Julius

Here we go! Announced at the PS5 September Showcase, being developed by Creative Business Unit III!

So much Star Wars in VR!

I'm stepping back and tempering my expectations. Mainly because I'll go dizzy with excitement otherwise I think most of my wider predictions would still be somewhat in line with what I said back in June (you know, minus the stuff that got announced then, and has been announced/showcased since!), but again, I don't want to set myself up for disappointment. Tonight I'm expecting to see: - price, launch, and pre-order dates. There's no way in my mind they let the Xbox Series S and X go up for pre-order without us at least knowing when the PS5 pre-orders drop. I would like if they were to announce these at the start like Nintendo did at the start of their Switch Presentation in January 2017, but I could see them just saying 'Available at Launch' throughout and then dropping this on us at the end. - Spider-Man: Miles Morales gameplay demo. The only AAA first party game from June they seemed confident in attaching a release window too. If it's coming at launch, now is the time to show us some gameplay. - Demon's Souls gameplay demo. I don't think it will be there at launch, but this game is going to be be one of their showpieces. It's Bluepoint. If not a demo then perhaps a trailer which includes more gameplay than we saw back in June. - let's see that UI. I'm just really curious to see what it could look like, hoping for something clean and a better trophy system (such as counters). I went back and watched one of the PS4 showcases from 2013 and we got Shuhei opening the show with a tour of the UI, so would love something like that again. Would love the first gameplay demo to start by showing the UI and then them selecting the game, and showing off how quickly it will load! - a first party multiplayer game. I don't know what - maybe TLOU2's Factions or something like Killzone - but I think this is the biggest gap in Sony's first party offering. This is about as out there as my expectations for the event are going. Then of course some looks at games we've already seen (not sure if they'd go with another Ratchet and Clank gameplay demo or trailer at this point) and hopefully a couple of surprises. Excited even with my tempered expectations, I just want my pre-order in at this point

Well that lowers my expectations for when I get around to XV I'd love turn-based combat, especially with VII Remake already dealing with action RPG mechanics, but I just don't see it happening. An evolution on what they've done with VII Remake which made the ATB side of things about 50/50 with the action would be pretty cool! Yeah, it's funny looking at XV and knowing I don't really want that in an FF, I kind of want medieval/steampunk like they did so well in VI and IX Strong characters and a storyline which isn't a mess would be nice, would be a dream if Uematsu returned as main composer, though from what I've heard of the other composers since he's stopped as the main series composer, it's still great stuff. But above all else: just focus on the game! From the outside looking in, having not played many of these games, Square Enix have got a very bad habit it seems of making the game last and making the brand around it first (which I'm grateful wasn't the case with Remake). What I mean by this is look at the VII Compilation: came out after the original game, ended up with a lot of side and supplementary content, but it doesn't really tarnish that original experience. And then I look at the dizzying mess that is XV. Off the top of my head: a film, short anime, the game, and then the plans for like 8 DLC packs (half of which ended up cancelled?). And even then, the game was Versus XIII just made into their next main project, I feel like the game was the last thing on their minds. Thinking about it now though, and putting aside XIV's A Realm Reborn, won't XVI be the first original Final Fantasy main series announcement/reveal in over a decade? That's pretty nuts if so!

Completely off topic, but I don't like making speculation threads, and finishing IX has really put it at the front of my mind (and we've derailed this thread anyway ): if XVI is announced tonight, what would you want to see? Or what do you want from XVI in general?

This one from the January 2017 Switch Presentation, when they were talking about how it takes inspiration from their previous consoles and controllers, instantly came to mind Nintendo really need a new graphics guy...

I actually picked the remaster up a while back and have it installed...but I also haven't played Super Mario 64, and 3D All-Stars is out Friday With Final Fantasy in particular, I'm trying to space it out just to give it room to breath. It's a really special franchise, and I love music in games and films in general, so couple all of that with strong stories, characters, and battle systems and I'm there. I also don't generally play games in the same franchise or genre back-to-back, for fear of getting burned out! And just to mix it up I'd hate to end up halfway through X and for something else to come along I have more of an immediate desire to play, or just feel tired after 50+ hours of turn-based combat (generally doesn't happen when I stick with an individual game, like DQXI or Persona 5, but happened before when I want from DQXI straight into DQVIII). Heck, I even sometimes have the same issue just going from any other open world action RPG to another too, or with racing games, or platformers. I think I'll get to it before the end of the year though, probably in December, depending on how the PS5's launch window plays out

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.