Konsume

Ten popular video games that did not sell well

John Hansen

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May 28, 2020

Ten popular video games that did not sell well

Video games are a hobby that amuses tons of people every day. With decades of games available for you to play on a variety of platforms, there is always something worth your time to play. That being said, video games are a business, and while there are so many brilliant games out there, some games fall by the wayside for various reasons. Here are ten popular games that actually did not sell well.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

The story of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is one filled with a lot of unfortunate events. Starting, the original developer, 38 Studios was owned by former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling. They acquired Big Huge Games in 2009 to help make the game. Originally, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was an MMO filled with over a 10,000-year history and driven with an artistic vision by Todd McFarlene. At the time, 38 Studios was set up to release something big, but they needed money. After a chance encounter with the governor of Rhode Island, the studio moved states and struck a deal where Rhode Island loaned the company $75 million. Rhode Island was looking to bring the video game industry to their state to open new job opportunities and taxable revenue. This is where things start to go downhill.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning released in February 2012 to mixed reviews and poor sales. In its first month, it sold only 330,000 units. It needed to sell three million to break even. 38 Studios failed to make a loan payment in May of that year. A week later, they paid the late payment, but at the cost of paying their employees. A week following that, all employees were laid off. Soon after, 38 Studios filed for bankruptcy, leaving the state of Rhode Island $75 million in the hole. So, what caused the Kingdoms of Amalur’s failure? The first big possibility is poor management. Another big factor is the game releasing only months after one of the biggest video games of all time, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Looking at it today, the game is looked on more fondly for what it is, but several things surrounding it needed to be handled differently for it to not be a surefire disaster.

Titanfall 2

Titanfall 2 is one of the more praised first-person shooters of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It introduced a fun campaign, and the multiplayer returned with great mechanics. However, the release date hurt its sales numbers. It was positioned a week following Battlefield 1 and a week before Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.

EA might have thought that releasing two of its franchises back-to-back wouldn’t harm them, but Titanfall 2 sold only a quarter of the original game’s first week numbers, despite the fact it was available on more platforms. EA expected the game to sell between nine and ten million units in its first year. It is estimated to have sold only four million.

Psychonauts

Psychonauts is one of the best cases of a cult classic. Released on PlayStation 2 and Xbox, you play as Raz, a gifted psychic kid who ventures into people’s minds. Double Fine hit many issues during development that cost them a publishing deal with Microsoft. The game ended up being published by Majesco, but unfortunately for them, Psychonauts sold only 100,000 copies at the end of the year of its launch. The financial failure led to Majesco exiting the video game market. Majesty Majesco estimates they lost $18 million from publishing Psychonauts.

Despite selling poorly, the game received universal praise critically and won multiple awards. Hopefully, whenever Psychonauts 2 releases, it can garner better sales and maintain the good reviews scores.

Beyond Good and Evil

After working on the Rayman series, creator Michael Ancel began work on Beyond Good and Evil, a game meant to give the player a meaningful story filled with exploration and freedom. It released to favorable reviews, with Metacritic scores ranging in the high 80s. Many praised it for its storytelling and design. However, it was a poor time for a brand-new adventure game to release. The market was filled with similarly established franchises, and new ones always have an uphill battle to fight when they first release anyways. For this reason, and the fact that Ubisoft was more focused on marketing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Beyond Good and Evil never established a core audience at release and sold only 500,000 copies across platforms. Just months following its launch, it was put on sale up to 80% off.

Conker’s Bad Fur Day

Rare were at their peak while developing games for the Nintendo 64. Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo-Kazooie, and Goldeneye 007 were just a few examples of beloved games for the platform. Originally set to be a kid-friendly 3D platformer, the game received a redesign to be suited more for adults since Banjo-Kazooie had released not too much before it. The game now focused on an alcoholic squirrel, had many movie references, and featured plenty of adult themes and language.

