Julius

Haha hey @drahkon It's unfortunately not complete yet, we're waiting on a third part for Season 4 which is scheduled for early next year It's fantastic. Like a lot of shows as long as AoT is (nearly 90 episodes now), it definitely has some dips at times, but overall I think it's great: awesome music, some really smart writing that I love that we've got much more of in Season 4, best in class animation (for a long time, in terms of action in anime, it was probably top dog), etc. YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD! Kind regards and au revoir

Attack of the Clones first released 20 years ago today! Probably my least favourite film in the saga overseen by George, it has its moments...but they are few and far between. Still, though, it gave us one of the best love themes in all of cinema, a proper throwback to the romantic scores of old Hollywood in Across the Stars... ...one of the best sound effects of all time... ...and the awesome planet of Kamino. And, I mean, this is probably owed to it mostly lacking dialogue, but I always thought the ending was probably the strongest part of the film: A lot of cool musical stuff going on there

Cinematic trailer: Okay, can't speak to the game itself, but that seems like a great and accurate depiction of their characters. It's not quite got that Sakurai charm to it the Smash trailers do, but clearly what they've gone for, and I think they did a half decent job! Especially that Iron Giant team-up with Superman, that was perfect

So for clarity, the way I'm interpreting the wording (which I've updated in the original post now) is that only titles added to the Classic Games Catalog will be ones you can "claim" if you've owned them digitally on a previous system: So, basically, I think that could count Konami out (for now), because otherwise I'd expect a game like Metal Gear Solid to be listed and it means my PS3 still retains some digital use for the time being (I wanted to see Suikoden on my PS5 damn it!). There seems to be additional confusion in a lot of places at the size of the catalogs listed, so to clarify, the lists are only some of the titles we'll be getting at launch - I've no idea why they haven't given us the full lists, but I guess it could have been pretty lengthy and some dealings may still be going on in some back alleys. Still, a lot of surprising and odd decisions in there for me in the games they chose to list. Demon's Souls Remake on PS5 and then offering the PS3 version via streaming too? Does that mean they'll be turning the servers back on? Otherwise, seems an odd choice (I think you can get the Plat without online at least). Everybody's Golf is being shut down later this year on PS4, but now PS3 titles from the series are coming to this service - similar question to with Demon's Souls, does that mean they'll be turning the servers back on (I'm assuming those games have an online mode)? ICO is listed by itself as a PS3 streamed title, but was released as part of the HD Collection on PS3 originally, meaning they've separated it? But then...where's the HD remaster of Shadow of the Colossus for PS3? I'm also really confused about what the deal is with listing PS4 Classics versions of PS2 titles, as I've only read and heard poor things about how they play on PS5 as things stand. Have they been updated? Just...yeah, odd list to me. Most striking thing to me though - and I imagine they'll get included in the full list - is that there isn't a mention of God of War in the PS3 streaming titles, despite being such a big pillar for today's PlayStation lineup and Ragnarök still slated for later this year. Also, selfishly: one of my gaming resolutions for the year was to play all of the God of War games as prep for Ragnarök, so this has me the tiniest bit nervous, but I'm sure it'll be there as it's on PS Now...ahem. I think it just wasn't part of their select titles that they announced today - goodness knows the criteria. But yeah, it's odd. I get not listing the total number of games for third parties - in fairness, that would be one hell of a long list - but for what is now first party? Weird I picked up two years of PS Now through the backdoor link after the conversion straight to Premium was announced (my logic was that it'd effectively be half price) so I'm in anyways at this point, but I am curious to see what else is coming. PlayStation normally love to partner with Square Enix, so I'm surprised none of their classic titles are listed (especially Final Fantasy), but I wonder if it's something that they could attach to whatever Square Enix does at Not-E3/the announcement of the Pixel Remasters coming to console/XVI re-emergence? I just want God of War confirmation at this point I'm also not sure where it leaves me personally in the long term when it comes to my collection of PS3 titles physically. I guess I can shelve it for a few months at least and prioritise the 3DS and Wii U eShops/Virtual Consoles, which is nice, but yeah, I'm just not sure. Things like the Ratchet & Clank HD collection are only getting more expensive, so having them here is nice, but I also like physical...I'll wait and see I guess.

