Nintendo Inspired By Switch, The Sims Spark’d Show

Top Story

Switch is still gaining momentum

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa and director Ko Shiota both praised the Switch during the company’s 80th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders.

Furukawa said Switch has “entered its fourth year since launch, but its momentum is increasing” and Nintendo’s priority at the moment is to extend its life cycle and maximizing the advantages of having a single platform serving both the console and handheld markets.

Hybrid approach: Whatever comes next, Nintendo has learned a valuable lesson from offering the Switch and Switch Lite as “two hardware configurations with different characteristics,”. The approach has “greatly increased the opportunities for gameplay” since players can frictionlessly decide to play at home or on the go.

No going back: “…we’ve made many discoveries about where a dedicated video game platform can fit into a consumer’s daily life,” continued Shiota. “We will utilise these experiences in carefully considering the form our future game consoles will take.” Nintendo has made a startling recovery from the Wii U, which served as a stepping stone towards the Switch design but ended up as Nintendo’s worst-performing console since the Virtual Boy.

Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?

Which superhero did Jeff Kramer, the voice of Francis York Morgan, play?

• Superman
• Batman
• The Atom
• Elongated Man

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

Is that an evil mushroom or chestnut?

Super Mario Bros. from 1985 suffered from a bit of a naming snafu where its most famous enemy’s name got mixed up thanks to a stray note.

Shigeru Miyamoto intended the Goomba to appear as ‘evil shiitake mushrooms’, but a programmer said the sprite looked more like a chestnut, and thus it was named Kuribo. The word Kuri means chestnut, while bo would make the word read as Chestnut Boy, and that became the official name in Japan – while the rest of the world had Goombas.

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

Pokemon News and Events

Updates, content and free goodies

This is a busy week in the Pokéverse, with a new Pokémon Sword & Shield update, new content for Pokémon Café Mix and free goodies in Pokémon Go.

Pokémon Sword & Shield

• Latest update addresses Y-Comm mismatch issue
• Lots of undisclosed bug fixes

Pokémon Masters

• Double Trouble story event until September 17th
  • First movie tie-in, this one for Pokémon the Movie Coco
  • Adds Jessie & Arbok Sync Pair

Pokémon Café Mix

• Older stages rebalanced in update
• 30 new stages introduced
• New Pokémon gimmicks and offerings
• Swap Shop for exchanging Master Mode points
• Special weekly Challenge Card events

Pokémon Rumble Rush

• Battle Royale Cup has started
  • Lunala Cup until July 15th
  • Psychic and Ghost-type moves powered-up
  • Earn two new Poké Glam pieces

Limited Run Games

Limited Run Games Showcase 2020

Limited Run Games produces high-quality collectible physical game releases, and they just showcased their upcoming goods. Here’s a round-up:

PlayStation 4 & Switch

• Return of the Obra Dinn – July 24, 2020
• The Mummy Demastered – July 31, 2020
• Mighty Gunvolt Burst – August 28, 2020
• Castlevania: Anniversary Collection – Q3 2020
• Bloodstained: Circle of the Moon 2 – TBA
• Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling – TBA
• Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time – TBA
• Super Meat Boy Forever – TBA
• Samurai Shodown Neo Geo Collection – Out Now
• Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer – Out Now
• Wizard of Legend – Out Now

PlayStation 4

• Garou: Mark of the Wolves – July 2020
• A Boy and His Blob – September 2020
• My Friend Pedro – TBA
• Outer Wilds – Out Now

Switch

• Kunai – July 8, 2020
• Ys Origin – July 8, 2020
• The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa – July 21, 2020
• Mega Dimension Neptunia VII – July 28, 2020
• Grandia 1 + 2 HD Collection – August 7, 2020
• Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Director’s Cut – September 2020
• Katana Zero – November 2020
• TowerFall Ascension – Q3 2020
• To the Moon – Q4 2020
• Carrion – TBA
• Demon Turf – TBA
• Gris – TBA
• Observer – TBA
• PixelJunk Eden 2 – TBA
• Trover Saves the Universe – TBA
• Where the Water Tastes Like Wine – TBA
• Jay and Silent Bob: Mall Brawl – Out Now

Other

• Papers, Please – July 24, 2020 for PlayStation Vita
• Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash! – July 31, 2020 for PlayStation VR
• Shantae – September 2020 for Game Boy Color and Switch
• Xtreme Sports – October 2020 for Game Boy Color and Switch

VR Bits

HP opens Reverb G2 preorders

HP has finally started accepting preorders for their new VR headset HP Reverb G2. It supports up to 144Hz and features a 4K display, and HP has worked closely with Valve to ensure top-notch SteamVR integration – and even uses Valve’s off-ear speaker design. The HP Reverb G2 costs £525/$599 and will start shipping on September 15th.

