Friday Five: Magic Pete-Ball Questions and Answers

Let’s shake up and consult Pete’s Magic 8-Ball to answer a few questions. The questions have to be answered with “Yes”, “No”, or “Maybe” in order to work with the 8-Ball. I’ll keep the answers short for now, and maybe expand upon them down the road.

Question 1: Is E.T. for the Atari 2600 the worst video game of all time?

My reply is no.

Look, I get it. E.T. has a… reputation. Most people who dump on it do so because they heard some dude on YouTube rail on and on about how bad it is. The reality of the situation is that E.T. is playable. You can beat it, often in 15 minutes. There is some cryptic stuff that reading the instruction manual would help with, but who reads manuals in 2026, am I right? I admit that the game has its problems (stupid pits), but it’s far from the worst game I’ve ever played. At the very least, it’s over quickly.

Question 2: Are we looking at higher prices for older games and consoles as modern gaming moves away from physical media and angers players?

As I see it, yes.

While I have some doubts about how large the group of defectors from modern video gaming will be as Sony (and probably Microsoft) moves away from physical media, I do think that there well could be a surge in demand for “retro” stuff. “Retro”, of course, is relative– I tend to equate it to the consoles players had when they were growing up or first getting into video games. If that surge in demand comes, as I think it will to some extent, then yes… prices will rise as demand increases and supply shrinks.

Question 3: Is there any real possibility that Sony reverses course on its decision to drop physical media in 2028?

Don’t count on it.

Social media is filled with angry responses to Sony’s decision, and there have been pushes to threaten the company with boycotts or to troll-bomb any and all of Sony’s posts. There’s no doubt that a lot of people are angry and that there will be some lost revenue in response. There are questions about how large this angry group is and whether it’s substantial enough to force some kind of reconsideration. I really don’t see a scenario where that number is big enough. Short-term pain (in losing some revenue early) for long-term gain (more control of sales, no more used game market to lose money to).

Question 4: Is the sixth generation of video game consoles the best generation?

Reply hazy.

I don’t typically like to wade into conversations about “best” anything. The metrics for what is “best” are never consistent from person to person. What I will say is that there’s a case to made for this declaration. There’s a lot to like about this era. It’s got so many important games, like mainline Grand Theft Auto offerings, the Burnout series, Halo (and Halo 2), Resident Evil 4, and more. It was the last console generation with genuine competition in the sports game genre. That said, I do think other generations also have grounds for discussion (notably Gen4)– so it’s really difficult to pin down one dominant entry.

Question 5: Would an NFL 2K comeback fix football video games?

My reply is no.

While I’m all for the dissolution of NFL license exclusivity to open up the playing field for more competition, I view 2K (who is Take-Two, the same conglomerate that owns Rockstar) as another EA… but with less recent experience. Visual Concepts has been doing a fairly decent job with basketball, but that’s been the focus now for 20 years. To assume that the team (who has many different staff members now) can just jump back on the horse and deliver a quality football game is a fool’s errand. Worse, Take-Two employs very similar card-centric game modes that EA shoves into its games. It’s basically six of one and a half-dozen of the other. More competition is needed than the same thing twice.

This was fun– hopefully I didn’t ruffle too many feathers. It’s just one old man’s opinion. Maybe I’ll do another one of these if I get some (relevant) questions to answer.