We're stronger together

This week Letter to a Gamer brings a message of unity: do as Nova Assembly does, share your successes and failures to grow together. Read on to understand what I'm talking about. There's some bad news, but this week didn't disappoint on the creativity front, just ask tinyBuild.

News index

+ Call of Duty Removed from Game Pass Because It's Too Expensive? The New CEO Speaks Out
- Giving Away Graveyard Keeper Generated $250,000 in Profit
+ A new indie Alliance to "Be Stronger Together"
- Disney is the answer to Epic Games' crisis
+ A Project Hail Mary video game is in development
- Get ready for the Bloodborne movie

Call of Duty Removed from Game Pass Because It's Too Expensive? The New CEO Speaks Out - According to journalist and well-known Microsoft leaker Jez Corden, Xbox is considering removing Call of Duty from Game Pass as a day-one game. The journalist stated that "Game Pass has disrupted the Call of Duty business model in a pretty negative way," and removing it would mean bringing back into Activision's coffers the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue that come from selling the franchise's annual installment for €80 each year. Only two Call of Duty games, Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7, made it to Game Pass on day one, and to no one's surprise, they were the lowest-selling games in recent years. Following Corden's recent statements, a report (obtained by The Verge) emerged that newly appointed Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is considering a change to the Xbox Game Pass pricing structure. Sharma reportedly stated that "it's clear that the current model isn't the definitive one" and that "in the short term, Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need better value".

Giving Away Graveyard Keeper Generated $250,000 in Profit - tinyBuild, the publisher of Graveyard Keeper, just announced that the Steam giveaway of Graveyard Keeper generated $250,000 in revenue from its DLC. The initiative also allowed the game to set a new record for players on Steam. It also pushed the upcoming sequel, Graveyard Keeper 2, into the top 100 most wishlisted games on Steam. Giving away the first installment in the saga generated hype, profits, and the prospect of future earnings. I hope initiatives like these becomes standard practice for studios working on sequels and games set in previously visited universes.

A new indie Alliance to "Be Stronger Together" - Five independent development studios have formed an "alliance" called Nova Assembly. Unfrozen, Sad Cat Studios, VEA Games, Game Garden, and Weappy will continue to develop their own games, but will share knowledge and resources. "We believe this is the only way to truly thrive", Nova Assembly wrote in an open letter. "If one team has just launched a successful game while another needs financial support, we can resolve this internally and avoid making ruinous compromises". Is sharing successes and failures the true business model for independent studios aspiring to produce medium-sized projects?

Disney is the answer to Epic Games' crisis - After the cataclysmic wave of layoffs that hit Epic Games, the company announced part of its recovery strategy: a Disney-themed extraction shooter. You read that right: an Arc Raiders-style game with PvP elements and featuring Disney characters is the experience Epic is reportedly banking on for its revival after two years of Fortnite losing ground and players. This would be just one of three projects in the works in collaboration with the entertainment giant, which invested $1.5 billion in Epic in 2024.

A Project Hail Mary video game is in development - If you loved the new sci-fi film based on the book by Any Weir, you'll be happy to know that there's a video game in development that uses augmented reality and VR to tell an unseen chapter of the book, in which Grace (the protagonist) and Rocky must repair the Hail Mary to continue their mission. We know very little about the game, but the full title is Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars, and you'll be able to interact with various objects on the ship, give Rocky a thumbs-down, and maybe even pilot the Hail Mary.

Get ready for the Bloodborne movie - The long-awaited return of From Software's video game will not come in the form of a remake but as an animated feature film. The film will be co-produced by PlayStation Productions, Lyrical Animation, and YouTuber Seán "JackSepticEye" McLoughlin. According to Sanford Panitch, president of Sony's Motion Picture Group, the film will be "very faithful" to the game's violence.

What to play this weekend

Something new to try and discover for the first time

Looking for something new? Thrills? Tear-jerking stories? This list of recommendations has something for everyone, from new releases to early access titles to demos of upcoming video games that are still a long way off.

Last Flag - Mac and Dan Reynolds (singer and producer of Imagine Dragons) ran a development studio for four years with the goal of creating a 5v5 hero-based capture-the-flag shooter. After trying it out, I can tell you that in terms of gameplay and hero personalities, the game is worth your time, and that this game could really have a chance of surviving its launch period. It's very low priced (10 euros) and its '70s setting is finally a unique perspective; give it a try if you're looking for a new team-based shooter experience.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire - You've probably come across MOUSE: P.I. For Hire online: it's the 1930s cartoon-style video game that takes inspiration from Disney's rubber hose animation of the era to create something new: a dark action FPS with fun gameplay, a top-notch visual style and Troy Baker prividing the voice acting for the game. As in this week's review, the visual style carries the entire game ; don't expect any ground breaking ideas in terms of narrative or gameplay.

Dosa Divas - From the creators of Thirsty Suitors comes another Indian cuisine-themed game, but this time you have to defeat an evil fast food company through turn-based duels with giant spirit-powered robots. Each battle sees the protagonists cooking through a series of minigames, and the art style is delightfully bizarre. Beyond combat, there's dialogue, relationships, communities to rebuild, and reputations to strengthen: this game brims with originality and personality; I highly recommend it.

Moves of the Diamond Hand - If you like dice-based RPGs and are looking for something truly strange (and if you loved the studio's previous title, Betrayal at Club Low), then Moves of the Diamond Hand is the surreal experience you're looking for. I won't describe the plot, nor will I even attempt to tell you about the setting: everything here is based on vibes, and there's a niche of fans who will be sold as soon as they see the first screenshots. I'm just a bridge between this niche and this game.

