Julius

Launch trailer for Aigis: Good lord do Atlus love their trailers...

Some lovely art from the team to mark that there are just 7 days to go until launch

Ah yes, but you forget, the Switch 2 won't have Naughty Dog remastering the remake of a game which had already previously been remastered!

Square Enix are really pulling out all the big guns for this game as publishers, huh? Here's Yoshi-P helping out with some of the promo: I'm very curious about the game as it is but there's something very funny about how this is all going down

Thanks for bringing this up! Sounds like these are the last major updates beyond Photo Mode and a few other bits and bobs. Since finishing my group's co-op run and my own solo runs trailing off (just due to other things going on/not feeling it at the time), I've been thinking about getting back to a BG3 solo run by the end of the year. Will it happen? No idea, I'll probably prioritise the backlog and catching up on 2024 titles up until the end of the year, but if I do catch up, I'd love to jump back in with a fresh character so that I can finally see where I stand on this game overall

CNET went hands-on with the Pro:

A list of games shown during the event confirmed to have PS5 Pro enhancements on the way, with obviously more to come. Yeah, I know this can be an expensive hobby at times, but this price jump is very dramatic. I guess we aren't the target demographic for this if we think it's too much, but as far as I'm concerned, is it just targeting the silly and ego-hungry at this point? Because it certainly feels like it. I don't know, maybe we get some glorious game by the end of the gen to try and justify this (GTA VI, probably), but won't it just be boosted on PS6 anyways? I mean, just to throw it out there: for the price of a PS5 Pro (£699) + Disc Drive (£99), you could buy a base PS5 with a disc drive (£479) AND BUY YOUR WAY INTO A WHOLE OTHER PLATFORM, such as with the Series S (£249) or Switch (£259), heck you can even have the Switch OLED (£309). Which is just mental. The only way I'd be ever consider paying something like this for a Pro console would be if I actually worked in the industry, otherwise I do think there's just a bit too much money for some people to throw around? I'm also really curious what this means for the price of PS6 at launch. It feels like it's being set up for a "$599" PS3 price reveal at this point (not saying that's how much it'll be, just the vibes around it) – I mean I'm getting that from the PS5 Pro announcement too but at least it's not the entry level console. On the topic of this, I was reading some stats from Piscatella over on Bluesky earlier today which I think are worth sharing. The thing is, I still think when all is said and done, this thing is going to sell, as will the base PS5, purely because of GTA VI. I think you don't even change the price and it sells those consoles, but a potential bundle or promotional price cut? It'll do gangbusters. Curious if Xbox responds to this with new hardware of their own in the next 12 months or so, or if they're going to really let PlayStation say "GTA VI will play best on PS5 Pro"

The PlayStation Blog post is up: 2TB of storage.

We knew about it before from the leaks, but worth considering too that this is coming without a disc drive, which has an RRP of £99.99. £800 for this thing with a disc drive, and another £25 at RRP for the vertical stand. £825. Didn't the base PS5 come with 825 GB internal storage? Is that the magical number they were aiming for? And speaking of – did they mention storage?

Grabbed a screenshot of all the prices Something very funny to me about selling a £700 console and still selling the Vertical Stand separately

£699.99! Damn!

Oh showing a number of games running on the PS5 Pro in a reel to cap it off is SMART Everyone who would be interested is going to go to Digital Foundry who will have the breakdown on it all

They didn't have a Horizon title to sell the PS5 Pro with like they did the PS4 Pro So they went back and are now re-selling Horizon Forbidden West

Yep, very much so, very smart play. ¾ of players going for Performance over Graphics modes surprised me, too.

