@last_lap: @Macutchi: I've been playing some older games that were considered kinda mid even at the time of release, and having a lot of fun with them. Stuff like Bloody Roar: Primal Fury, XGRA, and Lost Kingdoms 2 weren't exactly the peak of their genres, but even the 7/10 type games put more emphasis on being fun back then.

I would love to see someone other than Namco announce a new 3D fighting game.

EA making a new Wing Commander, or MS making a new Freelancer would be the most epic troll ever. No offense to Chris Roberts, I am looking forward to Squadron 42 (and yes, I do believe it will someday release), but it would still be funny.

@gifford38: There are more female leads now, sure, but we ain't exactly lacking dudes in our games. You got Kratos, Master Chief, Leon and Ethan, two Spider Men, Kal Kestis, whoever was in the last Assassin's Creed...

@Archangel3371: Yeah, dev time and costs are main ones that lead to all the other problems on the list.

Twice the oversight means twice the fun.

Multiplatform is a good call, but fewer, bigger budget releases is disappointing news. Stuff like Octopath Traveller and Triangle Strategy were among their best recent games.

@uninspiredcup: Agree about King of Monsters. Mostly big monsters fighting, but had just enough humans doing talking stuff to give more context to the big monsters fighting. Good balance.

I always felt "The Missing Link" was a title just sitting there waiting to be a game.

That said, this rumor has come up several times in the past and never panned out.

@Pedro: Just seemed like there were more ads and coverage in the months before the first Hellblade released. I haven't been seeing much about the new one, and it's coming out in a week.

They really are dropping the marketing ball here. The first game seemed to have more money behind it when the studio was independent. Like MS is nervous about drawing too much attention to it after the Redfall and Starfield backlash. Game will probably be good and I hope it does well, but it's hard not to be pessimistic right now.