Nintendo, being a company that focuses more on family experiences, did not market the game much. They refused to acknowledge its existence in their magazine, Nintendo Power, and it was mostly advertised in adult-themed magazines, most notably Playboy. The adult nature of the game also led some retailers to refuse to sell the game, like KB Toys, and Nintendo of Europe even refused to publish the European version, leaving it to be picked up by THQ. All these issues contributed to Conker’s Bad Fur Day selling only 23,000 units in its first week, followed by a steady decline, topping off at 55,000 sold. For comparison, Banjo-Kazooie sold over three and a half million units.

EarthBound

While it is recognized as a great RPG on the Super Nintendo today, EarthBound (or Mother 2 in Japan) originally received extraordinarily little fanfare in the United States, selling only 140,000 units there. The game had already been facing cancellation numerous times before Satoru Iwata, the future head of Nintendo, joined and produced the game. It released in America about a year following the Japanese release, and following its poor sales and $2 million marketing campaign, it never received a release in Europe.

During EarthBound’s release in the United States, Americans were not quite ready for an RPG of this style. Looking back at it, it still is an original idea for a game that not many have tried to replicate. While it is an odd release, it remains one of the better RPGs of all time. Unfortunately, its poor sales meant its sequel, Mother 3, would never receive an American release.

Grim Fandango

Grim Fandango is regarded as one of the best adventure games of all time. Unfortunately, when it originally released for PC in 1998, it sold only 500,000 units. The timing was a key part of the game’s initial issues. It released in a period that also saw the releases of iconic games, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life, and Pokémon Red and Blue. At this time, it didn’t help that adventure games were regularly found in the wild, and 3D games were still rising, making the above-mentioned games more interesting. Grim Fandango did not do a good enough job of separating itself from the rest of the genre, and its poor sales led many to believe that the adventure series was dying.

Okami

Okami is a brilliant game that draws many comparisons to The Legend of Zelda. The game was developed by well-regarded developers Shinji Mikami (maker of Resident Evil) and Hideki Kamiya (maker of Devil May Cry). While being regarded as a modern classic, it did not find the sales success it deserved, selling only 200,000 copies in America, ranking it as the 100^th best selling game of 2006. Surprisingly, the game sold even worse in Japan, amassing only 66,000.

Okami would go on to inspire many games in their production, from its gorgeous paint-like graphics to its epic gameplay. The game did receive a second chance via a Wii release and remastered on the PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One, so hopefully, there is a chance it can one day receive a sequel.

Panzer Dragoon Saga

Where most games in the Panzer Dragoon series are on-rail shooters, Saga took the series in a different direction, instead of aiming for an RPG. Originally intended to make the Sega Saturn more competitive against the PlayStation, it released too late to be able to do that. Making an RPG in a 3D environment was not usual at that time, so Sega had to sink a lot of time into developing the game. Originally meant to release at the same time as Final Fantasy VII in 1997, it was delayed to 1998. By this time, Final Fantasy went on to sell close to ten million copies.

On arrival, the Saturn was mostly a dead console already. Sega was focused on developing its next console, the Sega Dreamcast, and Panzer Dragoon Saga received little to no marketing in the United States. Retailers were hesitant to stock the game because no one was buying Saturn games, and Sega would produce only a small amount of copies to be sold in the first place. According to Sega, to be considered a success, Panzer Dragoon Saga needed to sell one and a half million copies. It is a little hard to do that when they initially only produced 20,000 American copies and 1,000 copies in Europe. It released to no fanfare, as Sega was not advertising it and refused to give the game to mainstream outlets for reviews.

No More Heroes

Suda51’s No More Heroes is a Wii cult classic that initially was going to start life as an Xbox 360 game until it was suggested for the motion-controlled console. While the game would later come to the 360 and PlayStation 3, the Wii version is the most iconic and recognized. It is well-loved for its unique story, gameplay, and humor that won its awards for 2008’s best story and best action game. For whatever reason, the game did not take off in Japan, selling only 10,000 copies at its launch. Luckily though, the game did sell a bit better in the United States and Europe (reaching about 40,000), making it easier for the sequel to come out in 2010, but nothing impressive. It is a niche title and maybe never was going to sell high, but the quality game that is here deserved better.