Welcome to your one-stop shop for all things related to the May/June 2022 (and beyond) PlayStation Plus overhaul! I figured with a vast and updating catalog of games to track, multiple subscription tiers, and a glut of new info, a dedicated thread could be helpful. See the end of this post for a selection of games planned to be included in the launch catalogs for this overhauled PlayStation Plus. Regional rollout schedule: Asia (excluding Japan) - 24th May 2022 Japan - 2nd June 2022 Americas - 13th June Europe, Australia, New Zealand - 23rd June 2022 Subscription tiers and pricing structure: PlayStation Plus Essential will continue to provide the same benefits that PlayStation Plus members get today: two monthly downloadable games, exclusive discounts, cloud storage for saved games, and online multiplayer access. There will be no changes for existing PlayStation Plus members at this tier. The pricing structure for Essential is as follows: United States - $9.99 monthly / $24.99 quarterly / $59.99 yearly Europe - €8.99 monthly / €24.99 quarterly / €59.99 yearly United Kingdom - £6.99 monthly / £19.99 quarterly / £49.99 yearly Japan - ¥850 monthly / ¥2,150 quarterly / ¥5,143 yearly PlayStation Plus Extra will provide all of the benefits from the Essential tier, as well as a catalog of 400+ PS4 and PS5 titles, including first-party titles from PlayStation Studios and third-party partners. Games in this tier will be downloadable to play. Also announced today by Ubisoft is that a new Ubisoft+ subscription service called Ubisoft+ Classics will launch with 27 titles as part of PlayStation Plus from its overhaul starting at this tier, expanding to 50 titles by the end of 2022. The pricing structure for Extra is as follows: United States - $14.99 monthly / $39.99 quarterly / $99.99 yearly Europe - €13.99 monthly / €39.99 quarterly / €99.99 yearly United Kingdom - £10.99 monthly / £31.99 quarterly / £83.99 yearly Japan - ¥1,300 monthly / ¥3,600 quarterly / ¥8,600 yearly PlayStation Plus Premium* will provide all of the benefits from the Essential and Extra tiers, as well as an additional 340+ games, split between PS3 titles available via cloud streaming and a catalog of classics - available to stream or to download - from the PS1, PS2 and PSP console libraries. It also includes time-limited game trials for select titles. The pricing structure for Premium is as follows: United States - $17.99 monthly / $49.99 quarterly / $119.99 yearly Europe - €16.99 monthly / €49.99 quarterly / €119.99 yearly United Kingdom - £13.49 monthly / £39.99 quarterly / £99.99 yearly Japan - ¥1,550 – monthly / ¥4,300 – quarterly / ¥10,250 yearly *PlayStation Plus Deluxe will be the highest tier available for markets without cloud streaming. It will be offered at a lower price compared to Premium (local pricing will vary by market), and is essentially Premium without the ability to stream PS3 titles: it will have all of the benefits of the Essential and Extra tiers, and include the catalog of PS1, PS2 and PSP titles, as well as time-limited game trials. Other important details: The games available in the PlayStation Plus games catalog will be refreshed on a regular basis: For those at the Essential tier (and at higher tiers), a monthly refresh will occur on the first Tuesday of the month, with new PS5 and PS5 games added to the service - the same as what PlayStation Plus members get today. For those at the Premium/Deluxe and Extra tiers, an additional monthly refresh will occur in the middle of each month. The number of games refreshed will vary per month. Players who have previously purchased digital versions of select games from the PS1 and PSP libraries (i.e. on PS3, PSP, or Vita) will not have to make a separate purchase or sign up to PlayStation Plus to play these titles on PS4 or PS5. When these titles are released for PS4 and PS5, players can head to the PlayStation Store and download a version for the consoles at no extra cost if they already own the digital version of the title. In addition, some of these titles will also be available for individual purchase. For select PS1 and PSP titles, a new user interface has been integrated, with menus which will allow you to save your game at any time, or even rewind the game if you want a do-over. For the time-limited game trials included in the Premium tier, you can play most of the included titles for two hours - the playtime counter will only count while you are in the game. Any trophies and game save date from the trial will carry forward if you choose to purchase the game. Game catalogs at launch: Included in the below spoiler tag are a selection of PS4 and PS5 titles which will be available at launch to players at the Extra and Premium/Deluxe tiers. Note: titles with an asterisk * are to be included as part of Ubisoft+ Classics, another benefit announced today for players at the Extra and Premium/Deluxe tiers. Included in the below spoiler tag are a selection of PS1, PS2 and PSP titles included in the catalog of classic games available at launch for those at the Premium/Deluxe tier, as well as the catalog of remasters which have been grouped with these titles. Included in the below spoiler tag is a catalog of some of the PS3 games available via streaming at launch to those at the Premium tier. Included in the below spoiler tag is the catalog of time-limited game trials available at launch to those at the Premium tier. Included in the below spoiler tag is the catalog of Ubisoft+ Classics which will be available at launch for those at the Extra and Premium/Deluxe tiers. Note: I've copied this list directly from Ubisoft's press release, so there will likely be some overlap with previous lists. Sources: UPDATE: All-new PlayStation Plus launches in June with 700+ games and more value than ever (PS Blog - 29th March 2022), All-new PlayStation Plus game lineup: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Demon’s Souls, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, NBA 2K22, and more join the service (PS Blog - 16th May 2022), Ubisoft+ Coming to PlayStation (Ubisoft News - 16th May 2022).

