Julius

The game will be playable at TGS, so I imagine we're going to see a whole lot more impressions come two weeks' time: Some more details also came from the Production Hotline held earlier this week. On the feedback they got from the most recent preview event: On the loading screens between stages: On staff credits and what they're going to do about A HIDEO KOJIMA GAME: Pretty straight and fair answers, and I think it's sensible to advise what they're going to do about Kojima's credits way ahead of time to avoid any crazy controversy at launch. Can't tell if I'm just hungry to play another MGS game or what, but I'll be honest, this project is starting to excite me.

Another set of layoffs, this time for six team members over at Evening Star (Penny's Big Breakaway):

Game has gone gold: Just 2 months to go!

Dring continues to go the other way on Astro sales in the UK, from framing them as seemingly nothing noteworthy to, well, good!

Video on some of the game's accessibility and control options: A lot to customise here to your heart's content, great stuff!

Not sure if you've seen it already, but if you haven't, Abubakar Salim's speech to reveal the game at the TGAs last year was genuinely one of the highlights of the show. I still remember the surprise that this game looked absolutely nothing like what I expected, I think just based on some of the other wonderful games others have put out in remembrance of lost ones a lot of people were expecting something different, which I found a really wonderful reminder of how we all grieve, process, and move forwards differently. Anyways, hope you enjoy it and that it handles its subject well

On first read: oh no, not more layo–OH MY GOD WAIT WHAT?! From Schreier: Absolutely insane. That's probably one of the biggest - and perhaps, more importantly, one of the few very consistently critically acclaimed - indie dev publishers just completely changing shape overnight. Didn't feel right to put this in the layoffs thread. Fair play to them, but what is going on in this industry right now?!

No surprise considering his love for 3D Mario and the Galaxy games especially, but Dunkey loves it Um what? Episodes 2 and 3 of the game's BTS series have also been released:

100%! It feels like such a shame knowing that SO MANY people here on N-E would likely adore this game, but might not get the chance to play it. I think I saw a thread on ResetEra the other day which was titled something to the effect of "do you think Astro Bot will be a gateway for more PlayStation owners to come over to Nintendo" and I couldn't help but think that, uh, no, if anything it's going to sell more Nintendo owners on PlayStation? Speaking strictly outside of Japan, apparently, of course

Oh, absolutely. I think it's a very small percentage of men who don't mind this type of thing, and they're not the type of men I would want my own daughter in the future to be with, is probably the best way I can phrase it. I mean, I totally get body dysmorphia and people having body issues - couldn't relate more to it because I've almost always struggled with it to some degree - but I feel like if you're having thoughts of doing that to yourself, that's the time to step back from social media and certain TV shows in my eyes and recalibrate. Waaaaaaaaaaay too many people my age have ended up getting their lips done at best and so many other things at worse (cheekbones, nose, chin, etc.) and it honestly just makes me really sad for them. But I guess when you're not conscious of what you're being fed and see hundreds if not thousands of faces each day thanks to social media of these models who may or may not have had work done (most have), combined with more disposable income and a greater appetite for spending (because so many people are going to be struggling to buy houses they don't bother to save towards them or other savings goals in the first place), this is what we get. My younger sister (only by a couple of years) watches things like Keeping Up With The Kardashians, and I'm just like, HOW, AS A WOMAN, CAN YOU SUPPORT THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE POPULARISED SO MUCH OF WHAT WOMEN WANT TO ASPIRE TO AND HATE ABOUT THEMSELVES. It's gross. Go back and look at so many of the girls and women shown in cartoons in the 2000s (something like Bratz comes to mind) and I'm not surprised we've ended up here. Urgh. Well, on the upside, at least we can say that the statement that "there are other fish in the sea" is made more accurate each day, which is a win for metaphors and English Lit teachers everywhere

Great news. I typically love what Dring puts out but I always felt that posting this... ...when he did seemed very disingenuous, and almost click-baity compared with so much of the great info he regularly puts out. So it's great to basically have it gone the other way. Very curious to see if we get any sales figures on the game in the coming days, if it's saved for the next quarterly meeting, or if they just go quiet on it because it hasn't smashed any records. I imagine PlayStation are probably feeling very embarrassed for closing Japan Studio and having their huge investment in Concord supplanted by Astro Bot's success, so I wouldn't be surprised if they went the silent route. Totally forgot to mention this before but in Bosman's latest Delayed Input episode he mentioned the game not being highlighted as a big upcoming release for PlayStation during some financial results briefing earlier this year. As for Japan? It just kind of sucks to read, but with the price of the PS5, the pittance that the yen is valued at right now, and so on, I guess it's not totally expected that the game wouldn't do gangbusters over. But as few as 12.7k copies selling almost seems malicious for how great a game Astro Bot is

...wait, are Cheep Cheeps to blame for modern society's obsession with fish lips?