Dozens of Shootings in Chicago on Memorial Day

Crime

Jason Collins

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May 27, 2020

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Dozens of Shootings in Chicago on Memorial Day

Chicago has had it deadliest Memorial Day weekend in 4 years. 48 people were shot over the course of the weekend, 10 of those were fatal wounds. The police also recovered over 200 illegal firearms and made 86 arrests connected to gun violence. This was not a mass shooting, this was not a targeted large scale event, this was individual acts of violence around the city. “The effect of the coronavirus also goes beyond hospitalizations,” said David Brown, Chicago Police Commissioner. “People are feeling restless after being cooped up for weeks.” The city attempted to lessen the expected violence over the weekend by sending mediators into hot spots in the Chicago area, but based on the numbers it does not seem to have worked.

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Japan Declares Coronavirus is Beaten, Lifts State of Emergency

Jason Collins

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May 26, 2020

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Japan Declares Coronavirus is Beaten, Lifts State of Emergency

Japan, to worldwide criticism, has lifted the state of emergency, and thus many precautions against the coronavirus. In recent weeks the number of cases began to taper, with new cases in the dozens across the county instead of in the hundreds or thousands. Hospitalizations have also dropped to under 2000 countrywide. Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, has said that the lifting of the state of emergency does not mean the end of the epidemic in the area, but that the time has come to institute a balance between the precautions and the economy. He states that just because the mandates are being lifted, the recommendations of social distancing remain the same.

Read more on the story here

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What is the difference between a video game remaster and a remake?

John Hansen

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May 26, 2020

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What is the difference between a video game remaster and a remake?

Over the last several years, gaming companies have found that bringing back classic games that people love can be very profitable for them. In some cases, these games are brought back with completely revamped controls, story, etc. They can be an entirely new experience or remain faithful to the original material. Regardless, these “remakes” and “remasters” have proven to sell very well and make fans of the originals happy while introducing newcomers to popular games. What is the difference between the two, though? We see the words remake and remaster thrown around a lot. Let’s lay down a solid line to tell which is which.

A remaster is when a development studio upgrades the cosmetics of the game. For example, many games released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 have received remasters on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. All of these games received better graphics on the more powerful consoles, but the experience between the two ports remained the same. Examples of this include The Last of Us Remastered, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, and Dark Souls Remastered. Each one of these games can be played on the previous consoles, and while there may be a couple of small tweaks to gameplay, the most significant changes lie graphically.

A remake is when a company puts more work into upgrading the overall experience. The visuals (and possibly audio) can get a big leap forward into the current day, but these games require a developer to look at other areas of the game to improve. The easiest way to explain this is to bring up the Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy. When making that game collection, the developers did not have the assets of the originals at their disposal. It was created solely for the original PlayStation console. Everything in the game was 100 percent made by their hands. The environment, the physics, and more were made specifically to be run on current hardware. When it was made, moves from other Crash games were included in areas you would not see them in the original. The overall experience was upgraded.

The recently announced Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 would also be considered a remake of the original game releases. According to Vicarious Visions, the game will have “a vast majority” of the original soundtracks, plus upgraded visuals. If the work had stopped at that point, it would be considered a remaster. The same experience you would get in the originals would be playable on newer consoles.

However, when you consider that not only are all the original moves from the games returning, but they’re also adding in moves from other entries, you can tell they looked at fully upgrading every aspect of the game. They used the code from the original games to make a foundation for the layout of the maps and did what was needed to modernize it. The geometry has been completely matched with the original games, so nothing feels out of place or out of time. They had the framework for what they were building, but everything included has been built on top of to make it brand new and made from scratch. This is not a situation where they took those assets and prettied them up.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is the clearest example of a remake. In that case, the only assets that remained the same are the characters present in the story. Gameplay was ultimately changed to an action RPG, new story points were added, and the layout of the map was changed. You could forgive someone not familiar with the situation for thinking it was a completely different game.

