PS4 GAME RUMOURS

The evening Inbox needs recommendations for PlayStation 4 headsets, as one reader comes out in support of Need For Speed: The Run.

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The missing gen
Couldn’t agree more with the letter from Morbius last night, about the sorry state of the next gen games line-up. I bought into Sony’s ’4 The Players’ campaign and got a PlayStation 4 but I’ve been totally underwhelmed by what’s happened since. I know it takes a while for a new console to get into its stride, but as Morbius said yesterday, considering how long the last gen dragged on you’d have thought developers and publishers would have been able to get more games ready for the PlayStation 4′s first year.

Instead to fill the gap they just seem to be wheeling out a stream of ‘remasters’, the latest I’ve heard about are The Walking Dead Season 1 and a rumour of Beyond: Two Souls. I’m expecting an announcement of next gen GTA V any week now and it’s getting tedious. I’ve already played these games, you can give them fancy names like definitive edition or complete edition and boast about higher resolutions all you want but they’re not new and they’re not what I bought a PlayStation 4 for. Next gen! What next gen?
dyniner (PSN ID)

Spirit of speed
Thank you to the reader who recommended Need For Speed: The Run… it really is the spiritual successor to the original 3DO Need For Speed that I’ve been waiting for since I first discovered the 3DO in my local IT store back in the day. It really captures the spirit of a road race across the US and is very similar to the recent film.
I have massive guilt that I didn’t buy this game at retail launch. The critics and demo really put me off. As someone who does real long distance road trips, this ticks my boxes. Track racing is dull in comparison, in real life and in gaming. Thanks again!
Brian

The rise and fall of Japanese gamingIn Tuesday’s Inbox you mentioned that home console sales are dying off in Japan. Is there a reason for that? Can you elaborate? Have they started to go outside more or something? Is there a new craze doing the rounds? Hoola hoops or Frisbees.
Bobwallett

What is the reason for the failing console market in Japan? Is it the rise of smartphones and on-the-go gaming (I’m sure I have read about their long commutes into work so which is why handheld games like Monster Hunter are so popular)?
Simon

GC: The rise of smartphones has exacerbated a decline in the Japanese market that has been going on since at least the beginning of the last generation. As the cost of making games increases it becomes more and more difficult for Japanese developers to make games that are primarily aimed at a home audience, and which can be financially successful regardless of how well they do in the West.

That freedom was the driving force behind most of the country’s most distinctive titles and with the cost of making games on 3DS and PS Vita also higher than the previous generation it’s now only smartphones that can support the kind of games Japanese gamers like in any volume. Combined with the increased convenience of smartphones and tablets it’s increasingly only hardcore Japanese gamers that feel they have any need for consoles.