Nintendo Hints at Future, Take-two Defends Next-gen Pricing

A glimpse into Nintendo’s future plans

Nintendo just published their annual Corporate Management Policy Briefing, which is part dry business talk and part very interesting future plans.

Unsurprisingly, there are new hardware ideas, which is hardly a surprise considering how successful Nintendo’s innovations have been in the past: “Our global teams are dedicated to this mission, and it is as much a part of Nintendo’s DNA today as in the past.”

Movie Mario: The most surprising section of the report is labelled “visual content expansion”, which describes Nintendo’s efforts to expand their IPs into new markets. A computer-animated Mario movie is currently in development at Illumination Entertainment, the studio behind The Secret Life of Pets, Despicable Me and Minions, scheduled for release in 2022.

Parks & LEGO: The report also talks about Nintendo’s efforts to “create an ecosystem” that will support long-term growth. For example, Nintendo has released a Mario Lego set and are about to open the Super Nintendo World theme park at Universal Studios in Japan. They emphasize quality and are wary of over-exposing their properties – as well as making sure nothing gets in the way of future games.

Who composed Aquatic Ambiance for Donkey Kong Country?

1. David Wise
2. Grant Kirkhope
3. Eveline Fischer
4. Matt Griffin

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.

Halo 3 and the half-naked co-founder

Halo 3 has a rather peculiar Easter egg near the beginning of the final campaign level. There’s a hidden area featuring a picture called the “half-naked guy” or Lonely Soul by Halo fans. But who is this Adonis in gym shorts?

It is none other than Bungie co-founder Jason Jones, and this is not the only half-naked picture of him hidden in the Halo series. If you push both thumb sticks during a Halo 2 loading screen on December 25th, you get a wider view of the Halo ring … and you just might be able to spot the message “Happy Birthday, Lauren!” on the surface.

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

Take-Two CEO defends $70 games

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick defends Take-Two’s plans to increase the price of their next-gen games, saying prices have remained the same for 15 years.

He says that the price has remained the same for a very long time despite inflation and ever-increasing development costs, and that the next generation of consoles marks the point where publishers will simply need to charge more.

“The bottom line is that we haven’t seen a front-line price increase for nearly 15 years, and production costs have gone up 200 to 300%,” he said.

Bigger, better: Of course, Zelnick acknowledges that consumers just want bang for their buck. “…since no one really cares what your production costs are – what consumers are able to do with the product has completely changed,” he continued. “We deliver a much, much bigger game for $60 or $70 than we delivered for $60 10 years ago.”

Optional extras: He also defended micro-transactions. “The opportunity to spend money online is completely optional, and it’s not a free-to-play title,” he said. “It’s a complete, incredibly robust experience even if you never spend another penny after your initial purchase.”

Take-Two announced their new $70 RRP for NBA 2K21, but no other publishers have made similar announcements yet.

Legendary Arena in Pokémon Masters and Pokémon Café Mix Team Events

New updates and features are coming to Pokémon Masters EX and Pokémon Café Mix, and the formerly US-only Pokémon Funko! figures are finally making their way over the pond to Europe and the UK.

Pokémon Café Mix

• Introducing Team Events
  • Form teams with other players to participate in special events
  • First Team Event starts September 24th and features Snorlax
• Plusle and Minun are among next week’s guests
• Orders 351-400 and Master Orders 176-200 will be added soon

Pokémon GO

• Current Remote Raid Pass Box ends September 19th
• Next Remote Raid Pass Box active between September 21st and 29th

Pokémon Masters EX

• Legendary Arena event with Azelf until September 30th
• Spotlight Scout focuses on sync pairs until September 30th
  • Sabrina & Alakazam
  • Caitlin & Reuniclus
  • Guzma & Golisopod
  • Burgh & Leavanny
• Blasting Off Again event replaces Double Trouble
  • Introduces James & Weezing sync pair

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Deadly Days Switch Giveaway

You have a chance to nab a Nintendo Switch code for Deadly Days if you refer DailyBits to a friend! Use our widget to start earning referrals, and there will also be other possible actions to increase your chances of being selected.

Deadly Days is available today on Nintendo eShop for $18.99 or £17.09, and we have codes to hand out this week, with the giveaway ending on Friday.

Please note that this giveaway is only available to our European readers

Deadly Days is a unique strategic rogue-lite in the zombie apocalypse. Manage and protect a group of survivors and help them to stop the catastrophe. Discover and use a large number of wild and crazy objects, even wilder and crazier survivors, special abilities, and deadly weapons.

• New Super NES and NES classics coming to Switch on September 29th, including Donkey Kong Country 2 and Mario’s Super Picross
• Nintendo Direct Mini Partner Showcase tomorrow afternoon will be showing off third-party games
• Facebook Connect expected to reveal Ubisoft VR titles as reports claim Assassin’s Creed and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell are going VR
• EA “foresee bringing more” games to Switch – maybe even EA Play, as senior exec Mike Blank talks up growth opportunities on Switch
• Super Mario 3D All-Stars review round-up:
  • 9/10 from Nintendo Enthusiast
  • 9/10 from Nintendo Life
  • 8.5/10 from Destructoid
  • 8/10 from GameSpot
  • 4/5 from USgamer
  • 7/10 from TheSixthAxis

Who composed Aquatic Ambiance for Donkey Kong Country?

Answer: David Wise!

Donkey Kong Country is most famous for killer graphics and platforming, but it’s also got an amazing soundtrack.

The best example is probably Aquatic Ambience, which has become a true classic and the subject of a 10 hour version on YouTube. It’s an atmospheric track that plays in the underwater levels, and it’s a surprisingly beautiful and ethereal piece of music for being from a game about collecting bananas and chucking barrels at bipedal lizards.

David Wise wasn’t the only composer on the game, though: Eveline Fischer, another composer working for Rare, did seven tracks including the funky Simian Segue. We suggest you go ape and listen to the whole soundtrack, it’s a timeless classic!

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