Pokémon Sword and Shield Leakers ordered to pay $150K

Game guide leakers fined $150,000 each

The Pokémon Company has successfully claimed damages from a printing house worker and his friend for leaking sensitive details about Pokémon Sword & Shield ahead of launch.

David Maisonave was found guilty in the Western District of Washington Court for violating the Defend Trade Secrets Act and the Washington Uniform Trade Secrets Act for leaking pages from the official Pokémon Sword & Shield strategy guide.

Official secrets: Maisonave worked for LSC Communications, which had been contracted to print the Pokémon Sword & Shield strategy guide. He took the opportunity to photograph pages from the guide, which detailed game features that had not yet been revealed to the public.

Friendship is forever: Maisonave then shared the photos with his friend Bryan Cruz via a Discord group, from which the images spread further. Both Maisonave and Cruz were found liable for $150,000 each.

Which controversial police figure worked on Sierra’s Police Quest: Open Season?

a) Daryl F. Gates
b) William Henry Parker III
c) Stacey Koon
d) Warren Christopher

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.

Andreesen, Horowitz and Mario

It has been 25 years since Nintendo 64 launched in Japan. The console was originally supposed to be named Ultra 64, a homage to toys Nintendo had manufactured in the 60s, such as the Ultra Hand. Unfortunately, Konami owned a trademark for Ultra Games, and so Nintendo was forced to make a name change.

Around the same time, Netscape founder Marc Andreessen proposed an online service for the Nintendo 64, but the idea was quickly abandoned when it became clear that Nintendo wanted full control of the service.

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

Jade Raymond team hires for live service

Former Ubisoft and Stadia executive Jade Raymond is now head of Haven Entertainment, and they are looking for engineers with experience from live multiplayer environments.

The studio's first project is an original and exclusive IP for PlayStation, although no details have been announced, this listing indicates that it will be a AAA live service game. Raymond has previously worked as a producer, executive producer, and managing director across several major studios during her career.

There and back: She started her career working on The Sims Online, before joining Ubisoft and acting as producer on the first Assassin's Creed. She then joined Konami to act as producer on Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, before returning to Ubisoft.

All-new studio: Raymond was involved in a number of major Ubisoft games like Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell, Watch Dogs, and Far Cry before jumping ship for Stadia, which turned out to be less than firm ground. After Google shut down Stadia Games and Entertainment, she founded Haven Entertainment Studios.

Sonic theme park and ‘Vtuber future’

Now that Sonic the Hedgehog is a movie star, Sega is interested in doing what Nintendoes, and open a Sonic the Hedgehog theme park.

They are also looking into making a Sonic VTube avatar to improve the blue blur's online footprint. That somehow sounds like it could easily backfire, considering the anarchic nature of online broadcasting – unless Sega is simply planning to turn Sonic into a virtual idol and have him host his own official streams.

The fastest thing online: The goal is to let fans “communicate with Sonic in real-time,” and is part of a wider initiative to leverage streaming in a new Sonic game scheduled for 2022.

Life begins at 30: All of this is from an upcoming issue of Famitsu, where art director Kazuyuki Hoshino and producer Takashi Iizuka have been interviewed for Sonic's 30th anniversary. SEGA also streamed an Anniversary Symphony live orchestra with its community last night, celebrating Sonic's 30th in style.

Get ready for Viking Reality

Iron Gate is pretty busy working on Valheim's Hearth and Home update, so it has fallen to the fans to bring the viking-flavoured survival hit to virtual reality. The VHVR mod adds OpenVR and SteamVR integration, and although it is early days there is already support for motion control with Oculus Touch and Valve Index.

Riccitiello believes in VR

Unity CEO John Riccitiello, formerly CEO of EA, believes that VR and AR will be commonplace by 2030. He predicts that half of the digital entertainment content consumed in 2030 will be real-time rendered and interactive.

Facebook blasted for Blaston ads

An attempt to integrate in-game ads in the Oculus Quest game Blaston has met with an extreme lack of enthusiasm from users who had already paid for the game, leading to Facebook quickly abandoning the project and acknowledging that Blaston “isn’t the best fit for this type of advertising test,”

• 343 Industries wants bigger multiplayer matches and are working on ways to make matches support more than 16 players in Halo: The Master Chief Collection
• Konami has quietly released a test demo for PES 2022, which is currently available on PS and Xbox, featuring 1v1 matches with Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Juventus, and Barcelona
• Overwatch for Switch now supports cross-play with a launch trailer showing how to link Battle.net to Switch Online
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD out on July 16th and Nintendo has launched a new overview trailer detailing changes
• Horizon Chase Turbo will be free for a week on the Epic Games Store later on this afternoon
• The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles launches on July 27th, bringing the courtroom dramedy to the Victorian era

Which controversial police figure worked on Sierra’s Police Quest: Open Season?

ANSWER: Daryl F. Gates!

If you’re not an avid historian of US law enforcement, you may not know that Daryl Gates was Chief of Police for Los Angeles from 1978 to 1992. He was a key figure in D.A.R.E, the invention of SWAT and the Rodney King incident with the resulting riots. “Controversial” doesn’t even begin to describe his tenure. Why not let him make his very own copaganda videogame?

That was exactly what Sierra decided to do, and the result was Police Quest: Open Season, where you play homicide detective John Carey investigating a string of supposedly gang-related murders. It was a dark turn for the Police Quest series, and it has grown more and more controversial over the years, both because it sucked the fun out of the pedantic but jolly Police Quest series and due to it featuring Daryl Gates.

Today's issue of DailyBits was written by Gavin Herman, Nick Akerman, Erlend Grefsrud, Simon Priest, and Jamie Davey. If you have any feedback or news tips for the team, please email us!