The recent Resident Evil remakes have been another beloved revitalization of older games. What used to have asymmetric camera angles and tank controls was changed to a third-person over-the-shoulder camera with more action elements. Resident Evil had a history of games like this from Resident Evil 4, 5, 6, and some spin-off titles, but Capcom still had to completely rebuild the worlds of Resident Evil 2 and 3 to make them playable in these ways. However, these are not the first examples of Resident Evil being remade. The first game in the series was remade for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002, and that remake received a remaster on current hardware, as did many other games in the series.

While remasters do not take the same amount of work to be made, that does not mean they are an easy cash grab for a company. Of course, there are examples where a game did not need to be brought back. Examples include Burnout Paradise Remastered, Assassins Creed III Remastered, and God of War III Remastered. These are all good games, but people were not necessarily clamoring for these exact games to be brought back, as of now.

Remasters, funnily enough, have been around for a while, although the term had not been made popular until the 2010s. Nintendo is well known for re-releasing older games on newer consoles. Super Mario All-Stars on the Super Nintendo was the first example of this; it remastered Super Mario Bros 3 on the new hardware. The Gameboy Advance also had multiple remasters of 2D Mario games. The 3DS saw 3D remasters of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. The Wii U got Wind Waker HD. While most companies adopted the idea of bringing back old games in the last several years, Nintendo had been doing so for decades.

Remakes and remasters can be quite divisive among some in the gaming community. Some applaud developers and publishers for bringing back their childhood favorites (Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon). Others criticize them for doing the bare minimum and not delivering the right title being brought back (Burnout Paradise). Whatever side of the argument you come out on, remakes and remasters appear to be here to stay in a prominent role for the future.

New Protests in Hong Kong Against Proposed Security Law

Jason Collins

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May 25, 2020

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New Protests in Hong Kong Against Proposed Security Law

Beijing has proposed a security law in Hong Kong that is causing chaos and protest in the independent Chinese city. The law follows months of violent anti-government protests that Beijing warned they would not tolerate. Per one protester in Hong Kong, “People may be criminalized only for words they say or publish opposing the government…we won’t be as naive as to believe that Beijing will simply sit back and do nothing. Things will only get worse here.” Hong Kong leaders are not as worried, with Maria Tam, a Hong Kong law advisor to Chinese government, saying “I’m not worried about anybody being arrested by a police officer from the mainland and then taken back to China for investigation or punishment. It is not, not, not going to happen.”

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China Reports No New Coronavirus Cases

Jason Collins

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May 25, 2020

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China has reported no new confirmed coronavirus cases for the first time since the pandemic began. They say they have around 350 people in isolation and 79 cases still being treated in hospitals. They also have reported no new deaths. China has had over 84,000 cases, making it the country with the 13th highest number of cases. There has been much speculation on the accuracy of COVID-19 data coming from China, but if these new numbers are true then hope is on the horizon for everyone.

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Plane Carrying Over 100 Passengers Crashes in Pakistan

Disaster

Jason Collins

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May 24, 2020

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Plane Carrying Over 100 Passengers Crashes in Pakistan

An Airbus A320 plane carrying 99 passengers plus crew members crashed into the city of Karachi Friday morning. There have been 11 confirmed deaths, but the total extent of injuries and fatalities is unclear. Currently the blame is being placed on technical malfunctions. The flight vanished from the flight path and the pilot sent up a mayday call for technical malfunctions. The nearby airport cleared both runways but the pilot chose the go around landing instead. This was a special flight for those returning home for the Eid holidays that began the same day. An inquiry is being launched into the crash.

Read more on the story here

For video coverage click here

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“Waitress” Star Nick Cordero Worsens After COVID-19 Complication

Jason Collins

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May 23, 2020

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“Waitress” Star Nick Cordero Worsens After COVID-19 Complication

Nick Cordero’s wife, Amanda Kloots, posted an emotional update on the 41 year old Broadway actor’s condition. Cordero was hospitalized on March 30th and has been in the hospital since. He has suffered multiple complications from the virus and hospitalization including major lung infections and blood clots that necessitated the amputation of one of his legs. He was placed into a medically induced coma and was woken up this week. Kloots said this morning that today was a rough day and he has suffered more setbacks. It is unclear exactly what those setbacks are, but Cordero is still in the hospital.

