Julius

Nope, first time playing through the series! Only played VI, VII (and VII Remake), and now IX. And with optional bosses, the way I do it is if I don't come across it naturally, I'll probably take them on if/when I ever return to the game and go for a more complete run but noted for next time, whenever that'll be!

Little surprise here, but some nice graphics from the meeting with Nintendo reiterating their stance on continuing with an "integrated hardware-software platform" like the Switch. In summary: we're doing well, so we'll continue what we're doing

Nintendo corporate meeting is going on at the moment, some interesting info coming out. NSO having 26 million paid users seems really good to me, based on the most recent figures that's an ever so slightly higher paid online user attach rate than even the PS4 and PS Plus have managed; for comparison, that's 26 million out of 61.44 million for Switch/NSO (approx. 42.3%) vs 44.1 million our of 112.3 for PS4/PS Plus (approx. 39.5%).

Another Partner Showcase at 15:00 BST tomorrow. Based on the others so far, think I can contain my excitement though Bravely Default II and Doom Eternal still need dates, so it could end up being an interesting one if they turn up!

Well, with tears in my eyes, I've just seen credits roll on Final Fantasy IX. And then spent 10 minutes listening to the Prelude, just taking it all in. Loved this game. Imagine whenever I next continue my FF journey it will be with X, but also kind of want to play the original and IV too. So we'll see what I'm in the mood for when that rolls around! Can't imagine it'll be too long...

Yeah, that's what I mentioned before as being my biggest issue with it too. Like with smartphone contacts, I think this should only be something you sign up to if you're confident that you could otherwise buy it outright - I would view it as an exercise in building my credit score if that's the case, and a reasonable way to spread out the cost - but again, it's for those with some level of financial maturity/knowledge. Unfortunately, I think you're probably going to end up with quite a few university students and people in not-so-secure jobs who don't have that level of security yet going with this option, when it's probably not what's best for them. Plus, we're going to get an entire wave of people becoming unemployed once that furlough bubble pops. It's tough. If you have the money and/or job security anyways you might as well go with this option to spread it out(/build your credit file if that's what you're looking for), but otherwise it becomes a bit of a weird one. I mentioned this before and it's hard to land on either side of this, because it's down to the individual at the end of the day, but I deal with a lot of people in debt and that default, and it's never a fun conversation to have. I'm grateful that my job feels super secure right now, but still, things can change in the blink of an eye with the world as it is right now, and I'd be pretty miffed (to put it lightly) at myself if I ended up damaging my credit file over a console. Hopefully not too many end up in that weird spot, but as with all lending, it's unfortunately inevitable. Have no idea what Klarna's behind-the-scenes looks like in terms of how they handle customers in difficulty, or if they just send them to Citizen's Advice, Step Change, et al. But even that isn't really their responsibility, so I don't know

English stream for tomorrow night's Showcase is live! 23.5 hours to go

Yeah, just saw that myself. Good news I would think, but if there's no truth to it at all as Sony are saying, I can't help but question why a place typically as reliable as Bloomberg ended up running this story. And unfortunately we've seen a lot of stories go this way leading up to this new generation: poor journalism with unreliable sources looking for clicks. Not saying that's necessarily what's happened with Bloomberg, but I'd be keen to hear an update from their side about how they got this story. PlayStation have done really well at keeping things under wraps so far I feel, just a bit under 25 hours now to go until the next big one

Yeah, it's really strange how little we know about how All Access is going to be working over here, and where it will be available from. While there are some parts of All Access I'm not too keen on as I've mentioned before, strictly from the lending perspective for younger adults in a weird position right now, I think it's a wholly coincidental consumer-focused move in the times of COVID (I can imagine they were going to go with pricing model before anyways). It's honestly a shame Sony aren't doing the same I think, just because, again, that's a lot of money to drop today, with how messy things have become in a COVID world. I know they don't have a worthy alternative to Game Pass, but bundle the PS5 in with two years of PS Plus at something like £19.99 per month and I think you've got a pretty good deal going. They don't need to, I guess, is the reason that they probably won't do it. Stores will sell out their Day 1 allocations of PS5's and likely end up with back orders, and PlayStation focusing on the generational leap more than a service means I don't think it really suits their narrative. But still, ideally, from the perspective of what's friendly to the consumer? Kudos to Xbox for sticking to their guns on this, they have a clear plan now, and I hope they do well in realising it.