Ubisoft are also coming to PlayStation via Ubisoft+

PS+ catalogue details are starting to drop: Brb I'll make a thread

Yeah, they mentioned it in the commentary, I don't know who rubbed Guy Mowbray the wrong way today but he chose violence against us Championship playoff final with Derby, FA Cup final in 2020, FA Cup final last year, Euro's final last summer, League Cup final this year, and today's FA Cup final. Third loss for us in the FA Cup final on the bounce too

Yeah, the psychology of going up against international teammates I guess! Mendy looked absolutely shellshocked following the first three, he went the right way for all of them, touched two and the other from Thiago needed the post. Glad he stepped up for that 5th, but yeah, not meant to be. Mount's Wembley curse continues. Six finals lost there on the bounce is rough for anyone, let alone someone my age.

Knew as soon as Mason stepped up it was going to get saved, he's just one of those players who you'll see included in that initial five penalty takers or he shouldn't be taking one at all. Fair play to Mendy for saving that 5th though, what a lad, gave me some hope there! Great FA Cup final, man, what a great season -- and it's not over yet. Congrats to Liverpool, just wasn't meant to be for us today!

Oh gee, I wonder where this is going? To be honest, I'd rather watch the stress of penalties, even if it means losing. The game has been neck-a-neck and I think it being decided in the second half of ET would be fairly cruel. Best FA Cup final in a while I think, even with the lack of goals!

Normally I have nothing against Guy Mowbray as a commentator, but you really can't say something like "Alonso has never really convinced Chelsea fans" and try to back it up by saying "that's what it says right here" (what, on your facts sheet?), especially in what is all but guaranteed to be his last final appearance for us. He's never convinced me completely defensively, but that's not really been his role since he came to us, he's very attacking focused until we're completely under fire. Under Conte, he and Moses basically defined being a modern wingback in the Prem in a system we didn't really see up until that point with five at the back. I'm glad Jenas said he disagreed and pointed out it was a bit of a weird statement, and then explained why, because he's been very successful with and a big player for us

Fine first half, very back and forth but no-one taking their chances, weirdly lacking composure in front of goal. We definitely took a bit of time to settle but after a few chains of passes we got our heads in the game. Lukaku, dude, I get you've had a rough first season - didn't exactly cover yourself in glory so you haven't helped yourself - but you need to at least hit the target with that chance you had late in the half.

Ah, I see you're also going the tempting of faith route, because I think that you're going to do us over today But either way, hopefully we're in store for a good game, good luck to you guys too

Yeah, I always had a gut feeling it'd be a four or five season affair tops, but with him cropping up elsewhere I could definitely see it only being three seasons. Hadn't even thought about a Mando film, but makes a lot of sense, especially if it's the finale or if the crossover event is a film to give it the budget it would.probably deserve. Surprisingly there haven't been too many TV series transitioning to or making use of films to cash in, but I'm sure Disney will be tangentially aware of the precedent being set in Japan at the moment, where box office records are being crushed by continuations of anime making their way to the silver screen. Yeah, it's a weird one. Normally I feel Lucasfilm were very predictable in how they handle these things, but post-COVID and without an SWC in 3 years, there's just so much news they have that they could potentially drop here that it's pretty insane -- and that's the case even if we only consider the shows already announced, no doubt there's so much else in the works. I definitely think whatever comes next in live-action after Kenobi - it's got to be Andor, surely? - will get a trailer here, like you say they can strike while the iron is running white hot with Kenobi debuting within 24 hours of the event and all eyes in fandom turning to Star Wars news for a weekend. Yeah, I guess EA could drop a teaser and announce it through Twitter the same weekend like you mention - it'd still get a lot of buzz - I just think it'd be weird, as that's one of those things where if it does get a trailer, it makes sense to me that it'd be shown off somewhere at SWC, because no doubt that would be one of those trailers they'd be showing off on one of the big screens while you're walking around on the floor? I'm not sure. The lack of a dedicated panel to me just suggests they likely weren't ready or are busy having to rearrange things (for whatever the reason for the supposed internal delay was), but a trailer is one of those that could sneak into another panel in lieu of it not having a dedicated panel to the game itself or to games in general (as you mentioned, such as at the Closing Ceremony). I'm not expecting it, but I mean, the first game was announced with Zampella sitting in a crowd, just saying the name and describing it briefly, so wherever we see it - Celebration, a Tweet, or carrier pigeon - I just hope it's given a bit more pomp and circumstance for its announcement than that Yeah, exactly! I won't lie, it was cool having him come out of nowhere during 2020 - the weirdest year for a lot of reasons, and where traditional gaming marketing was thrown out of the window, leading to a lot of dry spells and unnecessarily spread out announcements - but these days it's grating more than anything. Definitely an annoying one Oh man, those look really neat!

