007 Returning soon, Game Awards 2020 Nominees

Far Cry 6 retail dates ‘are all placeholder’

The Microsoft Store lists a release date for Far Cry 6, either the 25th or 26th of May 2021 depending on your region.

Ubisoft recently delayed a number of its big games – including Far Cry 6 and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Quarantine – into the next financial year. That means a late-May release date fits the earlier announcements, but Ubisoft is not particularly interested in clarifying.

Placeholder: “Per last month’s earnings call, Far Cry 6 will launch in fiscal year 2021-2022. Dates posted to retail sites currently should be considered placeholder, as we have nothing to confirm at this time,” stated Ubisoft in response to our request for comment. The Far Cry 6 premiere trailer aired during Ubisoft Forward in July and revealed that Giancarlo Esposito plays the villain.

What was the first Star Wars fighting game called?

a) Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi
b) Star Wars: Jedi Academy
c) Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
d) Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Lightsaber Duels

The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today's issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.

Biting off more than you can develop

Ubisoft Annecy’s winter sports extravaganza Steep was one of the first third-party games announced for Switch, but the team couldn’t manage to maintain the game for another platform since it was already out for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

They didn’t expect the Switch version to require a lot of team resources to develop, but in the end they decided to focus on the existing versions rather than dedicating themselves to delivering content to such a broad range of platforms.

Join our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today's fact.

The Game Awards 2020 nominees

The nominees for this year’s The Game Awards have been announced, and Sony is leading the pack in terms of nominations: They are dominating practically every category.

Sony first-party games enjoy no less than 22 nominations, just shy of Nintendo's record 23 nominations at The Game Awards in 2017. This year's awards ceremony will be streamed from venues in Los Angeles, London and Tokyo and you can vote on your favorites right now.

Nominee highlights

• Game of the Year
  • Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo)
  • DOOM Eternal (id Software / Bethesda Softworks)
  • Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix)
  • Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
  • Hades (Supergiant Games)
  • The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Best Game Direction
  • Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix)
  • Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
  • Hades (Supergiant Games)
  • Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
  • The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Best Narrative
  • 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (written by George Kamitani)
  • Final Fantasy VII Remake (written by Kazushige Nojima, Motomu Toriyama, Hiroaki Iwaki, and Sachie Hirano)
  • Ghost of Tsushima (written by Ian Ryan, Liz Albl, Patrick Downs, and Jordan Lemos)
  • Hades (written by Greg Kasavin)
  • The Last of Us Part II (written by Neil Druckmann and Haley Gross)

Digital ceremony: The awards ceremony airs on December 10th on all major streaming platforms, hosted by Geoff Keighley as always.

IO Interactive announces Project 007

Hitman developer IO Interactive has unveiled their next big project: a James Bond game with the working title Project 007 that the Danish studio is both developing and publishing.

The announcement may be a surprise, but it makes all kinds of sense when you consider the style of gameplay IO Interactive is famous for: A sharply dressed assassin travelling across the world unravelling conspiracies and walking away from ludicrously dangerous situations while straightening his tie. Agent 47 has even developed a penchant for dry jokes in the latest games.

Origin story: The official teaser trailer doesn't reveal much, mostly tickling our collective memories with a sweeping rendition of the James Bond theme leading up to the iconic rifled barrel motif. The game features an original Bond story that explores the agent's origins.

007, not 0047: IO hasn't said too much yet, but it looks like the game's universe will be distinct from the movies since they're establishing their own origin story. Hopefully this kind of creative freedom will let IO create a truly videogame-native interpretation of the Bond mythos.

• UK retailer Game warns that PlayStation 5 pre-orders might be delivered late since the company has had trouble contracting enough couriers to handle the large volume of orders
• New maps and starfighters for Star Wars: Squadrons in updates coming this November along with new components
• Iron Galaxy Studios welcomes a Bungie veteran to the team as they hire David ‘DeeJ’ Dague as Head of Communications
• Picross S5 announced for Switch featuring brand-new puzzles across four game modes
• Philly Series 5 makes fun of PlayStation 5 in an ad boasting “ultra HD white chocolate”

What was the first Star Wars fighting game called?

ANSWER: Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi!

Star Wars seems to resist being turned into a fighting game with every fiber of its being. Sure, Yoda and Darth Vader appear in Soul Calibur IV, but for some reason there has only ever been a single Star Wars-themed fighting game: Masters of Teräs Käsi for PlayStation.

Teräs Käsi is an unarmed martial art designed to defeat Jedi, and the game let characters like Han Solo, Boba Fett and Luke Skywalker duke it out mano-a-mano. It’s not exactly a great game, often criticized for its slow pace, but Teräs Käsi lives on in Star Wars lore: Qi’ra from Solo: A Star Wars Story is trained in Teräs Käsi.

Today's issue of DailyBits was written by Gavin Herman, Erlend Grefsrud, Simon Priest, and Jamie Davey.

We hope you've enjoyed today's issue DailyBits! Please feel free to send any feedback over to [email protected]. Thank You!