Julius

9 words. 30 seconds. All new footage. Awesome TV Spot

Coming June 4th 2019 It’s worth noting that the game will not be receiving an English dub. From IGN:

He said that he’s not crying tears of joy, so they’re probably tears of despair. His dedication to continue playing a game that he’s clearly not enjoying is almost unnerving.

So, uh...to no-one’s real surprise, Level 5 has done a great job of making this game look spectacular. Kind of envious as a Pokémon fan, but hey, hopefully Game Freak will surprise us and hopefully we’ll end up with something not too dissimilar to this. Hopefully.

The game has just been given an ESRB rating, so maybe a release date soon?

Yeah, for sure. It would certainly help with the transition between generations on the consumers’ end. I think that the healthy competition which Xbox has brought to the table thanks to its backwards compatibility this generation does mean that PlayStation can’t just rest on their laurels when it comes to BC with the PS5, but I agree with you that it might not take the same form as it has with Xbox (i.e. true BC), because while it’s certainly a nice thing to have, I don’t think that it’s necessarily going to be a system-selling feature when PlayStation is currently firing on all cylinders when it comes to console exclusive game development, be it third or first party.

So, that’s a wrap on BB-8 for Episode IX... Principal photography should be completed by the middle of the month, so I think we can expect a title announcement in the coming weeks. We probably won’t be getting a trailer until mid-April at Star Wars Celebration, as it lines up far too perfectly with the release of Avengers: Endgame (typically trailers are released within the two week window prior to a film which they are aiming to be attached to). Any thoughts on a possible title for the film? I’ve been backing A New Order: it harkens back to A New Hope, but is also ambiguous in a way that both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi brought to the table.

Just realised that it’s been two years since the Switch’s awesome Super Bowl LI commercial: It really did such a great job of putting the Switch across to a more general audience. It’s got me wondering...could we maybe see a similar commercial for the Switch again this weekend, seeing as Nintendo have lowered their sales forecast for this fiscal year? Or could we get something for a game, perhaps? As neat as the Pokémon 20th Anniversary Super Bowl commercial back in 2016 was, it wasn’t cheap for what was essentially a $5 million reminder that Pokémon existed. There are going to be TV spots for many of the most anticipated films coming this year (probably a Detective Pikachu one, too?), sure, but I do feel like a first look at Gen 8 here could overshadow everything else. It’s very, very unlikely, but just thought I’d put it out there, seeing as Pokémon has had some pretty quirky marketing campaigns...

You mean Garfield, right?

Another day, another report (this time from HobbyConsolas, in Spain) about how the PS5 might have backwards compatibility for PS, PS2, PS3 and PS4 games — though this time, it’s based on a patent by Sony Japan.

English voice recording is “70% - 80% done”.

Yep. The Hollywood Reporter are reporting that it will serve a relaunch, as opposed to a sequel, with a new cast and new direction: I also forgot to mention that it’s slated for August 2021. Can’t wait for The The Suicide Squad in 2024...

So...Bo Peep is Rey now Also, recording has wrapped. And finally, we’ll get our next look at the film after this weekend’s Super Bowl:

So yeah, this is happening, apparently... Summary: Aiming for an early Summer 2019 release, this puzzle game will be free to download (with optional in-app purchases) on iOS and Android devices, and initially launch in around 60 territories, including Japan and the United States. The game will support multiple languages, including Japanese and English. The press release:

Microsoft will be airing a commercial during the Super Bowl for the Xbox Adaptive Controller! below is the extended version: I’ve said this before, but I need to say it again: I love the direction that Xbox are heading in. Sure, the future looks bright for their games, and if they can match the technical prowess of their consoles, we’re in for a treat next gen. However, much more important to me is that they are funding controllers and projects like this and helping those that can often find themselves ostracised socially, or often left behind as an afterthought when it comes to gaming options, to be included too.

Wouldn't they need to match Wii + 3DS sales to not be worse off though? You mean the Wii U, right? I think most people bundle the Wii and the DS together generationally and when talking about eras of Nintendo, and i think it’s largely thanks to that era that Nintendo is going to be safe from catastrophic failure for a long while — between those two consoles, Nintendo sold over 250 million console units in a generation, and thanks to their generally not wanting to push the limits of technology (at least for the last decade and a half or so), that would surely make for a massive profit margin, and thus likely give them a large cushion to deal with discomforts brought about by relative failures like the Wii U. Also worth mentioning that I imagine the profit margins for Nintendo’s handheld consoles are historically much larger than their profit margins for home consoles, and that in each generation that Nintendo has had both a home and handheld platform, the handheld platform (i.e. likely the more profitable platform) has always outsold the home platform, so I imagine that their cushion for discomfort is large and plush. In addition to the points made by @Hero-of-Time and @Glen-i, it’s also worth noting that Nintendo had been the only ones seriously fighting on both the home console and handheld console fronts for a while, so it made perfect sense for them to pool their resources into one console — as H-o-T mentioned, why have a dedicated handheld console when you have no direct competitor in the dedicated video game space in the first place (largely thanks relative failure of the Vita), and thus mainly find yourself competing against a much larger, broader, and much more varied competitor in the shape of the smartphone market?

