Ronnie

You said Playstation consoles don't sell out, but the last couple have. Most consoles sell out at launch, even with the Wii U did, and probably the Vita too. ok maybe not The scheme is to offer up a reward for their biggest fans and get people itching to pre-order even more. Nothing to do with scalpers. It's just basic PR in the run-up to any launch.

Not really seeing any proof, just opinions. imo, this is pure FOMO from Sony, something I know @drahkon isn't a fan of. And that's putting aside the dubious tactic of getting people invested without even telling them the price. Not at all. I wasn't even going to bring this weird move up till I read a questionable comment about how Sony have been nailing marketing. If Xbox had done this would you be backing them? Unlikely. Same with backwards compatibility, I doubt you'd be excusing Xbox if the roles were reversed, so don't play the tedious console war card please because you're not one to talk.

It's an opinion, of course I don't have any proof. Do you have any proof they do it to combat scalpers? It's the same reason any company gives someone a chance of being first in line, or winning something eagerly anticipated, it's done for buzz. Now I could be wrong and you'll only be able to buy the console direct from Playstation, and this pre-order thing accounts for half of their stock, but I'd be surprised.

The PS3 didn't sell out at launch but that was a disaster on their part, but the PS4 did. Edit: yes the PS3 also sold out at launch I just mean this pre-order thing will account for a small fraction of total units, both in the US and certainly worldwide. It's not done to combat scalpers it's done to get people talking on this drip feed hype train they're on.

I got the impression this will end up being like 1% of worldwide stock and is just a bit of marketing PR to get people talking.

Hardly combating scalpers, presumably this will be a small fraction of the general pre-order numbers. Still weird marketing to put out when everyone is bored of waiting about dates and prices.

A bit strange to see you complaining about complaints given all you do on the Nintendo board is complain about Nintendo, but ok. Things don't seem to be affecting Switch sales either so you should be happy. As said, the lack of true BC won't affect sales, but some people would just like to see them live up to their "For the Players" tag in aspects outside of their great games output. Had you seen the story about PS5 offering pre-orders to a select group of players based on their activity log? Would you say that's nailing marketing?

Sony have been "nailing the marketing from day 1"? Day 1 as in the day Concrete Genie was released and was sent out to die? Their games showcase was good but otherwise this drip feed of information is clearly annoying people. Hyping up the Cerny talk was another mis-step in marketing. Now they're maybe, possibly offering to hopefully send some Playstation fans a link to pre-order, as long as your nebulous and muddled "Playstation activities" are good enough. Then throw in all this backwards compatibility vagueness. Sorry, releasing a logo on Instagram and having great games does not = "nailing the marketing from day 1". Yes I'll just pop my N64 cartridge into my Switch... The Wii U had backwards compatibility, so did the Wii, the Switch has NES/SNES (so far). Playstation meanwhile don't give a fuck.

Not weird at all. Opinions. Xbox showing how to do it last gen probably led many, myself included, to believe Playstation might follow suit this gen, but it seems not.

Be nice for them to do something For the Players, regardless of it not impacting sales. Their whole backwards compatibility message has been so muddled. If I can put in PS4 disks into PS5 then at least that's something, but that still isn't even 100% confirmed. I do agree about the build up to next gen, the whole drip feed of information is getting boring. Both companies being terrified of going first to reveal price etc is tedious a f. Happy memories of the Switch reveal trailer blowing up on YouTube, 3 months later their presentation, 2 months later release.

PS5 won’t be backward-compatible with PS3, PS2, or PS1, Ubisoft says Nice of Ubisoft to tell us

Staff credits music is SO GOOD, especially the last minute or so. I might have put this credits sequence into @Cube's challenge thing had I known, something about Nintendo games actually make you want to watch them.

Never really considered Lucasfilm would use the technology for their own projects down the line. I suppose they've already dabbled in it with THAT scene in IX, worked really well too. I think it's likely to be smaller scale stuff like that or at a push Tarkin in Rogue One. You would hope they would put a big chunk of the underperformance down to the non-existant marketing campaign. I've no idea why they didn't just release Solo at Christmas time instead of May, I get that they wanted space before IX but releasing so close to TLJ was a big mistake. But yeah I'm sure a film won't happen, which is a shame as I loved Solo. Disney+ series would be fun though.

This is pretty crazy Oh and #MakeSolo2Happen

Solid debating there. I don't remember LEGO TFA being particularly lacking in original dialog but your memory is probably better than mind. I definitely remember loving the voice acting there because it made the game feel more legitimate. If you look on the IMDB page for this game it sheds a bit of light, if the info can be trusted. What's weird is when I looked a few days ago the ones that stood out were Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, John Boyega, Anthony Daniels (obviously) and Gwendoline Christie. Now, all of those except Billy Dee and Daniels aren't listed, but Daisy Ridley is. So yeah, pinch of salt I think. Anyway I think IGN suggested there might be a mode to turn off voice acting, so everybody wins. Not confirmed but it was hinted at a while back. But yeah I much prefer voice acting to not. Han sounds EXACTLY like the original in that short clip from the traier.

4K60 is not current gen. It's a different priority to Ratchet's 1080/60 or 4K/30 which is all about visual fidelity and putting as much on screen as possible. Who knows why they've delayed it, we've no idea really. Covid likely a factor at least.

Pretty impressive that Halo runs at native 4K and 60fps regardless.

Played and adored Paper Mario: The Origami King, absolutely loved my time with it. Gave up on Rayman Legends, and I don't often give up on games. I just wasn't feeling it at all strangely enough, felt like a chore to go through the various levels. Played some Neon Abyss, it's a lot of fun though I struggle to finish rogue-lites. FINALLY got to the end boss of Gungeon, died and never played the game again. Suspect this'll be the same. Currently playing the AWE expansion of Control, I never played Alan Wake so I think this DLC will be completely lost on me. From reports it seems it's a bit disappointing compared to the previous one. Also seems spookier and I'm not really a fan of spooky games.

It looks absolutely stunning. It's great to see next-gen gameplay between this and Halo, I feel like those are the only two that we've seen so far. Gameplay wise though I kind of tuned out after a couple of minutes, dunno, seems a bit mindless. Hopefully there's some platforming elements and it isn't just a chaotic shooting gallery. The rift system seems more of a tech demo than something that's actually fun, but we'll see, early days yet obviously.

Loved the Ep IX music too, hype as fuck. Shame it's been pushed back though. Trailer looked great, I'd be keen to see actual gameplay rather than in-game cinematics. Have to say the visuals looked a little rough. If there's nine films, and the game is say 40 hours that's about four and a half hours per film, sounds about right. Was hoping they would get at least sequel trilogy voice acting (like LEGO The Force Awakens did I believe?) but Rey sounds a little off here so I don't think they did.

I'd love it if the game ends at Jakku but I guess that's unlikely. Looks amazing.

I'm enjoying it but I agree it needs its own identity, way too much fan service and TNG call-backs.

Supposedly some kind of Direct/video thing on Friday (pinch of salt). Maybe then?

Great choices! The Velumental boss theme is outstanding. Heart Island may as well have been a Wind Waker/Zelda track, I guess that was the point. Loved Snif City and Toad Town/the theme tune itself too.

You can get pretty close to 100% for all the areas as you go through the game but some Toads/? blocks are almost impossible to find without a specific bit of gear. There's also a treasure chest you have to come back to near the end of the game that I can specifically remember. I'd say I got 90% of the collectibles by the time I got to the final boss, and then did an hour or two of clean-up.