Honestly, I completely missed that Mando was mentioned in the description for the Showcase, I kind of just assumed it was all being saved for Mando+! Will be very interesting to see how they handle it then, I'd hazard a guess that Mando+ would be more likely to have the trailer so that it doesn't overshadow anything that has a trailer in the Showcase that isn't going to turn up anywhere else (for example, Andor), but on the other hand, they could totally have the trailer at the Showcase so that they can just dive right into discussing S3 (and maybe show the trailer again) in Mando+...who knows? Yeah, I'm very interested to see how S3 goes -- at the very least, after it got a mention, I'm sure we'll see the mines and the mythosaur at some point, though maybe not necessarily in S3? But then again, they've been very quick to hop to teased plot points when I thought they were teasing things a few seasons out! The way they handled it previously for Rebels was that the panel itself (i.e. talking about the season, the trailer, concept art, Q&A type stuff) was scheduled for the hour, and then the episodes they premiered were shown as an add-on to the panel but were unscheduled, so it wouldn't actually be shown during the panel times itself, so the panel is 11:00 to 12:00 and then the episodes, if shown, would be shown from 12:00 to 12:45? If that makes sense. Did a bit of nosing around to see if anything else is scheduled that might conflict, and the Siege of Mandalore screening is at 13:00 the same day, which would definitely have an overlap in audience...but then, it's a bit suspect that it's on the same stage and would start not too long after a potential Bad Batch S2 premiere? It at least saves Filoni a walk But yeah, not to get your hopes up, that's just how they've handled it before. It's been a while since we've had a SWC, they could be doing things differently -- I don't expect it to happen, but I do also wonder if they'll do anything with Disney+ for some of the things held back for attendees a few weeks later? Again, just one of those things where they didn't have a service like that to funnel this stuff through before. Maybe? Though I'm personally not getting my hopes up for anything new at the closing ceremony, as I can't remember the last time they saved something big for the closing ceremony. I thought it was 2015 with the Rogue One teaser for attendees, but that was actually shown at a Rogue One panel -- I think they planned to have that show end more as a future look at Lucasfilm, but that was the year Josh Trank was "sick" and things got moved around pretty late; the future look at stuff, at least for the films and shows, seems to be concentrated in the Showcase...but again, it's one of those where, like Mando, it would be weird (just from a marketing POV) to potentially have multiple first trailers drop within the same hour and a half? So maybe saving it for the Closing Ceremony would be the right call. I do think it should show up, even with the potential delay to 2023 (which is what it is). I'm normally not a fan of showing things too far out, but I think there are some exceptions to the rule, and I think showing the Fallen Order sequel off in some form at SWC would just be right; if there are plans for a Celebration next year it likely won't be early enough for the game to get it's dues, and let's be honest, the first game was announced unceremoniously with a title and brief synopsis from Zampella sitting an EA conference, whereas I think it shouldn't have been announced there and should have been saved for SWC when they had that entire panel for the game. Especially with no EA conference this Not-E3, the only real alternative in the next few months would be Summer Game Fest...which, I mean I like Keighley but the events are very inconsistent and poorly paced, so I'd rather it and the team see some love from Star Wars fans at Celebration! Yeah, I saw what Grubb said about it being next-gen only (wasn't a huge fan of the supposed title he shared), and for a split second I wondered what they were doing and then remembered the state of the first game at launch, and...yeah, that's definitely something they need to do. Maybe I'm just growing more intolerant of leakers but it seems like the most pointless leak of them all (this is happening more and more frequently) so that rubbed me the wrong way a bit -- who wasn't expecting the sequel to drop late this year/early next? Feel like he should've just kept quiet so fans could enjoy it when it is shown off, as it's a very different beast to some other leaks we get where it's an update on something we hadn't heard from in a while. Quick aside, but I really, really hope that things like your outfit and lightsaber(s) carry over from the first game, that'd be neat!

I remember a time in my life - about five minutes ago - where I was living blissfully in ignorance of this existing. And now I want it that's easily one of the nicest looking LEGO sets I've seen in a while! It's times like this when I'm glad I don't have anywhere near enough space in my apartment to display LEGO sets

In today's episode of The Switch is Killing It!!, the Switch continues killing it: its lifetime sales in the States has now surpassed those of the PS4 in the same territory. This shouldn't be too surprising given the EoY report from earlier this week (107m Switch units vs 117m PS4 units), but still, it's pretty wild!