"and we're pleased to announce the PS2 Mi–oh, never mind, I meant a second PS1 Classic with a weaker selection of games than the first"

Hmm, okay. So, my first reaction was: oof, that sounds a bit concerning. But then after a little ponder and some digging around, it also seems pretty great for a first big release for an IP? Which was only really building off a great reception to a niche game (in terms of audience size) in Rescue Mission because VR, and a pack-in title that I still think too many people probably skipped over. Meanwhile, Ratchet & Clank had been around for nearly two decades by the time Rift Apart came out, was one of only a few seriously big name releases in 2021 (I was looking back at what I played in 2021 just last night and my GOTY was Tsushima's DLC lol), sales were obviously inflated for a lot of things when it comes to games in 2020/2021 because COVID, so weirdly, I think that's a pretty decent turn out? Going back and dragging out some old tweets of Dring's, I found this: If Rift Apart sold 3x what Returnal did at launch and Astro Bot sold ⅓ less than Rift Apart at launch (physically) then, in the UK at least, it sold double what Returnal did. Which sounds pretty good on paper, obviously the install base has increased a good bit since then, but still. And roughly ⅔ of the likes of a Monster Hunter launch on Switch (just physical) is nothing to sneeze at, either. This is also not to mention that digital storefronts have only grown since Rift Apart, and I think the super late review embargo on this likely pushed people who heard about the game through word of mouth to pick it up digitally over physically. Heck, I've never thought about it before, but I wonder if that's part of PlayStation's idea behind such a late review embargo lift? I completely agree with the assessment of it likely having a longer tail, too. This is rightly going to be in GOTY conversations (and hell, for my money, has a brilliant shot at winning if Rebirth is its competition, for a whole number of reasons), it has released far out enough to get a decent discount for Black Friday/Cyber Monday and Christmas sales, etc. It being a lock-in for GOTY talks means it will be cemented as one of those "must-play" titles which is going to make a whole bunch of lists on IGN and the like in the next few years, and is one of few first-party PlayStation exclusives parents will find being recommended as perfect for kids, too. Guess we'll need to wait on official word to come down, but if it has sold a few million its launch weekend worldwide across digital and physical, which I feel like this goes some way to suggesting, I think that's a really great start.

Going to be keeping my Astro away from the toaster moving forwards

What is XVI but twice as great as VIII? Still need to get around to playing VIII, it's the only mainline PS1 Final Fantasy I have left to play, which has been the case for...4 years? Damn, time really flies. I've only seen and heard bits and pieces about it over the years (some tracks, the opening cutscene, the existence of Triple Triad, the weird level-scaling, something about Ifrit?) so it's mostly unspoiled for me, haven't heard nearly enough to piece anything together. Hopefully I'll get around to it sooner rather than later, and before anything gets spoiled! Oh, and this is the first mainline FF which is younger than I am. Sorry, I just had to

Yep, definitely appreciate Pemberton weighing in. Guess we'll just need to wait and see how it all shapes up. The film's production hasn't been the cleanest as it is and it's without a release date as things stand, I think before this the latest update we had last month (?) was that voice recording was due to begin in the next few months, so a late 2025 or someone in the first half of 2026 seems reasonable to hope for to me. Which feels forever away, but I'll gladly wait for this

