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Far Cry is Breaking Bad, Next-Gen Pricing Increase?

TODAY: Ratchet & Clank had a real heel turn before getting their own game — Ubisoft enters the battle royale fray with sci-fi shooter Hyper Scape — Fallout is being adapted into a TV show for Amazon Prime

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More expensive next-gen games

Games have cost pretty much the same for the last 20 years, although microtransactions and DLC have increased the total amount you can spend on them. But it looks like that’s about to change.

2K Sports’ NBA 2K21 will cost $69.99/£64.99 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. According to IDG Consulting CEO Yoshio Osaki, “other publishers are also exploring moving their next-gen pricing up on certain franchises.”

Flagship inflation: “Not every game should garner the $69.99 price point on next-gen, but flagship AAAs such as NBA 2K merit this pricing more than others,” he continued. Neither Microsoft nor Sony have announced price points for their next-gen consoles, or recommended retail prices for games.

Costs are up: Just last week former SIE Worldwide Studios boss Shawn Layden said that “the cost of games have gone up ten times. If you don’t have elasticity on the price-point, but you have huge volatility on the cost line, the model becomes more difficult. I think this generation is going to see those two imperatives collide.”

Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?

What was the first game Ubisoft published in English?

  • Iron Lord
  • Zombi
  • Fred
  • Puffy’s Saga

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

Ratchet & Clank started out as villains

Insomniac’s Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage! had a very curious pair of enemies that you wouldn’t see again until 2002.

When Ratchet and Clank made their PlayStation 2 debut, you might have had a feeling of deja-vu. That’s because Ripto’s Rage had you fight a large, furry orange enemy brandishing a wrench and his smaller robot buddy.

Looks like the Ratchet & Clank character designs were already kicking around the Insomniac office long before they became heroes of their own series.

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

Hyper Scape Begins

Ubisoft announces Hyper Scape

Hyper Scape is Ubisoft’s contender for the battle royale throne, a science fiction shooter set in a future where virtual world are the primary means of entertainment.

There’s a closed PC beta underway, and Hyper Scape will launch on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One later this summer. If you want to give the PC beta shot, you can earn a spot by watching streams and earning drops on Twitch.

Tweaked formula: If you’ve played a battle royale before, you’ll immediately recognize the basic idea but Hyper Scape has some ideas of its own, such as the end-game, where it’s either a free-for-all or a so-called Crown Rush, where teams need to hold onto a crown.

Far Cry's Breaking Bad

Giancarlo Esposito in Far Cry 6?

Actor Giancarlo Esposito is most famous for his appearances in Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and The Mandalorian, and rumour has it he will appear in Ubisoft’s Far Cry 6.

The game hasn’t been announced yet, but Far Cry is one of Ubisoft’s core franchises, so it’s not exactly a surprise to hear that it’s under development. Esposito’s role got him into “a new style of acting,” but he couldn’t say much more.

Code of silence: “This video game I did, which is going to be huge. Can’t really mention,” he told Collider in an interview. It’s not the first time Esposito is involved in the games business: He also appeared in a live action short for Payday 2, and an ad for Destiny 2.

Villainous: A big name like Esposito is probably central to Far Cry 6, a series almost as famous for its charismatic and memorable villains as Giancarlo Esposito himself.

What Else Happened Today?

  • Animal Crossing: New Horizons version 1.3.0 update features time-limited items, the ability to catch creatures while diving and is out now
  • Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot comments on workplace harassment and outlines “structural shift at Ubisoft” to address “toxic behaviors”
  • Switch Lite manufacturing error gets A for effort after customer discovers that his console shipped with two A buttons and no B
  • Westworld creators are adapting Fallout for Amazon Prime Video
  • Nintendo updates Jump Rope Challenge for Switch with new costumes, backgrounds and the ability to double-under, all for free

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That means you can enjoy standard definition games in full HD, and it even supports current-gen consoles. It has three operating modes and allows you to turn off image processing and scaling and simply get the best possible 4:3 image on your screen. If you buy an mClassic through our link, Daily Bits earns a small commission!

DailyBits Weekly Giveaway

Command & Conquer Remastered

You had a chance to nab an Origin code for Command & Conquer Remastered Collection if you refereed DailyBits to a friend. Use our widget for future giveaways to start earning referrals, which you can build up throughout the year to increase your chance of being selected.

Command & Conquer Remastered Collection is available on Origin and Steam for $19.99 or £17.99, and during the week we handed out a couple of codes, with the first one going out last Wednesday and the last one Today. Below the lucky winners have been revealed!

Command & Conquer and Red Alert helped define the real-time strategy genre 25 years ago and both have been fully remastered in 4K by the former Westwood Studios team members at Petroglyph Games.

Includes all 3 expansion packs, rebuilt multiplayer, a modernized UI, Map Editor, bonus gallery of unreleased FMV footage, and over 7 hours of legendary remastered music by Frank Klepacki. Welcome back, Commander.

Wednesday and Friday’s Winner:

  • Ashleigh Crist From USA
  • Chris Parrey From Australia

Quiz Answer - Did You Get It Right?

What was the first game Ubisoft published in English?

Answer: Zombi!

Believe it or not, there was a Zombi game before ZombiU!

It was actually Ubisoft’s first game for English-speaking audiences, released for the Amstrad CPC in 1986. It puts you in charge of a group of four heroes searching a zombie-infested shopping mall for fuel so they can escape in their helicopter.

Zombi mixed survival point-and-click puzzle solving, and was praised for its unnerving atmosphere. While few remember it today, Ubisoft clearly kept the trademark since it was resurrected for the 2012 zombie horror FPS ZombiU. The original hasn’t aged terribly well, but it’s worth checking out if you want to see where Ubisoft got started.

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