Games Inbox: Will The Witcher 4 be out next year?

The Monday letters page thinks all PS6 games are going to be cross-gen, as one reader encourages Activision to make more Call Of Duty games.

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Next Christmas
If we do already know everything that’s coming out this year, then I was going to ask what are going to be the biggest games of 2026? Then I realised we already know: GTA 6 and Resident Evil Requiem. Once GTA 6 is out in May I wonder whether any other big game will dare to come out, beyond EA Sports FC and Call Of Duty.

Since I’m not that bothered GTA 6, I really hope that The Witcher 4 will be out next year, perhaps as the big Christmas game. The Witcher 3 is 10 years old now and it seems long overdue. There were rumours it’d be out sooner than expected, so I’m hoping there’s still a chance of 2026.

If not, I’m not sure what there will be to look forward for me. Maybe Forza Horizon 6, if it comes out on the PlayStation 5 at the same time as Xbox, but at the moment I’m feeling strangely unexcited about the future of gaming, and I don’t like that.
Gruffalo

GC: It’s extremely unlikely The Witcher 4 will be out next year. You’ll be lucky to get a gameplay trailer, and we wouldn’t even bet on that.

B-tier decision
Completely agree with the Reader’s Feature about the Nintendo Switch 2. There might be some slight issues with Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza but they’re basically top tier Nintendo, as you would expect. But the other stuff is super weak. Not only are they not good games but they don’t even seem good ideas, and that’s what worries me.

There was no world where Welcome Tour or Drag x Drive were going to be great and we already know that Kirby Air Ride and Hyrule Warriors are bad, so what is the thinking?

We’ll never find out from Nintendo, obviously, but I can’t figure it out at all. You can’t even put it down as that being all they could get ready in time because why on earth were they a priority? I don’t get it and I am going to be very interested to see what the next ‘B-tier’ game is and whether it’s something you can actually get excited about.
Stitch

Pro tip
I’m not sure if it’s shocking or not that Metal Gear Solid Delta runs worse on PS5 Pro, but I sure am glad I never bought one. Most of the time I can never see the difference and I’m sure I wouldn’t in this case either, even if it is a negative.

I guess I shouldn’t wish for the Pro concept to go away, because I can just opt not to get it, but it’s still a lot of time and resources Sony are wasting on something that doesn’t benefit most fans. The one good thing Microsoft has done with hardware is not making an Xbox Series X2, or whatever dumb name they’d give it. Although that’s probably only because their hardware sales in general are in the bin.
Jaffa

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A bad workman
I think these reports of different third party games working better or worse on Switch 2 are more an indication of the skills of the individual teams than Nintendo’s console. Just like the PS5 Pro and Metal Gear Solid Delta not running as well as on PlayStation 5. Are we suddenly assuming a remake of a PlayStation 2 game, by a fairly low rent developer, is the proper way to judge a whole console?

I think most people would accept that’s silly but so is thinking that FromSoftware are the ones to get the most out of the Switch 2. Their games have always been pretty janky and that’s not even really a complaint, their skills lie in other areas and I don’t mind that (I also doubt they’re doing the Switch 2 port anyway).

This is another reason why first party exclusives are so important. They’re the gold standard you judge everything else by, not cheap ports and remasters by teams that aren’t known for pushing the limits.
Heathcliffe

Organic success
I looked up Hollow Knight to see what the consensus was and it only has an 87 on Metacritic. That’s good but not great. If it’s become a meme I’ve not seen it, but that’s my only guess to explain its popularity.

I’m always interested as to how some indie games become these massive cult hits and other ones, that seem as good or better, are ignored. It doesn’t seem to be reviews or streamers, but just some kind collective, subconscious decision. And now here we are and other games are rushing to get out of the way of Silksong. Can’t say I’m rushing to get it though.
Tacle

Familiar problems
I think one of the main reasons that Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 is getting a bit of a backlash at the moment is that they seem to be creeping back to doing more sci-fi stuff, which I thought they knew most fans don’t like. Advance Warfare leading into Infinite Warfare would’ve been the best time for a rival like EA to strike, because with all the jetpacks and wall-running and everything it really seemed to upset a lot of fans, including me.

Now I hear that Black Ops 7 is getting jetpacks and who knows what else and it just seems like it’s repeating the same old mistakes. It’s all becoming a bit of a loop: Activision makes Call Of Duty more sci-fi, fans say they hate it, they get rid of it, then it slowly creeps back in again. What’s the betting the next game will be WW2, after they realise they have to overcorrect again?

One reader said recently, about how Activision was stupid not to have other franchises on the go at the same time as Call Of Duty, and I agree. The very least they could do is make spin-off series for Call Of Duty. Not just Black Ops and Modern Warfare but a sci-fi series and maybe a historical one.

That way they could have these other styles out all the time, for those that like it, and they could keep consistency with the modern day ones, for those that prefer that. Everyone’s happy and there’s more of a chance to expand beyond the Call Of Duty formula and make something new.

At the moment, every new game risks upsetting one set of fans, whereas expanding things out a bit would make things more consistent.
Limbet

That’s the way to do it
I must say all three Capcom games shown at Gamescom look amazing. They’re a great mix between a long running blockbuster series, a long dormant series, and something brand new.

I think other games companies should take note. Capcom (along with FromSoftware and Nintendo) make my favourite games. It really pleases me to see them firing on all cylinders!
Ryan O’D

Explaining the unexplainable
With more talk of PlayStation 6 all the time, the thing I can’t get my head round is how is anyone, even Sony, going to afford to make games for it? If they’re already at breaking point with the PlayStation 5 how are they going to cope when games are even more expensive to make than they are now?

There’s no point saying they shouldn’t make a PlayStation 6, because they clearly are, even if I don’t understand why. But they must have a plan to combat this problem, so what is it? Is it just to not make that many games, and have all of them in well known franchises? I wouldn’t have though so, given we’ve got new IP games coming out now from Naughty Dog and Housemarque.

Are they only going to make live service games? It could be that, and that was probably the original plan, but after so many failures surely they realise they can’t do that anymore.

The only possible solution I can think of is making all games cross-gen for the whole generation, so the PlayStation 6 is more like a PS5 Pro+. That would work, I think, but it’s also a really unexciting prospect.

Ironically, I’d be a lot more excited if they said they were going to limit all budgets to $100 million and a hard limit of four years development. They never will but I’d be so much happier with double-A games coming out twice as regularly as they are now.
Taylor Moon

Inbox also-rans
Here’s hoping Roblox does get shut down. As a parent I’d much rather my kids play Minecraft, not least because it seems safe in terms of the community.
Lester

Seeing rumours that Forza Horizon 6 might be announced at the Tokyo Game Show, given it’s set in Japan. Hope that’s true, it’s easily Xbox’s best franchise at the moment.
Allegro

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