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Robert Pattinson may be the first Batman who understands the role

Paul Lebowitz

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May 22, 2020

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Robert Pattinson may be the first Batman who understands the role

Even with the filming of The Batman being shut down due to COVID-19 and the mere act of going to the movies radically changed – perhaps for the long-term – Batman is still a hot topic of discussion. Recently, one-and-done Batman Forever star Val Kilmer was the subject of a New York Times Magazine piece about his career. While Batman was an understandably small part of his extended body of work in which he’s played several iconic characters in addition to the Caped Crusader including Jim Morrison in The Doors and the legendary adult film actor John Holmes in the underrated Wonderland, he made salient points about it with which every actor who has played it would likely agree whether they were successful at it or not.

His experience playing Batman did not elicit anger, frustration or lamentation as it did for others, but the article said the following:

If you read his press around the time of “Batman,” all those interviews are mostly just him complaining about the suit; he liked to say it was “a battering experience” because he loves wordplay.

He remembered a story from his time as Batman. One day he was filming and about to take off the Batsuit when Warren Buffett and his grandkids came by. They wanted to see Batman, so Kilmer stuck around in the suit, but they didn’t want to talk to him. They wanted to try on the mask and ride in the Batmobile. He understood then that Batman isn’t meant to be a real guy. Batman is meant to be so anonymous that the person who is looking at him can see himself in him. “That’s why it’s so easy to have five or six Batmans,” he says now. “It’s not about Batman. There is no Batman.” And so what kind of thing is that to play, a person whose job is to be as nonspecific as possible. He looked good in the Batsuit, but wearing it was torture. When he took it off, he was finally free.

With Batman, the challenges the actors have faced tend to mirror each other regardless of whether they’re considered nice guys like Adam West and George Clooney, intense and difficult like Christian Bale, reluctant like Michael Keaton, and polarizing like Ben Affleck. Now, The Batman star Robert Pattinson is resisting the conventional wisdom – specifically, refraining from turning himself into a muscle-bound fighting machine.

Part of this is biological. For someone as lissome as Pattinson, gaining the weight necessary to carry off the look of Batman likely requires measures that go beyond lifting weights, ingesting quality calories and adhering to the old Hulk Hogan line of saying his prayers and taking his (over-the-counter) vitamins. In fact, there is an apparent chasm between what the studio wants him to look like and what Pattinson is willing to do to achieve the studio’s vision. Given that filming, though paused, is well underway, they really can’t fire him. It’s a “what are they gonna do about it?” act of defiance.

In short, he doesn’t want to work out. Whether Pattinson’s statement that people didn’t look like bodybuilders in the 1970s (evidently the setting of the film) is tongue-in-cheek or not, the easy retort to such a statement is that 99.9999% of people weren’t masked vigilantes bashing in criminals’ skulls every night.

You kind of need muscles for that.

There is the argument that a younger Batman would not be as bulky and filled out as an older Batman, but “I don’t wanna” undermines a script-based conscious decision not to gain size. If Pattinson is on screen looking like the vampire-teen from Twilight decided to become Batman, the script had better be masterful and his acting chops need to be on point to sell it. If the performance is vital to the film’s success, this is a departure from the other iterations of the character, including ones that were darker with a noir realism.

Of all the actors to play Batman, Pattinson is the youngest and least established. Ironically, that combination suggests that he doesn’t view his own position as such that he needs to put his stamp on the character under the misplaced belief that the fans are not just going to see Batman, but they’re going to see Robert Pattinson as Batman.

West was a working TV actor hired to do a campy TV version of the comic book as it was presented in the late-1960 with a sunnier, kid-friendly tone.

Keaton was a comedic actor who Tim Burton liked from their work on Beetlejuice and who was in the middle of a transition from goofy comedy to more serious fare with Batman the catalyst to worldwide stardom.

Kilmer was a handsome, leading man type who, despite his difficult reputation, had acting chops and moderate box office bona fides to inherit the cape and cowl from Keaton without a massive outcry comparble what Keaton endured when he was cast.

