TODAY: Mario & Luigi could be gearing up for new RPG adventures — LEGO got more than they bargained for when they launched their MMO — Sony reveals the best-selling games of 2019 on PlayStation Store

Top Story

Fans call Pokémon Sword & Shield Expansion Pass DLC exploitation

Many Pokémon fans were outraged when Game Freak revealed that Pokémon Sword & Shield would not include the entire Pokédex, and now they are fuming about the upcoming expansions too.

Game Freak added a bunch of new Pokémon native to the Galar region but claimed that including the entire Pokédex was ‘too difficult’ and that they had to trim it down. They also said they would not be adding the entire Pokédex to Sword & Shield.

Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra are coming in 2020

Now they are adding hundreds of old-school pokémon, which has led fans to speculate that Game Freak trimmed the Pokédex so they could sell the missing pokémon as DLC. Fans enraged by the realities of business decided to grill Game Freak co-founder and head of development Junichi Masuda on Twitter.

His response: “It’s a public holiday today and it’s my birthday, can you let me relax?” Truly villainous. The expansion passes for Sword & Shield – which are exclusive to each version – cost $29.99 and will add two new regions, new stories, new Pokémon and hundreds of old fan favorites.

Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?

Which of these titles did NOT launch alongside the PlayStation 2 in the US?

• Orphen: Scion of Sorcery
• Street Fighter EX 3
• Fantavision
• FIFA 2001

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.

News Bits

Legends of Runeterra Beta opens soon

Riot Games has pulled a switcheroonie on us, and the Legends of Runeterra beta will be open rather than closed and start on January 24th. If you were invited to the beta you can start one day earlier, and you can still get in if you register right now – Riot will even throw in an exclusive guardian! The open beta is exclusively for PC, but the full game will launch later this year for both PC and mobile.

Mario & Luigi trademark filed in Argentina sparking fresh RPG rumours

Could Mario and Luigi be heading out on new adventures soon? Not impossible, judging by a trademark Nintendo recently filed in Argentina. Developer AlphaDream was closed in October last year, but that doesn't necessarily mean Nintendo has given up on the series. The latest entry was Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey, which was released for Nintendo 3DS in 2018.

Daily Fact

The never-ending crusade against virtual dongs cost LEGO a tidy sum

What's the first thing you think about when you hear LEGO? Is it, by any chance, giant multicolored phalluses? Developer NetDevil certainly had to deal with a lot of knobbly bits after launching the LEGO Universe MMO in October 2010. The family-friendly game was quickly buried under an avalanche of plastic peckers that forced the studio to go on a literal rod-blocking crusade.

The wiener invasion was of such girth that it positively engorged the developer's moderation costs, forcing them to review and approve every single piece of user generated content. They eventually managed to partially automate the search for blocky bits, but the poor schmucks in charge of schlong hunting remained the most expensive part of the whole operation.

The game eventually lost the war of attrition against the never-ending deluge of trouser snakes, and LEGO Universe was shut down in January 2012 due to poor profitability. The wieners had won.

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

Daily News

Sony prepping exclusives for PlayStation 5 at launch, claims report

Microsoft will apparently not be focusing on exclusives for the Xbox Series X launch, despite having a number of exclusive games in the works. Sony, on the other hand, is going all in.

On the latest Splitscreen podcast, Jason Schreier said Sony is planning to have a number of PlayStation 5 exclusives ready for launch, while Microsoft are trying to hit as many platforms as possible with their upcoming games.

Exclusive launch titles really set a console apart

Of course, a number of launch titles will not just be multi-platform, but multi-generation just like a lot of titles released at the tail end of the previous console generation. Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Ragnarok will apparently be available on both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X at launch, and it's probably not the only one.

Sony just unveiled the new PlayStation 5 logo – which keeps the branding established with the PlayStation 3 Slim – and leaked images have revealed the new DualShock 5 controllers, but much is still unknown about the new PlayStation. Both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are expected to go on sale ahead of the 2020 holidays, and Sony is rumoured to aim for a $399 price point.

Sony publishes PlayStation Store’s league table of top downloads for 2019

Which games topped the PlayStation Store in North America and Europe last year? Sony just revealed the top sales charts, broken down by premium, free-to-play, virtual reality and DLC.

The four top download charts are available from the EU PlayStation.Blog and the US.PlayStation.Blog.

EU / US PlayStation Store PlayStation 4 Chart

1. (EU) Grand Theft Auto V / (US) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
2. (EU) FIFA 20 / (US) Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition
3. (EU) Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition / (US) NBA 2K19
4. (EU) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare / (US) Grand Theft Auto V
5. (EU) Rainbow Six Siege / (US) NBA 2K20

6. (EU) Red Dead Redemption 2 / (US) Rainbow Six Siege
7. (EU) The Forest / (US) Madden NFL 20
8. (EU) Rocket League / (US) Star Wars Battlefront II
9. (EU) EA Sports UFC 3 / (US) The Division 2
10. (EU) Crash Team Racing / (US) Days Gone

11. (EU) FIFA 19 / (US) Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
12. (EU) Need for Speed Payback / (US) Borderlands 3
13. (EU) Star Wars Battlefront II / (US) MLB The Show 19
14. (EU) Battlefield V / (US) World War Z
15. (EU) The Sims 4 / (US) God of War

16. (EU) Gang Beasts / (US) Mortal Kombat 11
17. (EU) Resident Evil 2 Remake / (US) Rocket League
18. (EU) Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order / (US) The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
19. (EU) Assassin’s Creed Odyssey / (US) The Forest
20. (EU) Tekken 7 / (US) Marvel’s Spider-Man

News Bits

Community-made Harry Potter RPG for Minecraft launching this month

Following in the footsteps of the frankly astonishing Middle-Earth Minecraft server, enterprising Harry Potter fans of The Floo Network have spent the last four years creating Hogwarts and other locations like Diagon Alley block by block to set the stage for a Harry Potter RPG running on the standard version of Minecraft. Sound spellbinding? The trailer will blow you away.

Sony bigwigs gathered in Bay Area

Could there be something big going down in the Golden State? Shuhei Yoshida of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Hermen Hulst of PlayStation Worldwide Studios and Andrew Goldfarb of Sucker Punch Productions are hanging out in the Bay Area.

What could they be up to, chumming it up like old friends and being all big cheese-y about it? Could be something big, or it could just be a particularly gaming executive-heavy dinner party.

Quiz Answer - Did You Get It Right?

Which of these titles did NOT launch alongside the PlayStation 2 in the US?

Answer: FIFA 2001!

The PlayStation 2 launch was supported by a bunch of different games, including big sports titles, some duds and even a few Dreamcast ports. But there was a big name missing from the line-up: FIFA 2001 was launched a month after the console appeared for sale.

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