It also seems like the perfect way to encourage a brain drain at Guerilla Games, as people realise how long they’ve got to spend making essentially the same thing.

The first game was fine, but I’d already had enough of the formula halfway through the second one. I can’t imagine how strong the sense of déjà vu is going to be by the time they get to the sixth one.
Kaleb

Double figures
I just want to check that it’s not just me that thinks it’s nuts that there’s 11 Assassin’s Creed games in the works right now? How could there possible be enough new ideas and interested fans to support that many, that quickly? And what’s going to happen to the poor developers working on the 10th and 11th ones when the others before them start to do less and less well?

I know Ubisoft has been having a difficult few years lately but going this hard on their biggest franchise seems very short-sighted. What are they going to do after they run their cash cow into the ground, and suddenly they have no sure-things to rely on?
Gaston

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Blood pact
So I guess we are in a situation now where Microsoft could feasible have Infinity Ward or Raven or someone working on Halo in the near future. That seemed like kind of a silly idea to me at first but the more I think of it, it seems like almost the only thing they could do.

They’re obviously not interested in starting a new studio and I don’t know that there’s anyone obvious out there that you could guarantee would do a better job. Id Software did occur to me as one option, that Microsoft already own, but I don’t think they generally like to have their games be that serious.

I know Halo is in trouble right now but I’d like to see it come back and regain at least some of its former glory. But for that you need new blood, or at least veteran blood that hasn’t worked on it before.
Corsaire

No decision
I’ll tell you what, the Activision/Xbox deal is far from done. They will appeal the ruling, the FTC are dead against this deal and they won’t just lie down. Just like Xbox won’t. They have already said that within the next few days they will be trying again to block it.

I’ve got a feeling this will drag on for years, and let’s be honest having a judge that’s never looked at a game, never mind having a controller in her hand, was a big mistake. We all know why they want to buy Activision, and it’s not for King.
David

GC: They’ve said they’re thinking of making an appeal, they haven’t done so yet.

Missing the boat
I love when GC does a shmup review and I completely agree I don’t know why more people didn’t try to copy Star Fox 64. I guess because it was the all-range mode sections that were revolutionary at the time and that’s what everyone was more interested in chasing?

Unfortunately I feel the time for publishers to experiment with that sort of thing has probably passed. In the PlayStation 1 or 2 experimenting with that sort of thing wouldn’t have cost that much but now you’re talking millions. Maybe an indie will try but all I’ve seen is games that seem to want to copy Star Fox as exactly as possible, rather than trying to move beyond it.

Even if Konami or Square Enix or someone with a classic shmup franchise did try to make a new game they’d probably try and turn it into a space combat simulator but not only is that not the same thing at all but those don’t sell very well either, so what’s the point? I imagine that’s exactly what they though, and that’s why we’re not seeing anyone try.
Sting

Coming soon
Sorry to mention this Kickstarter campaign again but I missed out one vital bit of information that if you back The Rubber-Keyed Wonder documentary, by the makers of From Bedrooms To Billions, you will get a digital copy or physical copy of the documentary in September 2023, depending on which tier you choose.

Although, the original campaign was in 2021, so I and many original backers have been patiently waiting a long time for it to be released, whereas if you back it now you get the documentary this September.
Andrew J.

New idea
The talk of 16 more ‘plans’ for new Horizon games seems so odd to me. I know they said it wasn’t literally 16 games but I know for a fact, from my friend circle, that I’m not the only one that had had enough of the series by the end of the second one. In fact, I know plenty of people that didn’t get that far. Do we really need to see them scrapping the bottom of the barrel for new robot animal ideas? Can’t wait to face a robot rabbit or hedgehog.

I guess the series has its fans, so I won’t attack it, but what gets me about this sort of situation is why don’t they see that it was making something new and never-before-seen is what made the original interesting, just as much as its own qualities. Making half a dozen sequels is that exact opposite of the idea behind the original.

Nintendo are the same. They had an enormous hit with Splatoon, which was new and exciting and different for them, and what did they do…? They went ahead and made a bunch more Splatoon games.

It feels like publishers are so desperate for a hit that once they have one that is even mildly successful they convince themselves it’s the new biggest thing ever and immediately run it into the ground. You see this a lot at Microsoft too, so I think it’s universal.

The lesson you should be taking from your brand new IP being a massive hit is to make more new IP, not immediately turning it into the sort of problem you were trying to escape from.
Taylor Moon

Inbox also-rans
How is Need For Speed: Most Wanted the most popular one? I felt sure it would be Underground 1 and 2. All the trouble that series has had lately, I would’ve thought an Underground 3 was a no-brainer.
Custard

I’m ready.
Johnny five stars

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