Glad I'm not the only one that thinks this! There really is a lot more news now (seems Lucasfilm have finally figured out their groove, and having the space for shows on Disney+ definitely helps), so I think there's definitely space for them to do it - heck, if they were smart, they'd upload something like that weekly/fortnightly/whatever to Disney+'s Star Wars page as well as the YouTube channel. Admittedly haven't seen much of Kristin, but from what little I have seen of her, she seems a nice presence to have around Oh yeah, for sure. Think we might see some concept art, heck maybe even a trailer, on the Mando+ stream (I do expect about half of it to be Q&A stuff, just considering this is the first time Mando is getting fan interaction at an event like this since it launched - which is nuts!), but I definitely think they'll have something to show off to attendees at that Mando+ panel; I mean, it's Favreau and Filoni, they *definitely* won't be able to resist As for Bad Batch S2, I'm not a betting man, but if I were, I'd be betting a whole lot on it getting the first two episodes shown off to attendees (way, I don't know, a ship I'd definitely regret losing in a bet). From memory, it's something Filoni did at Celebration for Rebels S2, S3, and S4 (I can't remember for the life of me what happened with S1, but I think it got the same treatment?), and I think they also premiered S5 E1 of TCW at a Celebration (for Maul's revival), and to top it off, there was that time that he brought those incomplete rigs for S7 of The Clone Wars to Celebration. So if/when it is there...good luck with that American audience speaking of which, are you planning on catching any of the confirmed screenings they've got for fans, like Siege of Mandalore or Attack of the Clones? Watching Siege of Mandalore in a crowd has got to hit different with a crowd like that I'd imagine Oh yeah it's not an easy one at all, honestly I think they should just say "bye to those watching from home, but those here celebrating with us, stick around as we've got something else to show you." We're going to find out there was something shown one way or another just from excited attendees, so I think they might as well just say it, rather than what I'm pretty sure at the Mando S1 panel and some panels we've had before where they would just say "we've got something else!" and then all of a sudden the stream would stop just saves the pain as one of those stuck at home watching! And oh yeah, that's totally fair, I'm sure I'll be the exact same way whenever I get to go to Celebration I think the timing of it is pretty abysmal but man, David W. Collins is basically the one who opened the door up for me when it came to finding more depth in the music of Star Wars (and in general). He had a show he hosted on Rebel Force Radio called 'Star Wars Oxygen: The Music of John Williams' where he and Jimmy Mac (one of the RFR guys, basically played the less informed role and asked a lot of good questions) would go through and break down the tracks of the films, the history, some of the music theory, and point out some absurdly smart stuff; since then, I've been pretty obsessed with a lot of that stuff from some of their teachings, and it's helped me pick up on so much more when I listen to music. Most of his work is around sound design and music, so unsurprisingly, with Empire being the film (at least at the time) with the most cut music, he actually edited John Williams' original score back into the film to show at Celebration one year. Unfortunately, RFR landed in some heat in early 2017 (if I'm remembering right due to some sexist and derogatory comments about women), and David W. Collins either left over that or just fell out with RFR, but either way, they stopped after getting through the original trilogy, prequel trilogy, VII and some of Rogue One. It's awesome stuff, and in my opinion the absolute best fan content when it comes to Star Wars. To further compound the unfortunate circumstances, these podcasts were free, but RFR took them down a while back and have been putting out "remastered" versions (a glorified reason to just make it a Patreon exclusive thing at one of their middle tiers). And it gets even worse: no-one saw this coming, and so seemingly no-one has archived any of them! I go in every few months now, sign up for a month and Patreon, and am backing them up everywhere I can do; so far, they've got back up to Attack of the Clones again (they're taking the mick honestly with how slowly they're dripfeeding them), and I've been enjoying giving it all a listen, but man, it's annoying it's locked behind Patreon, and a Patreon of people I don't really want to support at that. Regardless -- I'll share some of their findings and my own on the music when I post my thoughts after rewatching the film, think it'll definitely be a good way to show off the strengths of each film's music and some cool findings, one of the things I noticed in Rogue One when it came out has had me dizzy for years Yeah, I thought that was weird too; at the moment, if the Fallen Order sequel is turning up at all, I doubt it's much more than a trailer being shown off at the Lucasfilm Studios Showcase (though not TV/show/film, it's by far always the biggest stream, and if there aren't other games/enough they want to show up, I could see it sneaking in) or at the closing ceremony. I do also wonder if maybe someone's come along and agreed to show the game off as we head towards Not-E3 and the summer? Or maybe the game has just slipped further back than where we all think it might be in development? Yeah, I think the lotto system is a great change, just a shame though that it really makes the Jedi Master VIP package that much more of a desired thing, so fingers crossed for you! Out of the Showcase, Mando+ and Bad Batch S2, is there one specifically you'd want to go to over the others? If I were attending I think I'd have the obvious answer of the Lucasfilm Studios Showcase Those other ones sound like a blast, and I think the smaller panels at Celebration are always super cool -- there are definitely niches within the many folds of the Star Wars fandom (some gravitate towards exhibitions of props, others to the ships, others yet to concept art, etc.). That Secret Miniatures of the Prequels stands out to me in particular of those non-LFL ones you mentioned, and of the LFL ones, seeing a Doug Chiang panel would be awesome!