Clooney’s long road to leading man status was still in its upward trajectory and, despite the terribleness of the script for Batman and Robin, he had no choice but to accept the part knowing the likely outcome being mockery and never getting another chance at it.

Bale was a child actor who was known for putting full emotional and physical dedication into his performances including terrifying weight loss for The Machinist followed by the muscular bodyweight gain – that Pattinson has refused to do – to become Batman.

Affleck had only just shed his status as beefcake meathead known more for tabloid fodder and some horrible film choices by winning acclaim for directing The Town and Argo.

Of all these actors, Pattinson seems to have a mature understanding of the absurdity of it in ways the veteran actors did not; that Kilmer expressed in retrospect by saying he hated it and that it didn’t matter who was under the suit.

Before the film has wrapped, it appears as if Pattinson is realizing what he walked into. The Twilight films were ridiculous, but he was a young, pretty boy actor who needed to get his foot in the door. In subsequent performances, he’s carved out a niche in independent, art house-type films with critical acclaim to match his heartthrob looks. He’s known, but for many he’s not instantly recognizable simply by saying his name. It’s sometimes necessary to refer to him as “the Twilight guy” to get a person who does not recognize the name to know who he is.

This brings up the differences among the actors and where their careers were at the time they got the coveted gig, where they expected their careers to go and where they ended up.

West was never going to be a headlining movie star and the belief that Batman damaged him is misplaced. The affable West accepted and enjoyed his lot in life with self-deprecating humor as the guy who did the TV version of Batman and enjoyed a late-life renaissance as Mayor Adam West on Family Guy.

Keaton has become a sought-after dramatic actor, accepting parts in ensemble films and character-driven background parts. He mocked the yoke an actor is forced to endure after being a superhero on film and was nominated for an Oscar in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). He became part of the Marvel Universe as the Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming and is expected to be in upcoming Spider-Man films.

Clooney is also a worldwide celebrity and activist, alternating between big budget blockbusters like the Ocean’s franchise and high-end storytelling with Michael Clayton, Good Night and Good Luck and Syriana.

Bale is a respected actor and A-list movie star despite a reputation like Kilmer’s for being hard to handle on-set and is also set to re-enter the superhero realm for Marvel by playing the unknown villain in Thor: Love and Thunder.

Affleck is still a prominent director and actor despite personal issues with alcohol and gambling. Ironically, it was his immersion into the Batman role that was as close as an actor has come to showing the true dichotomy, psychosis and fascism of Bruce Wayne and Batman. His problem was the material Zack Snyder saddled him with was opaque and rife with symbolism that sabotaged his good work and essentially infected the entire DC Universe to the degree that a reboot with Pattinson was necessary to begin with.

If an actor starts out thinking he’s going to bring his own “take” to Batman and Bruce Wayne, he’ll be sorely mistaken, disappointed and disillusioned. Hypothetically, if he’s granted some level of freedom to explore the character, that does not eliminate the conventional presentation of the dual roles that the studio will be pressured to adhere to.

Batman is a job that no actor can turn down, but most who take it end up regretting it to some degree. Yes, it advances their fame and extends their appeal perhaps to people who have not been interested nor aware of their work, but the secondary cost is high. Pattinson is taking it seriously, but not seriously to the point of fanaticism, spending all day in the gym or using steroids and HGH to gain 80 pounds to look the part when looking the part generally requires nothing more than putting the suit on, speaking in a growling monotone, punching, kicking and throwing the Batarang.

A film featuring the youngest ever Batman required a younger actor and, judging from Kilmer’s comments about the role, that younger actor – Pattinson – is showing a wisdom that belies his years as he walks in showing signs of knowing what the others only learned on the way out.

Ten things we want from Grand Theft Auto VI

John Hansen

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May 21, 2020

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Ten things we want from Grand Theft Auto VI

Rockstar is one of the biggest game developers in the world. Their track record has proven them to be at the highest of AAA quality games. Red Dead Redemption II proved that they are a development team capable of taking their time to make an experience that will push the boundaries of what you think is possible in a game. Grand Theft Auto V has also been doing this for years. So many that it has us looking forward to what we could see in the next iteration in the franchise. Here is a look at a few things we want in Grand Theft Auto VI.