Quest firmware enables new settings

The latest Oculus Quest Public Test Channel firmware allows users to pick graphics profiles. The new settings allow you to choose between four presets: Automatic, Prioritise Quality, Prioritise Performance and Balanced.

You could manually increase the headset’s resolution when using Oculus Link, but now it’s as simple as ticking a box. There are rumours that the resolution could be increased further in the future, but there are apparently stability issues preventing Oculus from rolling it out now.

Valve ramps up Index production

If you want a Valve Index headset and don’t need any accessories, you are in luck! Valve has just increased their production rate, lowering the wait time to 3 to 5 weeks. While that might sound like a lot, it used to be 8 weeks or more.

Unfortunately, the peripherals still have over two months of waiting time – but if you have Vive base stations sitting around, you can replace your old Vive headset with the Index before the end of the summer.

What Else Happened Today?

• EA unveils “first-of-its-kind” reality competition The Sims Spark’d, a “four-episode series” debuting on July 17th where players compete for $100,000
• E3 “will be back” sometime in the future according to ESA’s official Twitter account, which posted a short highlight reel
• Enjoy 10 minutes of Paper Mario: The Origami King gameplay in another preview ahead of launch on July 17th
• Deadly Premonition 2 will be patched following player feedback and Red Rising Games assures fans that the team is hard at work on fixes
• Rumours say a new Nintendo Direct will be out this month according to an insider claiming Nintendo is preparing for announcements on July 20th

DailyBits Deals

Today’s Gaming Deal Highlights

There are so many great deals now that it felt wrong not to share some of them ahead of the weekend’s bargain extravaganza.

Flashback (Nintendo Switch) $0.99 @ Nintendo eShop

Sega Genesis Classics (Nintendo Switch) $23.99 @ Amazon

Wargroove (Nintendo Switch) $22.96 @ Amazon

The Banner Saga Collection Bonus Edition (PS4) $9.99 @ Amazon

Final Fantasy VII: Remake (PS4) $49.94 @ Amazon

Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age (Nintendo Switch) $25.10 @ Amazon

Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD Remaster (Nintendo Switch) $29.99 @ Amazon

Saints Row IV (Nintendo Switch) $24.99 @ Amazon

How to Draw Deluxe Edition (Pokémon) (Book) $4.52 @ Amazon

Ring Fit Adventure – In Stock (Nintendo Switch) $79.99 @ Amazon

F1 2020 (Xbox One) $59.99 @ Amazon

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Collector’s Edition (PC Games) $119.99 @ Amazon

XCOM: The Board Game (Board Game) $31.64 @ Amazon

Razer Kraken Headset (PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch) $57.19 @ Amazon

If you buy any of these games by following our links, DailyBits will earn a small commission, so thanks in advance! Saturday will bring a massive list of over 40 deals, so stay tuned!

DailyBits Weekly Giveaway

The Great Perhaps for Switch

You have a chance to nab a code for The Great Perhaps on Nintendo Switch if you refer DailyBits to a friend! Use our widget to start earning referrals, which you can build up throughout the year to increase your chance of being selected.

The Great Perhaps will be available on the eShop for $9.99 or £8.99, and we’ve got some codes to hand out this week, just in time for the release on Friday July 10th. This week’s giveaway is only open to US regions.

The Great Perhaps tells the story of an astronaut returning to Earth and finding it destroyed by natural disasters. You discover an unusual artifact in the ruins, allowing you to see glimpses of the past and travel back in time.

Flit between between post-apocalyptic Earth and the vibrant days before disaster struck, and face the dangers presented by both to discover why the world ended – and how to bring it back.

Quiz Answer - Did You Get It Right?

Which superhero did Jeff Kramer, the voice of Francis York Morgan, play?

Answer: Superman!

Actors worry about getting type-cast, but many voice actors span a surprising range of characters.

The man who voiced the coffee, film and punk rock obsessed FBI agent Francis York Morgan (and Zach too) in the Deadly Premonition series also voiced the Man of Steel – and his evil robotic counterpart Cyborg Superman.

Superman: Man of Steel was an early Xbox exclusive where you help Superman deal with dangers in and around Metropolis. Unfortunately, like most Superman games, it wasn’t terribly good. In this case, it was marred by an odd control scheme and time limits. In any case, it is noteworthy as a small step towards FK in the coffee!

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