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Nikkei are reporting that a smaller and less expensive version of the Switch will be launching in Nintendo’s next fiscal year (i.e. April 2019 - March 2020). We’ve talked about it here before plenty of times, but a smaller and more cost effective version of the Switch launching in potentially the same year as the next Pokémon and Animal Crossing makes far too much sense to not be happening.

Matt Reeves’ The Batman has been handed a release date of June 25th 2021. Yes — the film that he was brought onto back in February 2017. Ben Affleck will be stepping down as Batman, with the film reportedly focusing on a younger Batman. It is believed that Affleck will have a producing role on the film. So, it probably won’t be too long until we hear that Henry Cavill will be stepping down as Superman, if recent reports (and this shakeup) are anything to go by. James Gunn has also been revealed to be writing and directing The Suicide Squad, aka Suicide Squad 2, after months of rumours and reports about him taking on the role.

Aren’t these the figures as of December 31st 2018? Which makes it all the more impressive, given that it would have sold that many units in only three and a half weeks! I’m of surprised that they lowered their Switch unit sales forecast as much as they did, though I suppose it’s always better to forecast low and “over perform” when there are shareholders to take into account.

After @Ganepark32 kindly supplied me with access to the demo (thanks again! ), I booted the game up five or six times on Friday and three or four times yesterday, only getting so far as the loading screen between the town and any of the missions that I attempted to start. I didn’t even bother attempting to play it today. The least amount of time I waited was around ten minutes, and the most was around forty-five. So, yeah, I didn’t get to play it, and while I can’t really speak from my own experience with the game’s demo...I am not sold on the game. At all. Almost everything that I’ve read about and watched from the demo is riddled with seemingly unavoidable negativity, whether it be problems with the demo’s servers, loading times, frame rate, the game not looking or controlling so great, a poorly constructed UI, etc. Can we also talk briefly about how this isn’t at all what I and many others expect a demo to be? When I hear the word “demo”, I personally think about a vertical slice of a game limited in environment or time when compared to its full game, and I get a feeling that’s what comes to my mind for many other people here, too. Which is why I find it especially surprising that the “demo” for this game was actually more of a beta (around a month from release, as has come to be expected when it comes to EA) likely seen more as an opportunity to stress test servers (ironic considering that servers for a number of EA games went down to some degree this weekend) than to let players actually try out the game, put across more in my next point than in any other I’ve made so far: they’ve also admitted that this “demo” is based on an older build of said game. Because what better way to sell your game than people on the fence that to let them try out the poorly constructed build from a few months ago? I’m genuinely worried for BioWare to some degree. Not necessarily because their future relies solely on how this game performs, but because I haven’t seen or heard any reason yet to seriously consider picking up Anthem next month. A saving grace could be the story, I suppose, or even the game being much more functional than the “demo” has been, but I think that the possibility that they have their second AAA bomb in a row (critically or in terms of sales) is a very real one. I’m curious what you’ve seen/read/heard that makes you willing to fork out for this game on release date, @Ronnie? Or did you mean that you would just wait for reviews? Not trying to rile you up, just genuinely curious, as you hinted that you think this could be a case of the game not being where it should be at launch, but given the support that it could potentially receive, it could be in a much better place in a year or two. I’m just not personally in a place where I have much confidence in EA right now. I play FIFA briefly in between long gaming sessions, and although I got plenty of playtime out of Battlefront and quite a bit out of Battlefront II, their general attitude towards game development continues to irk me, and their sloppiness when attempting to put Anthem in a positive light with this “demo” has only worsened that feeling for me.

I meant something more along the lines of an iteration such as the PS4 Pro or Xbox One X, as others have mentioned, as opposed to a generational leap, or some weird console exclusive (along the lines of what happened with a couple of New 3DS titles). I mean, we’re nearly two years into the Switch’s life already, and assuming a three year development cycle for Metroid Prime 4, we’d be five years into the console’s life, which seems around the right time to introduce a more capable model of the Switch. Having such a model launch a little earlier than/on the same day as Prime 4 seems like a perfect scenario from a business perspective, at least for me?

Well, that was a shock, but I’m definitely a fan of the honesty. I can’t remember the last time I remember a delay being announced for a game with such genuine appreciation for how it would disappoint fans — and what makes this even more noteworthy to me is that it’s not even like Metroid is one of Nintendo’s best-selling IPs. I’m definitely curious about whether or not we’ll actually get confirmation that Bandai Namco was working on the game, and how this effects what Retro have supposedly been working on since Tropical Freeze. Does this mean that whatever they were working on is near completion? Was there even anything that they were actually actively working on for the past few years? Hopefully we’ll get some answers at E3. I hope this doesn’t effect any hopes of a Metroid Prime Trilogy arriving on Switch in the near future — it would be a great way to appease fans for the time being. Also, I think I’m with @Dcubed in that we might not see the game until the next iteration of the Switch, and I can certainly foresee this game serving as the centrepiece of that potential iteration’s marketing campaign/launch.