We've discussed console price a lot, but considering just how much is going into the controller this time around, I'm curious: how much do you guys think the DualSense will end up selling for (solo, as an accessory)? The only thing close enough for comparison in my opinion would be the Switch's Pro Controller with its haptic feedback, which I believe retails for £64.99 or thereabouts? But even that's missing some key features PlayStation are setting up for the DualSense, like the adaptive triggers. And it's hard to see it coming in at the price of an Xbox Elite controller. I'm thinking probably in the ballpark of £70 - £80 myself. I don't think they can go too wild with it, but there definitely seem to be enough new features and improvements (the new mould and larger size too) for them to want to up the price a bit compared with the DualShock 4.

Solid trailer. Great track (can't wait to hear Görannson let loose again this season), clear throughline from the first season, and some beautiful locales. That being said, it's a trailer which doesn't really offer much of anything new to latch onto. It goes exactly where you expect it to. We're that close now I feel like they could've just gone without a trailer; I mean, it's not like this show needs a trailer - word of mouth/social media is more than strong enough to carry it. Then again, I actually think it's a good sign that this trailer didn't blow me away, or offer us much in the way of new stuff to latch onto. We're already in, so there's no need to throw all their cards out from their sleeves here like so many other shows and films do. I look back at the trailers for a lot of the other Star Wars projects to release under Disney and they end up showing/sharing/implying so much that they really don't need to. It's Star Wars. Good Star Wars at that. We're in. Can't wait, only ... *checks calendar* ... SIX AND A HALF WEEKS?! ... to go. Thought the first season was a solid introduction to Favreau and Filoni's vision for the show, but my expectations are greater going into this second season. Will be good to get some more depth to these characters, and a better understanding of this GFFA.

Pre-orders going live at 08:00 next Tuesday here in the UK at major retailers. Good luck to those looking to secure one!

It's here! And a gorgeous poster! @Ronnie I'll be sure to give some impressions when I can

Well that's very interesting. Guessing this is a new GC/Wii emulator? In which case, how many articles do you think we're about to see swarm the internet with talk of GameCube and Wii catalogues coming to Switch Online?

It's annoying because you'd imagine their video game fans to some extent to be in the loop, but they're clearly not a great side of video games. Scalping sucks. I think scalpers are my biggest concern when it comes to securing a pre-order, and they're why I would want PlayStation to drop pre-orders at the end of tomorrow's Showcase instead of giving us a date and time for them to drop like Xbox have (in Xbox's case I think it's fine though, seeing as I don't think we've heard about any production issues on their side). I really don't like the idea of giving scalpers a heads-up when it comes to stuff like this, but announcing a date and time is how you guarantee record breaking pre-order numbers, so

Playing the version available on PS4, so I'm guessing like with VII it's a port of the PC remaster?

Sony has cut estimated PS5 production by 4 million units through to the end of the financial year (March 31st 2021) due to a low SOC yield, according to Bloomberg. Also have predictions a bit lower than what was generally expected. Key takeaways: - 15 million units by March 2021 is now 11 million - SoC yields are improving but not quite where they want them - Japanese analyst predicting $449, $399 (though I think this might be more a prediction of how low Sony might be able to go? Not sure) Best get those fingers warmed up for the second those pre-orders go up, if there's any truth to this. Though that's still an insane amount of consoles by March!

Retail boxes: Looking clean. Very easy to distinguish between the two, good idea I think to go with different colours for them at launch.