Happy days! Feel like it's been a hot minute since we've seen Andi and Anthony (I miss the days of The Star Wars Show), so glad they'll be back, and hey, Hector Navarro is pretty solid too (used to regularly guest on a movie podcast I watched before he started turning up more places). I'm really curious to see what stays behind closed doors this year, got to imagine anything Mando S3 is likely staying on the premises, potentially some Andor stuff (like a scene/part of an episode? Imagine the trailer would be wise to drop here while Star Wars attention is running white hot with Kenobi), maybe Bad Batch S2 (again, imagine we'll get a public trailer drop, but they might show off an episode of two as they've done with their animation panels in the past). Either way, I just hope it's handled a bit better than it has been in the past where they don't say "we've got something for you!" before cutting the stream, and instead basically wrap the stream up before showing things off to attendees (I'm 100% fine with things being kept exclusive for attendees, just don't want it waved in my face, if that makes sense? ). In any case, I've started flipping through the panels to plan what I'll tune in for, and man, what a stacked year, should be a great time for you @Ronnie! Not having to make the choice between attending a publishing panel and David Collins talking about the music of Attack of the Clones is a decision I'm very glad I won't have to make think I'll be tuning in for everything being livestreamed, there's a lot to enjoy it seems: Lucasfilm's Studio Showcase, Light & Magic (I'm very hyped to see and hear more on the ILM documentary!), Attack of the Clones' 20th Anniversary (curious to see if they've managed to get Ewan and Hayden to attend this, but imagine a lot of the usual convention names are a shoe-in), Mando+, Tales of the Jedi, Bad Batch S2 and the Closing Ceremony. Exciting times ahead can't wait to hear Cantina Band on repeat between shows, but hope we get more Cantina Band 2 representation than we've had before

