Games Inbox: Gran Turismo 7 free-to-play, best Nintendo DS games, and Skate 4 leaks

metro.co.uk:

The Friday letters page is curious to know more about Amy Hennig’s Star Wars game, as a reader has a very important question about TMNT.

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

Becoming free Hearing about Sony and Microsoft wanting to add ads to games, and make more of them free-to-play, it got me thinking of what existing series they could give that same treatment to me. Sony doesn’t have many, which is I guess why they’ve suddenly got so interested in making live service games.

I wonder though, if it’s ever occurred to them that Gran Turismo would make a good free-to-play game. They already have it stuffed full of microtransactions, so it wouldn’t be hard to make it profitable; just add some more and make sure there’s a good range of cars to buy, from cheap to expensive, but the game’s pretty much got that anyway.

I mention it since it’s pretty obvious that the game has underperformed, as while it’s sold well it’s very far from being the killer app it used to be, even in Europe. This all seems to be part of the general downward trend for racing games, and I’d like to see that reversed. So if the answer is making it free-to-play I’d be okay with that. It beats having to wait another 10 years for a sequel or having the budget gradually decreased as Sony realises it’s not the draw it once was.Phamer

Behind the scenes I love the strange naivety of EA letting people play Skate 4 while it still looks like a Dreamcast game and not expecting them to leak it. Although it’s also a shame that gamers are so predictable and untrustworthy that you know there’s no way the footage wouldn’t leak out.

I do always find it interesting seeing games in such an early stage of development though and wish we got to see