Angry the Clown

Gamesindustry.biz has published a trio of excellent Xbox related interviews. Developing for Xbox Game Pass: "I could never pitch these ideas to a publisher" https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-07-09-developing-for-xbox-game-pass-i-could-never-pitch-these-ideas-to-a-publisher How Minecraft and Mojang taught Xbox how to buy studios https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-07-09-how-minecraft-and-mojang-taught-xbox-how-to-buy-studios Are Xbox Series X developers being held back by Xbox One? https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-07-10-are-xbox-series-x-developers-being-held-back-by-xbox-one I barely skimmed the surface of quotes/content there. All three articles are well worth the read.

HOTAS support will not extend to consoles EA have seemingly confirmed on the game’s community forum.

We'll have to see how it really does in practice I suppose. It's not so much the time limit but the total shut down to cool down that would be problematic.

I do think that if either Sony or Microsoft were to get shockingly aggressive on price next-gen it's going to be Microsoft. Microsoft need that price lead more, while Sony probably feel they can get away with a slight bump on PS4's launch price due to the customer satisfaction established over the last seven years and the franchises they have built an audience for (and they're probably right to think that). I still think the service based era we're in with consoles may certainly leave both companies entertaining the idea of taking losses on hardware again though, but how big of a loss they'd be willing to sustain is impossible to predict. Who knows what kind of purchase arrangement these companies have with AMD and the manufacturers of their SSDs (Seagtae in Microsoft's case) too. Spencer has said pre-order details will come "later in the summer", so Microsoft surely have to name their price once Lockhart is revealed (in August?) regardless of whether Sony have said anything by then or not, and I'd be surprised if Sony has. We also know that Spencer has said that price is important and that their pricing strategy will be "focused around the player, not the device" which could mean aggressive pricing, or a reference to offering the choice between the SeriesX and cheaper Lockhart. All quite vague to be sure, but Sony's only more so with their comments that the PS5 will "emphasise value as opposed to price." If Sony were 100% confident about their price I think we'd have had it with the console reveal. As it is, and to echo Romier, I think they have an ideal price in mind, but will wait for Microsoft to make their move and see whether it forces them to reluctantly match MS or not.

Tavares is Xbox Console Business Planning Lead. ShopTo only have a few bundles in stock here in the UK. Amazon have some bundles, plus barebones X and S however. GAME have plenty of everything by the look of it too. That he only mentions the XB1 S however would seem to suggest the X is, at the very least, being cleared out, which I guess makes sense. I agree that sub 300 pricing on Lockhart would be ludicrously exciting in stirring up the market and competition, but my thinking is the S sticks around, Lockhart effectively becomes the new X (but at $399?), and at the top of the chain will be the Series X. If that's the case then I hope Lockhart is not called Series S as having a Series S and XB1 S on the shelves would be an appalling piece of marketing. All that said of course, if we're assuming November for the SeriesX/Lockhart launch then there's still ample time to begin clearing S stocks between now and then, followed by a potentially aggressive price cut on S price during the holidays to increase chances of clearing what's left (carried by the boast that it can still play the same games)...so... maybe? 🤷‍♂️

If a German listing is accurate than all the Hitchcock discs from Universal will have an accompanying original mono audio track (possibly lossy, but better than nothing). I wonder why they didn't put the original mix onto the disc of The Blues Brothers? Studio Canal appear to be bringing Serpico and Three Days of the Condor to UHD in France later this year. I've no idea if they have the UK rights to these (Eureka did the UK Blu-rays of both and I am not sure who they licensed them from. I'm pretty sure they belong to Universal in the US and UK).

More translucent really (PS3 style as Jeff says). Wouldn't a white case technically be the Wii/Wii-U white? I'd like to see that mocked up as I thought that might have been an option Sony may have gone with. Not sure I like the dead space in the banner but I guess that's where they would write 'Only on Playstation' for some titles (though weird that it isn't on Miles).

Yeah. It's kind of crazy it's even part of the spec to be honest.

I'm still eyeing video options for next year. I'm actually curious to see the next wave of Sony bodies and what they bring to the table in that respect, otherwise those Black Magic pocket cams are just looking more and more appealing, or the Sigma FP (probably the latter with the new firmware it just got). EOS HD cast an eye over the Canon video specs: https://www.eoshd.com/news/my-thoughts-on-the-canon-eos-r5-8k-monstrosity-1tb-footage-per-50-minutes/ https://www.eoshd.com/news/canon-eos-r6-shoots-10bit-4k-60-but-no-raw-how-it-compares-to-the-eos-r5/

District 9 coming October 13th from Sony: NEW Comic-Con Extravaganza Featurette (4K Blu-ray) NEW Original Theatrical Trailers (4K Blu-ray) Hours of Archival Special Features Including: Deleted Scenes Director's Commentary The Alien Agenda: A Filmmaker's Log – Three-Part Documentary Metamorphosis: The Transformation of Wikus Innovation: Acting and Improvisation Conception and Design: Creating the World of District 9 Alien Generation: Visual Effects Joburg from Above: Interactive Map of Satellite and Schematics of the World of District 9 Audio: English 7.1 Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 compatible), English 5.1 DTS-HD MA, French, Spanish, English – Audio Description Track 5.1 Dolby Digital

I think they can definitely deliver on the visual front. 5 looked excellent on the XB1 X so I think 343 will have a good grip on new hardware. What that means for how well it will run on legacy Xbox One systems remains to be seen though.

Indeed. The arrival of my X100V was horribly timed in hindsight.

I think the fanbase remains strong, but Infinite needs to reach beyond that. From Microsoft’s perspective I think it obviously has to look spectacular and be a real showcase for the new system’s capabilities. For me, just solid level design and pacing, and a slightly less convoluted story would be satisfactory because the story and lore has never stuck with me in any great way throughout the series, and so I typically forget what happened in previous instalments. I think this one also needs to feel inviting to newcomers as well because so much of the SeriesX launch will be riding on this game pulling in the interest. There’s rumour of it being open world/semi open world on the ring, something akin to Metro Exodus. That could be interesting IF executed well.

I genuinely thought Watch Dogs Legion came out last year already. That’s how detached I am from this company.

I was anticipating someone synching that up. I should never underestimate how quickly people will throw this kind of stuff together as soon as they have the chance. 😆