Put a couple more hours in tonight, pretty sure I'm quite close to the end now. Tomorrow the plan is to grind for a bit, mostly for cash to splash on hunting down/synthesising better weapons (by the way, synthesis is great!) And to get my main party (Zidane, Dagger, Vivi, and Steiner) to a solid level count. Got one or two more abilities I want to learn before this final push too. Think there's a very good chance I finish this tomorrow night, unless something totally unexpected happens with the pacing and story direction! Can't wait

I guess this could belong here? The Guardian's Keza McDonald has an article up with Shigeru Miyamoto, Kenta Motokura, Takashi Tezuka and Yoshiaki Koizumi looking back on Mario for his 35th Anniversary.

So far this is only for the US, but Sony are going to be using air freight to ship the PS5 (unclear if this is supplementary to sea freight). I would imagine this is to ensure as much stock is available as possible for launch, but still, seems a drastic move. Then again, if it ensures there's stock for launch (and with them likely to sell record numbers), I'm sure it will be worth it. There was that report a few months back that they wanted 5 million units shipped by September (this would be for launch), which went on to say they wanted a further 5 million shipped by December. I don't think it's too crazy to think these air freight shipments are bolstering the launch stock with the second round of production. Which is to say that Sony is confident at hell, and rightly so. I wasn't playing games much when the PS4 and Xbox One launched (and certainly wasn't keeping up with the news on it), but I don't think it's crazy to expect the PS5 to dwarf the sales of the PS4. What little I can remember going into this gen was all the hot buzz around "the death of video game consoles" (yikes), and the narrative is completely different now. Even back then I remember reading about stock shortages. Makes one wonder.

Using Baba O'Riley but not hearing the lyrics is such a waste. Such a strange but exciting ad. Eric Lempel's interview with Variety. For me it just evokes memories of CSI: Miami, but okay

Yeah, I'm going to be passing mine on. My younger brother is going to be getting mine the weekend after the PS5 launches. He loves his Switch (to my annoyance it's become a Fortnite machine, but hey, it's his time ) but he barely has any friends who own one. Social gaming is much more of a thing for him growing up than it was for me (I'm introverted so I guess that would have happened either way) so if it means he doesn't feel left out, I think it's the best thing to do. Plus, assuming there are some titles that are cross-gen online NOT TITLED FORTNITE, it'd be nice to game with him now I've moved out. He had been thinking about getting a next-gen Xbox a few months back, so I toyed with the idea of picking him up a Series S for Christmas, as and when that got announced, but checked in with him the other day and he's fine waiting, because he's interested in playing games I already own like VII Remake and Spider-Man. Which gives me an excuse to post this... ...always gives me a good laugh the biggest downside to both sides doing well is that I think it's going to be a while before we see something like this again! I'll see! I'm out until 20:00/20:30, so going to be cutting it close if there's any traffic around. I'd love to, but I also treat these live events like football matches (if it's something I have interest in, anyways), and barely look at my phone, so you'd probably get a couple of responses out of me early on - "Well that looks great", "THE UI LOOKS SO CLEAN", "AND SO IT BEGINS", "Shu has a quarantine beard?!" - before I got a bit quieter as the show went on. Also like taking some time to digest things where I can, though if FF turns up I guarantee you'll see a "YEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS" equivalent in here at least

Damn, $399 would be crazy!

CG short is up. Paging @Ronnie! Looks absolutely phenomenal. Holy hell, this must have cost a fortune! Reminds me of the CG shorts for The Old Republic. I know they said CG before, but still, I wasn't expecting movie quality CG. Genuinely looks better than some scenes in the more recent films at times. Stunning environments and vehicles, still not nailed faces and some surfaces in CG (the TIE helmet in the cockpit and the TIE surface when whipping around come to mind), but seriously, incredible. Awesome use of the Imperial March too, the music really tied this thing together in a big way. Praying there's another one!