Somehow, Flappy Bird returned. Okay, so while mobile phones aren't technically a console, they are a platform – and while only iOS and Android are confirmed for now, it sounds like other platforms are on the way, which I have to imagine at least includes PC, if not traditional consoles too. Curious if anyone here was playing this back in 2013/2014, and also how the heck is it already over a decade old?! I was halfway through high school when this came out

Another day, another Echoes of Wisdom trailer: Genuinely had to check if this was a re-release

New system update starts rolling out today: I'll always love how they just refer to the updated base PS5 model as "the slimmer PS5 model" in these updates

Dunkey's PS5 Pro vid gave me a good chuckle

Brennan Lee Mulligan is a treasure A TREASURE I TELL YE

Just watching DF's reactions to this, and it's left me wondering: with the PS5 Pro releasing only one SKU which requires the disc drive as an additional purchase to be able to play physical games, is this the earliest hint of the route the PS6 might be taking at launch – just the one SKU which is a digital console, with an optional, separately sold £100+ disc drive? Following on from that, it seems too early to me for PS6 to be the final push into an absolutely all-digital future, but with how quickly and aggressively PlayStation have transitioned throughout the course of this generation, going from the Digital Edition PS5 being the cheaper alternative to the digital version of the console being the only SKU for the PS5 Pro – will the PS6 be the last PlayStation to be able to play physical discs, I wonder?

Damn, @drahkon see what you and your Daxter hate does?! This is almost as bad as the time I was right about Ratchet & Clank 2016 swimming in 7s...almost

Damn, talk about a great month for PS+. Still hadn't got around to Night in the Woods, so I'll gladly take that, and I'm sure everyone's in for The Plucky Squire. The most interesting ones to me though are SkyGunner and Mister Mosquito - from what I can see looking around, I think this is the first time SkyGunner is coming to Europe? A quick Google says it was Atlus-published in the US (seems SIE passed on it?), it's pretty short (3 hours on HLTB) and the first recommended video on it I saw is from My Life in Gaming, who say that they think it's the best 3D shooter on PS2? Damn, if this actually is the first time it's coming to Europe, what a cool and neat gem to get! Also @Hero-of-Time and @drahkon I've been meaning to ask you what you'd most recommend I check out from the Classics Catalog? I've barely touched them, and after Astro Bot I'm definitely in the mood for exploring some older, shorter PS1 and PS2 titles, but honestly have no idea what to start with because of how poorly I think it's all curated

Sakurai has shared his enjoyment of the game: And Asobi got back to him: Always love to see things like this

Debated starting a new thread for this but figured I'd attach talk of Vol. 2 to this thread, as Konami seem to be treating the Master Collection as one big 35th anniversary project. Anyways, to no-one's surprise, Volume 2 of the Master Collection is officially in the works, though Konami haven't quite decided which games are set to be included, limited so far potentially by what has already been remastered in HD before and potential challenges for remastering other games – Peace Walker was the only game in the HD Collection to not be included here, and the Vol. 1 was based on Bluepoint's previous work for the HD Collection, whereas MGS4 being developed for the PS3 potentially is a whole other obstacle, not to mention potential licensing issues (I mean, there's an iPod). These details came from yesterday's Production Hotline #02: I'm really curious to see which games get included in Vol. 2., because just from the perspective of the number of games it could include, I'm struggling to see how it pans out. Peace Walker seems a lock-in because of Bluepoint's previous work, I'm going to assume they're going to put the work in for MGS4 to be included so that it's finally free of the PS3, but beyond that, I honestly don't know. Do they look to remaster Revengeance too? Do they go back and take a look at the likes of Portable Ops and Acid? Do they bundle in Ground Zeroes and MGSV, or is that going to make the collection too bloated? I also don't really see an obvious inclusion along the lines of Snake's Revenge for them to include, which I think sweetened the pot and differentiated Vol. 1 enough from the HD Collection to at least have some fans give it a second look. I know it's a Metal Gear collection, and the focus is on Metal Gear more than it is Kojima, but I do wonder if they'd potentially look to somehow include Policenauts and Snatcher in their plans – if you had one in Vol. 2 you could easily then make a Vol. 3 including the other, and the value of that would speak for itself for a lot of retro gamers and collectors, I feel. The biggest question of them all: do they include Survive in this Master Collection at all? I mean, it is a Metal Gear game, but surely they're not that stupid...right?

The official TGS timetable has been released: And the lineups from Konami, Falcom, Level-5 and SEGA/Atlus have been announced: Think I'm going to have a scan through later today if what I'm tuning in for and make a little schedule of my own, but man, I've said it before, but this TGS is looking STACKED. Super excited for it!

Digital Foundry's reaction to the PS5 Pro reveal: It's an hour longer than Cerny's actual presentation was guess I know what I'm watching on my lunch today! Elsewhere, VGC are reporting that Ampere are expecting the PS5 Pro to sell at the same level as the PS4 Pro, projecting 13 million units sold by the end of 2029. The quiet confidence GTA VI instills, I imagine.