Julius

New trailer:

£7.77 / $7.77 / €7.77 off You know Square Enix would totally do it

This would be the ultimate flipping off of Xbox imaginable to be honest, seeing as the exclusivity deal ends in April I'm just here for the chaos if it does happen.

IT'S HAPPENING I'll update it with the Nintendo announcement when we get it, which should be coming shortly, considering it leaked on the eShop a few weeks back. Unless PlayStation have just broken an embargo, which is totally possible, considering it's not up anywhere else yet... UPDATE: here it is, in the description on Aspyr's channel's trailer description... Heck yeah. The original Battlefront and Battlefront II next please!

Watch it be PS5 versions of Final Fantasy VII Remake and Death Stranding

The deepest dive next Thursday at 14:00 GMT.

According to the Japanese stream description, the State of Play will feature two new titles.

Yeah, I'd like to see some Horizon footage too, though if it's not until late autumn or something, I could just as well see them holding off until the summer. I don't expect to see God of War just because of the likely delay, though if it is being pushed to next year, I feel now would be as good a time as any to share that with us. Don't think we'd see something like Bloodborne II just because of Elden Ring, but in terms of other AAA stuff, it could be time for a Final Fantasy VII Remake PS5 upgrade/version to be revealed if that is on the way. IF - and that is a massive if, hence the caps - the aim is to release XVI this year, with them saying we'd be getting an update in 2021 before, I don't think it's impossible that they might reveal an event with a short teaser here where we'll be seeing that update (like how they reintroduced Final Fantasy VII Remake ahead of E3 2019 in a State of Play). If it's not coming this year but by the end of the next FY (March 2022), which I think would be more likely just because of when Moonwalker drops, it's still possible they might have something to show, just because it's a flagship title and they'll want to have as reasonably long a marketing campaign as they can have. And heck, speaking of S-E, we're still waiting on Babylon's Fall, though given how long it's been since we last heard something, I wouldn't be surprised if it's been canned. And I think Athia is still a ways off. In terms of first party studios, only other thing I can really think of is Factions, TLOU2's multiplayer mode which got made its own game to give them enough time to realise both sides of it. And maybe some news on a TLOU2 upgrade? But other than that, I'm really not expecting much first party stuff beyond what we already know about.

I mean, yeah, there's nothing to say it won't be in the same style as Let's Go with absolute certainty (I assume you mean visually, being top-down, rather than mechanically?), but as you say, what has happened historically is indicative and basically all we have to go on at this point, meaning the case for them getting fully fledged remakes in the most recent engine is stronger than them not. Like I said above, though, I wouldn't be totally against a top-down remake, mainly because I don't really trust Game Freak to do Sinnoh in 3D after Sword/Shield, even if I'd still want to see it. It would likely be a smoother development journey for them to have it be top-down, and if you couple it with the possibility of Let's Go games set in Johto, and the potential for an expansion pass for whatever these Diamond/Pearl remakes do end up being (Battle Frontier, build on the plots of the events in the original games), they can buy themselves time to hopefully make some real strides in how they incorporate 3D gameplay and exploration going into Gen IX. But that seems too logical a move for Game Freak to make

Pretty much what @Glen-i said, and also because all of the other remake attempts up to this point have been to the modern standard set by that generation, both graphically and mechanically. I genuinely think the backlash for the Sinnoh remakes being Let's Go games could be far greater than the backlash for Dexit: it's the longest we've waited between remakes (not counting Let's Go, which is basically it's own series), and the longest we've waited between the initial releases of a generation to their remake (and heck, even the end of a generation to the remake of the first games of that generation). As someone who had these games as the big Pokémon titles in my life when I was younger, the ones where everyone I knew played them, and who has a lot of love for those games to this day, I'd personally be pretty disappointed if we ended up with Let's Go games rather than fully realised remakes as we've seen be the standard before (well, except for ORAS, but that sucked too). I also don't think it makes much sense financially or in terms of marketability for the Let's Go series to jump from Gen I to Gen IV, but that's a whole other can of worms. This all being said, while I would be disappointed by them being Let's Go games with the capture mechanics from those games, I agree with you that that doesn't necessarily mean being in the Sword/Shield engine (though I do think simply saying Let's Go Sinnoh games goes a bit beyond that, with your clarification I get what you mean, but can see why @Glen-i would have taken it as I initially did) and would be open to them remaking Sinnoh top-down like those games, and without Wild Areas, rather than trying to bring it fully into 3D. Though it'd be the logical next step after Sword/Shield, I think those games showed (among many other things) that Game Freak are still learning how to create interesting 3D spaces to explore, and though from what I've read here and elsewhere this improved in the Expansion Pass, I think they'll have a tough time taking the 2D, top-down designs of some areas, and forcing them to be 3D and a Wild Area instead. I guess we'll just have to wait and see, because I think they could try to justify going either way with it, but having Sinnoh remakes be Let's Go games would be a huge slap in the face to anyone who has been waiting for this (you know, besides ORAS and it's lack of a Battle Frontier).