I mean, couldn't part of the reason that Nintendo have avoided price cuts be both that it is continuing to sell well, but also be reinforced by the weaker yen? A very steady 30% drop-off of the yen's value over a 4 year window isn't something I think anyone would be prepared for, and so while I think in the past the components and manufacturing becoming cheaper for manufacturers as the life of a console went on made sense, revisions like the Slim could drop in price because they'd then take additional steps to reduce costs or maximise profits (size of the console for one, as a single shipment could then include more consoles) but also the slim margins/taking a loss wouldn't hit as hard knowing the strength of the console when it comes to software sales. Nintendo, for me, could easily have seen that the margins were tightening on the Switch due to the weak yen and made the decision to not introduce a price cut in part because there just isn't as much room to, and they seem to be getting around this in more creative ways (such as trying to bundle in games and subscriptions). The Switch also wasn't cutting edge tech when it first released and so Nintendo are likely seeing incredibly healthy margins on the sales of Switch units which means they won't need to touch the price because, as you said, it's also just still selling really well. As for Xbox, being backed by Microsoft, I do think that is a whole other kettle of fish. Microsoft can live without Xbox and cut it, whereas Sony are still heavily reliant on PlayStation, possibly not to the same extent as they were a decade ago, but it means that PlayStation as a brand impacts Sony's shareholders more noticeably than Xbox does Microsoft's. I do agree that the smart move would be for Xbox to have introduced a price cut by this point - instead they seem to be gearing up for a new console, because..? They can? - because the strength of the US dollar would allow them ample margin to do this, but the strength of the dollar also means that Microsoft are probably not looking to squeeze everything they can out of Xbox as a brand (due to success elsewhere offsetting Xbox) and Xbox seem to be having an identity crisis as it is (I mean, it's been a decade, so a pretty damn long identity crisis), that I'm not sure selling hardware would resolve at this point. Also, it would make too much sense for them to introduce a price cut, so obviously they wouldn't do that The other thing to consider is that, as far as I can tell, PlayStation and Nintendo both seem to have their manufacturing centralised in East Asia in both Japan and China, where obviously the weaker yen is going to have hit them hard. Compare that to Xbox who, because of Microsoft, seem to manufacture in a number of territories located around the world, and their decentralised manufacturing structure being set literally anywhere but Japan must be something of a boon. Again, I think it's only one of a number of factors, but I think it wouldn't give the complete picture if we were to overlook the weakness of the yen, which has pretty clearly had an influence on PlayStation's decision-making here. I don't think it's necessarily the only reason, but it's got to be a big one, and I think the fact that the only price changes we've seen since COVID from the three console manufacturers have been to adjust to the value of currency (Switch had that small price cut in the UK and EU some years ago, was it £20? And then with PlayStation and their price increase) I think it makes some sense, and even going so far as to increase the price of accessories suggests to me that it's not just based on components for, say, the PS5, but it's a case of Sony trying to squeeze everything they can out of PlayStation. Yeah, I can see this being a big factor in things too. I mean especially with pretty much all of us here at N-E with PS5s considering the Pro a total waste of time for now, it is leaning very hard on being a specialty and premium product aimed at a very small cohort of enthusiasts, which I'm sure Sony will be looking to take advantage of. From what I've listened to of them recently, Digital Foundry seem to think that there's going to be some pretty great tech included in the Pro, too, and I can definitely see PlayStation wanting to charge a premium for that. I think it's also worth considering how PlayStation market themselves these days, they've started turning up at Apple events and seem to be taking more steps to evoke Apple; the DualSense, for example, which is what has turned up at Apple events, in both design and its default colours are clearly manufactured with form in mind over function. It's a far cry from the actual functional form of DualShocks of a bygone era, not to mention the fact that they sell a premium controller sold at 3x the price of a standard DualSense in the Edge which has comparable battery life! It's nuts. I think it's also how the price can be spread, we had Xbox All Access doing the rounds early on this gen but it didn't really seem to catch on, there are third-parties who can do this now of course (Klarna and the like) but PS5 Pro just getting a "so it's X amount" without potentially discussing how its price can be spread out like a contracted phone's (where contracts are probably just as common as buying a phone outright these days, if not more so in more developed parts of the world?) also means it's difficult to compare to the pricing of a £1000+ phone. A £1000+ phone being put up for £70 per month phone over 2 years includes a HUGE markup by providers, but given the climate of technology lasting longer, the economic climate, the fact that it is commonplace, etc., means that it's a much easier pill to swallow for most people my age (because I think I'm pretty squarely fitting that younger generation demo you mentioned) compared with the idea of dropping £600+ at once on a gaming console. It makes absolutely no sense but that's just where this stage of capitalism has taken us I guess

Beyond the Spider-Verse has reportedly hit some creative troubles and potentially had most of its content scrapped, with it being unlikely to release before 2027. Damn. On the one hand, let it cook, but on the other...it was originally pencilled in to release this summer, which makes sense considering it's a two-parter, so it sucks if true. Loved the first two, Across was one of my favourite films from last year.

What sort of price do you think we might end up seeing @killthenet?