Replaced review: worth the wait

Pixel art will never be the same after this

There have been precious little indie games that were as eagerly awaited as Replaced. The game developed by Sad Cat Studios was announced years ago, riding the wave of Cyberpunk 2077's renewed success, offering an atmospheric adventure in the same genre, but with HD 2D pixel art graphics. Now that the game is finally available, I've played it to its fullest, and I can say that if you love cyberpunk and 2D adventures, Replaced will provide you with several afternoons of great entertainment.

The protagonist is R.E.A.C.H., an artificial intelligence trapped in her creator's body after a lab accident who suddenly becomes public enemy number one in Phoenix City. After a daring escape, Reach finds herself outside the walls of her hometown, trying to survive alongside a group of outcasts in the ruins of a half-destroyed and radioactive metropolis following a brutal nuclear war.

The setting is a vivid cyberpunk 1980s, with plenty of period-accurate technology in its shape and decidedly sci-fi in its function. As Reach, you'll run, jump, fight, and explore the game's linear levels to experience an adventure centered on narrative, with light platforming and a simple yet fun combat system.

The game's strong point is its vibes, and the developers have nailed it: from the backdrops to the animations, from the game hub to the levels, the pixel art creates a melancholic yet hopeful atmosphere, with characters corrupted by a future drowning in greed, yet still possessing the strength to fight against a system that does everything it can to oppress them. The music, filled with synths and hair rock, completes a game that knows its roots well, offering a fresh perspective and a unique style.

While the story is interesting, the game's most obvious weakness is the lack of voice acting. The cutscene dialogue fails to convey the pathos it should, and its slow pace turns the story's most important moments into boring interludes that fail to sustain attention. I completely understand the budget constraints, but the dialogue should have been much more streamlined and concise. This middle ground doesn't help the game or the player.

Combat is very simple, starting with a basic melee approach, with parrying and dodging to add some additional effects as the story unfolds. The pace is almost that of a beat 'em up, but slightly slowed down by the fact that there are convenient parry windows and more dangerous counterattack opportunities. Nothing unprecedented, but a package that works.

Replaced has the merit and the flaw of not inventing anything new mechanically or narratively, which puts the focus on the graphic and artistic style, and that's the basket where the developers have put all their eggs. The game will be positively familiar when it tells its story, when you explore, and when you fight, but visually (and audio-wise) it will leave you speechless with something unique, well-crafted, and polished.

Pokémon Champions is not what the community wanted

Shortcomings, limitations and flaws have marred the release of the franchise's competitive revolution

There's a reason Pokémon Champions' review isn't in this week's newsletter: the game was released unfinished, and is currently not recommendable. Rather than devote time and space to an a product destined to reach its final form over the next few years, I've decided to delve into the biggest fan complaints. I know the competitive Pokémon world, but I've never participated in a competition or tournament, so I'll let the experts do the talking.

The most glaring issue with Pokémon Champions is its not-fully-sorted-out compatibility with Pokémon Home. Several trainers complain about Pokémon stuck in limbo between the storage hub and the new competitive title with no solution in sight. This means some characters left Home but never made it to Champions.

On the technical side, the game isn't convincing: the frame rate is locked at 30 fps, and there are equally as many bugs and crashes on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. On the latter platform, there's also no performance improvement whatsoever. In terms of gameplay, attentive competitive Pokémon players immediately noticed the incorrect application of modifiers, damage, and the effects of certain items. In some cases, even the turn order, a cornerstone of any competitive strategy, was distorted.

The roster of available Pokémon is smaller than that of Pokémon Stadium 2: Champions has only 186 characters available from the over 1,000 Pokémon released over the years, and rental teams, an iconic feature of the competitive mode for learning the game, are limited to the point of being unusable.

On one front the game is too close to a competitive environment: there are no 6-on-6 battles, but only 3-on-3. The latter is the official format of the Pokémon Video Game Championships (VGC), but fans don't understand why the restriction should apply to private matches as well as online ones. Many suspect that a 6v6 mode hasn't even been developed.

Another major annoyance is that Champions uses a separate friends list than the Switch, likely to prepare for the mobile platform integration planned for this summer. This means you'll have to re-add all your friends to compete in the new game. Local play is also completely absent, so if two friends want to battle, they must be connected to the internet and subscribed to Nintendo's online service.

Champions is a free-to-play game, so it must generate revenue through microtransactions. A subscription is currently available for €5 per month (€50 per year), which gives players more slots to store Pokémon in the game and the ability to have multiple teams at once. Exclusive missions and battle music are also included. A separate starter pack, a one-time purchase for €7, further increases the Pokémon storage space, and a Premium Battle Pass (priced at €10) is available, which adds extra rewards and clothing for the player's character.

The only good news is that Champions is here to stay: its developers have said they plan to eventually support 10,000 Pokémon (10 times the number released so far) as the game continues to grow in size and optimization. The Nintendo Switch release seems more like a beta than a finished product: I'll review it at the next World Championships, because if The Pokémon Company has chosen to host its biggest tournament on the game, it means it will be in a more definitive state than what just came out.

Don't forget to listen to the new episode of [REDACTED] Podcast, the weekly show in which Francesco Lombardo, Cecilia Ciocchetti, and I analyze the week's most important gaming and esports news.

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See you at the next Letter
Riccardo "Tropic" Lichene