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Bloober Team Buyout, Nintendo scaling back on mobile?

TODAY: What’s worse than facing the Red Army? Why, ants, of course. Giant ants — Several major companies are bidding on Polish horror studio Bloober Team — The first Crash Bandicoot 4 trailer is out today

Top Story

Nintendo ‘scaling back’ mobile business in lieu of renewed console success, says report

Nintendo started hedging their bets in the mobile space a few years ago, bringing many of their biggest IPs to iOS and Android – but the Switch’s overwhelming success is driving a pivot back to console.

Nintendo are re-evaluating their mobile ambitions thanks to hugely profitable games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and the underwhelming performance of their mobile titles. Mobile game teams have even been told to ease up their monetization strategies to avoid hurting goodwill towards key IP.

Scaling back: Nintendo was planning to release new mobile games every year and projected $1 billion in mobile revenue, but are not satisfied with the results: “We are not necessarily looking to continue releasing many new applications for the mobile market,” said Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa.

Console future: On the other hand, Switch and Switch Lite have done well enough to convince Nintendo that they don’t need to publish on competing platforms and that developing their own hardware remains a good investment.

Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?

Which Lego Batman featured a mission where you play as the Suicide Squad?

  • Lego Batman
  • Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes
  • Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
  • Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy

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.

Daily Fact

If you thought the communists were bad, you have never fought giant ants

Westwood Studios released two expansions for Command & Conquer: Red Alert, and the Counterstrike expansion added some secret missions named It Came From Red Alert. You could only play them by holding down the shift key and clicking on the speaker in the top-right corner of the title screen.

The secret missions pitted you against a terrible new foe: Giant ants, a reference to the late-80s Amiga classic It Came From the Desert, itself a homage to 50s B-movies. Best of all: the ant-tastic missions are included in Command & Conquer: Remastered Collection!

Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today’s fact.

This Week In Gaming

Pokémon Café and remakes galore

This week is full of releases, with some clear mobile highlights: Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road and Pokémon Café Mix. There’s also a bunch of goodies for Switch, most notably Mr. Driller Drill Land and the Switch version of Pokémon Café Mix.

Monday – June 22

  • Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 launches on PC
  • Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road launches on iOS and Android

Tuesday – June 23

  • Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour launches on Switch
  • Little Town Hero launches on PlayStation 4
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated launches on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Switch
  • Star Wars Episode I: Racer launches on PlayStation 4 and Switch
  • Pokémon Café Mix launches on Switch, iOS and Android

Wednesday – June 24

  • Ninjala launches on Nintendo Switch

Thursday – June 25

  • Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia launches on Switch
  • Collar × Malice launches on Switch
  • Death Come True launches on Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android
  • Mr. Driller Drill Land launches on PC and Switch

Are Bloober Team For Sale?

Bloober Team in acquisition talks

The publicly traded Polish studio Bloober Team is in a second round of acquisition talks according to official documents.

The studio is developing The Medium, an exclusive launch title for Xbox Series X and a line-up of three US, two Polish and one UK company are interested in buying the company. Rumour has it one of the interested parties is Microsoft Game Studios. Bloober Team’s back catalogue includes Layers of Fear, Observer and last year’s Blair Witch game.

Silent inspiration: The Medium is inspired by Silent Hill, features a score by Akira Yamaoka and stars the medium Marianne who exists in both the our world and a spirit realm.

Platform exclusive: Microsoft has snapped up Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Obsidian Entertainment, inXile Entertainment and Double Fine Productions over the past fea years – and is reportedly satisfied with its current stable of developers. The Medium launches for PC and Xbox Series X this Holiday season.

What Else Happened Today?

Esports Bits

Professional League of Legends player in danger of losing status over ranking

Team WE mid-laner Jiang “Teacherma” Chen is in danger of losing his professional status thanks to his ranking on the solo queue ladder. The League of Legends Pro League rules force players to maintain at least a Diamond 1 rank on the highly competitive Chinese server Ionia.

Teacherma’s ranked Platinum since he doesn’t play much by himself, and if LPL decides to revoke his pro status Team WE won’t be able to field him. The deadline for reaching Diamond 1 was on June 14th, so it will be interesting to see how the LPL decides to handle the case.

Players quit during Street Fighter 5 online tournament over beefs and lag

Last weekend’s Capcom Pro Tour Online tournament was the subject of some controversy after two players disqualified themselves in the middle of a set. Embarrassingly, both players quit during the Top 8 stage of the tournament.

Capcom Cup winner Derek “iDom” Ruffin refused to continue after facing MetroM’s Vega, stating that “I’m not playing MetroM. I feel sorry for whoever has to qualify like this […] I have literally 3 people blacklisted and MetroM is one of them”. Chakotay “ElChakotay” Andrich also quit after playing MetroM, blaming lag.

Valve reponds to Jamppi’s VAC lawsuit

Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen filed a suit against Valve in April over a VAC ban in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Valve has finally responded to Olkkonen’s case by stating they do not manage or own any Counter-Strike properties.

If that sounds baffling, it’s worth mentioning that Olkkonen’s lawyers filed the suit against Valve GmbH, the German hardware manufacturing subsidiary that produces the Valve Index and Steam controllers. It appears the suit was filed against the German company to keep the case out of American courts, but it looks like that strategy won’t work.

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Quiz Answer - Did You Get It Right?

Which Lego Batman featured a mission where you play as the Suicide Squad?

Answer: Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham!

Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham is an odd game, and not just because Kevin Smith and Conan O’Brien make appearances.

It also features a season pass and a DLC pack featuring the Suicide Squad on a mission for Amanda Waller. You could play as Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Deathstroke and Captain Boomerang.

The mission takes place in Belle Reve Penitentiary where you need to stop someone attempting to uncover the secrets of the Suicide Squad. What’s the big deal? Well, this being a Lego game means the anti-heroes are simply known as The Squad. There can be no suicide in Legoland.

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