Well, that kind of blows. It's been a very long time since I've stuck with a Gran Turismo game, so I had been looking forward to this! That being said, these days, based on recent pedigree, playing Forza is a much more compelling sell to me, and is one of only three reasons I would currently buy an Xbox (the other two being for the backwards compatibility of older Star Wars titles, and to experience the Halo campaigns), so...they better not take too long! Not too surprising, ultimately, though. 2021 always seemed a bit of a stretch, and what they showed off last year was just straight up weird. Fingers crossed things go smoothly moving forwards and we can enjoy this next year!

Great to just even see it confirmed. I always thought it was a no-brainer, but given how I've seen a hypothetical PSVR2 spoken about elsewhere, a niggling doubt did start to eat away at me. Lesson learned: always be optimistic Yeah, the headset not being wireless is kind of a bummer, but it's not the end of the world, so long as the system sees support...which definitely has to be stronger than the support we've seen for the current headset. Hearing that they'll be taking some of what makes the DualSense so great over to their next VR controller is definitely a great sell. As someone who has been tempted by PSVR, but has put it off mainly thinking we weren't too far away from whatever was next, this is great news. I'll get to play you one day, Rescue Mission!

Don't...don't put this out there! No, you could totally be right though. Even if we're a little light on first party stuff, there's still plenty of third party stuff they could talk about in the coming months, at the very least NieR Replicant and Resident Evil Village. I'm not sure who has marketing deals for Mass Effect: Legendary Edition and LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (I seem to remember like the latter was first shown at an Xbox event? But that was a while ago, so who knows at this point!), but it's plausible they could turn up here too. And then yeah, honestly, you could just fill the rest out with Kena news and some indie stuff. I think some gameplay of Returnal might be a great idea as someone not totally sold on that, and hey, more Ratchet being shown can't be a bad thing! Especially considering we didn't get a new trailer with the announcement of the release date before. Could be a good time to reiterate the news on Ratchet & Clank being free for all for a limited time, too, to get everyone onboard! Yeah, you're probably right. Still, a great opportunity for them to double down and get the word out! Maybe even push Destruction All-Stars still being free through PS+ at the moment too?

The fact that this isn't the first time this line of questioning has crossed my mind tells you just how silly the Pokémon Company and all involved can be at times. It's pretty much one of the only things they could do to drive more controversy than we had with Sword/Shield's "Dexit". Which is to say, as someone who thinks those games need to be remade if only for QoL purposes, I would not be amused. ...but would still totally be down for that soundtrack

*Looks at the time of the posts* This is why I don't play Sonic games, because why would I want to go slower? But anyway, jokes aside, quite looking forward to this (and fingers crossed not the only presentation we get this week). I know this year is pretty sparse in terms of first party plans at the moment, hopefully we get something more concrete on a rough window for Horizon though! And going off Jim's interview, likely confirmation of Ragnarok being next year instead. Oh, and fingers crossed for Kena news and the rest of the indies we're waiting on at the moment - if a new title is going to be a PS+ game next month, maybe they'll announce that here too?

State of Play time!

Oh man, that sucks. Random Access Memories was my first real introduction to them (and electronic music) halfway through high school. Obviously Get Lucky was what all my friends played (and pretty much all you'd hear on the radio at the time), but personally, I think it's got some great tracks, and I've always been a massive fan of Giorgio by Moroder and Touch in particular, the jazzy section starting at 03:22 has never failed to raise my spirits. Looking back, that section has definitely got some major La La Land OST vibes. Might not be everyone's favourite, which is understandable, but it's the album of theirs which means the most to me, and helped get me through some pretty tough times in high school. I actually added it to my work playlist back a bit before Christmas, and so it's been back with me for some recent tough times, too. Strange timing considering how quiet they've been for the better part of a decade now, but it is what it is. Guess I'll be throwing all of their albums into my rotation tomorrow

I can't see them mentioned in either of the lists above, so I've got to scream from the rooftops that both LIMBO (£2.24, down from £8.99) and INSIDE (£4.49, down from £17.99) are also part of the sale. They've been on sale before, so I imagine there's a good chance you might've already picked them up, but if not? Don't skip those games. Both are wonderful and atmospheric; shorter games a bit on the bleeker side of things. I think INSIDE is probably one of my favourite indie games, and I don't know many people who would argue with that choice. And LIMBO is also great, unless you have a crippling fear of spiders