A return to Vice City

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was one of the games in the series released on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and as with the other releases on those consoles, one of the best games that generation. GTA 5 returned us to Los Santos, and GTA 4 brought back Liberty City. It is time that Vice City be brought back to current days.

More GTA Online

Unquestionably the most significant factor in GTA 5’s continued success has been Grand Theft Auto Online. The single-player mode is excellent, but the consistent updates Rockstar has dumped into the online have given it legs that ran the money machine for Rockstar for years. In GTA 6, it would be nice to see this be brought back with more. For starters, more heists (and make them available at release), more varied jobs, and just simply more to do in the world. 2020 makes seven years since GTA 5 released. It is time to see what Rockstar can come up with that does not feel like the same thing we’ve been doing in Los Santos for the last eight years.

Blur the line between online and single player

In GTA 5, it is easy to tell when you are playing online, or you are in a single-player game. GTA 6 should move to blur those lines a little more. The character you create in online can be the protagonist of the single-player story, and you could pull off single-player missions while playing online. It would give GTA more of an MMO feel. While we are at it, make those single-player missions playable cooperatively.

Improved Wanted Levels

Wanted Levels has arguably been the most significant inclusion that the GTA series has brought to video games. You do something wrong, and the cops chase you down until you’re dead. It is simple, but fun in every game. However, GTA 5 had one of the weaker Wanted Level systems in the series, and it might be time for a revamp. It is time for crimes committed away from the public not to summon phantom cops. If no one is around to see the crime, you should get away with it. GTA 5’s Wanted system is inconsistent, and some tweaks and a hard look at it could breathe new life into it. Also, bring back getting busted when they stop you in your tracks.

Do not pursue too much realism

Red Dead Redemption II is an unquestioned masterpiece of game design. However, a common complaint when it released was that Rockstar focused too much on some realistic facets of the game that took away from the fun of it. Grand Theft Auto is a series built on satire, destruction, and having the most fun by being a horrible person. Rockstar needs to focus on that rather than bringing a realistic, immersive feel to the game.

More interior gameplay

While GTA 5 has some instances where you can go inside, a next-generation title in the series should expand on it. More stores to shop and rob, pull off a burglary in NPCs houses, and give us more ways to escape the cops by hiding. By no means will this be a game-changer (outside gameplay will always rule the GTA experience), but it would be nice to see more opportunities for different environments.

Go back to a single protagonist

Having three protagonists to play as in GTA 5 had its values. Still, Rockstar’s focus on developing a story focused on a single character in Red Dead Redemption II made the campaign much better because of it. Like I said before, if they build a story around the character you create online, you can have a more focused story. No more dealing with Franklin’s abusive aunt or Michael’s annoying family. Which leads us to…

A better cast of side characters

Outside of the main protagonists in GTA 5, every character ranged from annoying to completely forgettable. Obviously, some of those characters are meant to be a satire on a certain kind of person in real life, but more often than not, interacting with any NPC made us want to skip dialogue more than hear what they had to say.

Better physical combat and gun gameplay

One of the more significant fixes Rockstar can pull on the GTA series is a revamp to the combat in the game. Fistfights in GTA 5 are always the same, dull animations and button pressing that does not feel great. It might be time to bring back physical attributes from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas but expand on it. Maybe when you are in a better fighting condition, you can learn new moves. Gunplay could use some touch-ups as well. For being such a core part of Rockstar game’s formula, firing weapons have never really felt great. It is time to fix that going forward.

Better loading times

One of the biggest problems with starting up a Grand Theft Auto game has always been waiting for it to load. This has been a problem for so long that it feels ingrained in the series now. GTA 5 is the worst of the bunch, though. As more was added to the online mode, the longer the wait became to not only start the game but load up the overworld after a mission. One of the main focuses of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 so far has been the improved loading times because of the switch to a solid-state drive over a hard disk drive. Rockstar should double down on this approach and make sure the wait is not too long.