I mean, more specifically - and bringing it back around to what I was saying about curation - those three games were released within a 4 month window, and that's part of the problem I'm pointing at. If you look at that 4 month window in a vacuum, it looks excellent, but when you take a step back, that's probably one of the most concentrated few months Xbox Game Studios has had for new titles in a very long time, which I genuinely think shows a lack of curation on Xbox's part. Yes, COVID has been a factor, and I don't want to mitigate its impact, but the only one of those games without a prolonged development period was Forza Horizon 5: Psychonauts 2 was a 2015 Fig; Halo Infinite was announced back at E3 2018 to be a Series X launch title, which it missed out on by over a year because they had to scrap some two thirds of the game. As others have pointed out already, Halo Infinite had issues with marketing and gameplay showings before release, many who have played the game have talked about how clear it was that it had issues from the limited number of biomes/lack of diversity (for the record, I haven't and will hold off my own judgement until I do play the game, but listen to a lot of podcasts where people whose opinions I trust have talked about the game at length), and it's multiplayer has tapered off quickly due to some fairly egregious - but unfortunately not totally unexpected - practices, as well as not being updated regularly enough to continue to bring players back. For Psychonauts 2, obviously it's production was in place long before the Xbox acquisition, and Double Fine at the time decided to go the crowdfunding route (a smart move before the age of acquisitions we've found ourselves in these last few years for a game which was more of a cult classic than it was a commercial success). It's worth pointing out too that they also shipped a VR game in that time, so I don't want to make it sound like they weren't busy, but it was a holdover from prior to the acquisition and not really a sign of Xbox managing them well. Others who have played the game have mentioned Forza Horizon 5, so I won't dig too deep there, but yeah, from what I've heard and seen from others the live service route meant the game tapered off pretty quickly. I think, for me personally, it's letting your biggest acquired studio (at least until Activision-Blizzard goes through) with a history of buggy game launches announce a specific release date well over a year before launch without showing a glimpse of gameplay. I absolutely get bringing the game back to start ramping up the conversation as it's been in cryogenic slumber since it's teaser at E3 2018 - I think that was absolutely the right move, especially for Xbox after the acquisition - but in hindsight, what they really should have done is show the trailer and have Todd come out and say "we'll have more to share with you next summer", rather than spitting out a date of 11/11/22 for a gimmick release date to coincide with some of their previous big release patterns. We've seen a lot of delays due to COVID, and again, I don't want to dismiss the impact that would have, but we are talking about BGS, and I'm still firmly of the opinion that during this (still ongoing) pandemic, announcing a specific release date so far out is asking for trouble. But yeah, like I said before: Game Pass is still a great deal for those that are already in the Xbox ecosystem, and I think indies have been the strongest point of the service so far. But as someone who owns a Switch and PlayStation 5, indie games and legacy Xbox titles aren't enough to bring me in personally, and that's why it's so important that Xbox start to churn out quality first party content consistently, as they'll then have the attention of people like myself who don't care to play on PC. I mean, in fairness, as has been mentioned in the game's own thread, Christopher Judge was out of action due to what sounds like a very serious injury/back problem in the middle of the game's development: I certainly think it makes the original "2021" announcement prior to the release of the PS5 more egregious in hindsight (I definitely get the feeling that that announcement was a PlayStation publisher decision vs a Sony Santa Monica developer decision). Again, I think in hindsight, they should have announced the game without a release window, but making the announcement as early as they did made business sense (we all knew a sequel was in the works, but putting a name out there months before the PS5 dropped is just smart business). As for Insomniac, let's be honest, Spider-Man 2 probably isn't getting delayed, as far as I can remember since Spider-Man (2018) they haven't actually announced a delay (maybe I'm forgetting something about R&C, but: pandemic). Spider-Man didn't have a release window in its E3 2016 trailer, got a 2018 window at E3 2017, and then in 2018 we got specifics on a release date. Miles Morales was also put out in a timely manner. They've been one of only a handful of first party studios outside of Nintendo that has been consistently churning out quality AAA experiences, they've likely up-sized since their acquisition, and they're always on time. And, I mean, you aren't the only one who is feeling the lack of first party titles from PlayStation - as myself and others have stated recently, our PS5s at this point are mostly used to get the best experiences for PS4 titles - but I think a key difference between them and Xbox right now is that the number of deals they strike up for AAA games with third party publishers, as well as the almost guaranteed high quality AAA output of their first party studios, which we consistently know are coming; this is where looking back at last generation inspires confidence because once the generation really got going, so did PlayStation, whereas Xbox fell off a cliff and basically faked their own death. Comparatively, we still know so little Xbox Game Studios as a publisher/overseer/curator because they have yet to consistently put titles out before we even start thinking about them consistently putting out critically acclaimed titles on a regular basis. I think that's the big question mark in everyone's minds right now, and I think it's a fair one to have. Also, regarding GT7, as someone who has put a lot of time into the game I do need to speak up and say: the game itself is fantastic, and recent patches have made it so that you can earn ~2.5 million credits per hour with the right car settings and event, which is pretty standard considering that grinding has always been a part of these games. I still absolutely think the microtransaction practices in the game and how they're presented (and especially how it was handled in marketing before release and how it was presented at launch) are nothing short of disgusting, though; going off what @Cube said about Forza, sounds like both are quality AAA racing games with unfortunate problems brought about by greedy execs (focus on live service/lottery system vs microtransactions up in your face 24/7).

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards lands on NSO on May 20th:

Game Informer have put out a profile piece and interview on Yoshi-P, XVI's producer: It's a bit of a meaty one, but a recommended read while we wait for the next update on XVI