Oh yeah, totally agree. I watched The Social Dilemma a couple of months ago, and while it raises some excellent points, I feel like it dramatising it's events depicting how social media impacts family and personal life was just as extreme. I get they're making a point, but yeah, totally a thing. Also, I know you were interested in checking out the Console Wars adaptation, have you been able to check it out yet? I couldn't find anything on a UK release back when it came out in the US, but on a whim looked it up last night, and turns out it was released on Sky Documentaries a little while back, so is also available on demand through the Now TV Entertainment Pass (which has a free 7 day trial available). Thought I'd mention it to you just in case you hadn't got a chance to see it yet!

Can someone help me cleanse my mind of this image? (although, a Muppets take on Star Wars would be awesome)

Well, I guess those potential leaks turned out to be true. Got to imagine we'll be seeing plenty more remasters from Blizzard moving forwards after what happened to Vicarious Visions, too.

It's been a while, but finally some more Diablo IV news.

Playing with Power: The Nintendo Story has its first episode (of five) coming to Crackle on 1st March. Looks fantastic! Hopefully we can get similar things for other companies in the industry, but this is obviously the natural place to start. And it's always great to see others in the industry cherishing Nintendo.

Not to get everyone excited, but in addition to the increasing number of reports about Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, and Castlevania being trusted to other developers (the most recent and promising if which was from VGC yesterday), Konami have just opened an official online store to sell their merch. More surprised that this wasn't already a thing before, and even more surprising still is that there's now official Suikoden merch (hell yeah). There's even an awesome map poster no Silent Hill merch is a bit weird though, especially when they have Sunset Riders stuff, and their prices are kind of outrageous for some items. Just having a nose around now. Some select things I thought were worth sharing: This could be yours for the low and awkward price of £23.62. The perfect Valentine's Day gift... "What the hell were they thinking?" in wearable form. Probably the only thing I'd be interested in, the Suikoden II map poster. Look, it could be nothing, but, where there's smoke... (well, there could be Konami burning their studios to the ground)

Interesting stuff! Did Octopath also end up on PC or am I misremembering? Imagine that could also be a reason why. If this does end up being the case, I imagine we might end up with a year or two to transition from cross-gen development to seeing truly exclusive games for the next console, like we're seeing to an extent with some of PlayStation's bigger titles for the PS4 and PS5, and it will definitely make things easier for their third party relationships. In particular, I can't help but think of Dragon Quest XII and how the PS5 isn't doing so hot in Japan; for that game, I think targeting PS4 and Switch is a given, but this could make the process of releasing XII for a Switch Pro a much easier thing for them if it is at least on par with the PS4. Fingers crossed that could end up meaning it'll be landing day and date for both platforms when it does eventually arrive. Either way, it would definitely make the lines between console generations for Nintendo consoles murkier, if they weren't already before, but it makes the transition a much easier one for customers to make. Yeah, given how Aonuma said that they're aiming to share more about BotW2 later this year in Wednesday's Direct, I do think the Pro and BotW2 are pretty much going to be joined at the hip and have to launch together: I think they're still aiming for BotW2 to release this year, probably in November, but are likely in a position where it could slip into 2022 (COVID and any other potential development issues along the way), and the next few months will be crucial to figuring that out for them. If we get Zelda this year, then drop both in November and have it be their Christmas tentpole to promote the new system. I think the only reason to doubt that is the fact that Pokémon main series titles have all released in mid-November since the release of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire in 2014 (X and Y were in October when they released in 2013); that being said, it's tough to see them not being Diamond and Pearl remakes, and given that it's the original pair's 15th Anniversary this year in September for their Japanese release, maybe they'll make an exception and bump Pokémon up to the end of September (so you get Pokémon capping off one quarter and both it and Zelda headlining the next) to make room for the Pro and Zelda in November. I suppose they could swap that and have Zelda and the Pro in September to leave Pokémon for November, but I personally think they're ready to pivot both Zelda and a potential Pro to March 2022 if anything, and are probably picking between that and a November slot just because they aren't ready to share it with is just yet. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out for the launch of a potential Pro, but either way, you're right, everything seems very nicely lined up for them to take advantage of that system and push the "Play it best on the new Nintendo Switch Pro/2/Series Y with Knuckles and Dante" line with a strong lineup of first party games. Here's hoping, anyways!