Yeah, it really is. It feels like every year for years now we've been saying "next year is going to be the year!", and every year we're proved wrong. Some might point to COVID, but their first true wave of acquisitions were back in 2018, nearly 4 years ago now: Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Undead Labs, Compulsion Games (all announced at E3 2018), Obsidian and inXile (announced November 2018). Let's take a look at what these studios have managed since then: • Ninja Theory first showed off Senua's Saga: Hellblade II at The Game Awards at the end of 2019. We've seen the game a few more times, but no release date is in sight. There's also that experimental mental health horror game, Project: Mara, which we've heard pretty much nothing about. • Playground Games is pretty much the exception on this list, but - shocker! - that's likely because of their already strong relationship with Xbox pre-acquisition. Since their acquisition they've shipped Forza Horizon 4 in September 2018, as well as Forza Horizon 5 in November of last year. However, despite being an exception on this list, Fable seems to have got itself stuck in development hell. • Undead Labs shipped State of Decay 2 in May 2018, prior to their announced acquisition at E3 of this year, meaning that the only thing new we've really seen from them after the acquisition is a smattering of DLC for State of Decay 2 (which didn't get much fanfare) and the pre-rendered teaser trailer for State of Decay 3 we got at the Xbox Games Showcase in July 2020. Kotaku reported at the end of March that the studio is in disarray with reports of bullying, harassment, and burnout meaning that the game is stuck in pre-production. • Compulsion Games shipped We Happy Few in late 2018 after it's early access release in 2016, and since then we've only heard that they're working on a third person narrative driven game, and that their team has doubled in size (we heard this in October of last year). Otherwise, not a peep. • Obsidian are another exception on this list in that they've shipped games since being acquired in June 2018. In October 2019 they shipped The Outer Worlds, in July 2020 they released Grounded through early access (which might still be scheduled for a full release this year?), and they've announced Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 as being in development since being acquired. While I think there's rightly some skepticism about how Xbox's slate fits both Obsidian and Bethesda, there have also been reports for months now about Obsidian potentially taking on a sequel to Fallout: New Vegas. • inXile announced a few months back that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was delayed indefinitely due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine: there are much more important things going on outside of games right now. However, even prior to the indefinite delay, it was slated for December 2022 - I wouldn't have been at all surprised if it slipped into 2023 if not delayed for other reasons. So, in four years across six teams we have: • 3 games shipped which were already deep in development at the time of acquisition (Forza Horizon 4, The Outer Worlds, We Happy Few). • 9 games have been announced by these teams in the time following these acquisitions (Hellblade II, Project: Mara, Forza Horizon 5, Fable, State of Decay 3, Compulsion's currently untitled and unseen game, Grounded, Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2) and only 2 of these games have launched, being Forza Horizon 5 and the early access release of Grounded. • 1 game is delayed indefinitely due to war (again, nothing can really be said about that - they have bigger things going on), and at least 2 games are in some sort of development hell. All of this is to say: Xbox aren't doing a good enough job of managing and curating their portfolio of first party titles if in six acquisitions you have two games announced and released during the nearly four year period following these acquisitions. This has long been my concern with their acquisition blitzing of the industry: it's fine buying everyone up, but without a plan and a solid slate which is - again - being curated (for example, you don't want similar games releasing too close to each other), I'm not surprised that we're currently potentially looking at an entire year without a first party release (if we're not counting Grounded potentially shipping). There needs to be better oversight, because how on earth you justify letting Bethesda and Todd Howard announce a specific date over a year out when they aren't even showing off gameplay is beyond me. I think that's pretty much the only route they can go -- well, that and continuing their indie push, which is by far and away the only consistent thing about Game Pass that I've seen as an outsider. There's a lot of them, a lot of the critically acclaimed ones being exclusive in some form or another, they've done a great job there; let's hope none of those guys get acquired, lest they never release another game. I think A Plague Tale: Requiem has already been announced as being on Game Pass day one (which is a good shout as it's a great get). The only game I'd add is a weird one, as it's technically already had multiple releases, but I think we could see Final Fantasy VII Remake finally come to Xbox this year (in its Intergrade form), probably as a Game Pass exclusive. Final Fantasy VII Remake seemingly had a one year exclusivity deal for PlayStation, which I think got re-upped with an additional one year exclusivity deal for Intergrade last year, and so now I think Square Enix can take a third truck of money home by sticking it on Game Pass. The only other announced game I'd add is potentially Project: Mara from Ninja Theory, and otherwise your guess is as good as mine, because I have no clue. You have to imagine they'll announce something to slip into the second half of the year next month at Not-E3, but even then, it'd be strange if it were Forza or Hellblade II for me just because we don't even have a year for them and they'll be leapfrogging everything else. Think it'd be good for them if it happened, don't get me wrong, but it's a weird one where I don't feel like we have any idea of what they're like when it comes to Xbox Game Studios' plans in terms of rollout and release, because we haven't really seen it happen successfully for them yet. Yeah, I hate to be a downer, but I think they've naively gone into these acquisitions thinking that just letting these companies do what they do and sticking the end result on Game Pass makes for a great first party experience, and it just doesn't work. I think it's undervalued just how great a job PlayStation and - to a much greater degree in my eyes, just in terms of sheer volume of their output - Nintendo do in terms of curating a steady wave of high quality releases. They don't really mess around with early access, and it seems like there's a person or team - as there should be at Xbox; and if there is, it certainly doesn't feel that way at the moment! - meticulously planning every quarter for them (more so for Nintendo right now, feels like PlayStation are taking a breather). We very, very, very rarely get pre-rendered trailers from those companies these days, and on the rare occasions we do, they feel warranted due to the size of the announcement, and/or are from studios we trust to ship a game (for example, Insomniac with Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine, or Nintendo with how they handled the reveal of Smash Bros. Ultimate). Xbox, on the other hand, seem to keen to do this as soon as the ink dries on a game being signed off for production. Yeah, agreed, it seems pretty quiet at the moment, and with every delay that gets announced I do get more and more nervous about Ragnarök landing this year. I'm sure there's more in the works, but we don't really know what they are; from a first party perspective, the only things I think we can speculate on to potentially land this year are a potential title from Bluepoint (depending on what exactly is going on with them - are they only working on their new IP, or have they grown to have a team for the new IP and a remake team? Who knows) and something/s from Naughty Dog (Factions and/or The Last of Us remake, though I think the latter depends on how they're handling marketing for the show and I have no idea if these two end up being one package). I miss Japan Studio already

English version of the previously released Japanese overview trailer is up: