Respawn developing three Star Wars games for EA

More Star Wars from EA and Respawn

EA and Lucasfilm Games have announced several new Star Wars games from Respawn Entertainment, including a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

One of the upcoming games seems to be a first-person shooter helmed by Peter Hirschmann, who worked on the original Star Wars Battlefront at Pandemic Studios.

• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 2 could be out late this year
• Stig Asmussen is also directing the sequel
• More news and trailers are expected on May 4th
• EA's exclusive Star Wars license ends in 2023

New Hope: “Working with Lucasfilm Games on a new FPS in the Star Wars galaxy is a dream come true for me, as this is a story I have always wanted to tell,” said Hirschmann.

Strategy: The third project is a collaboration between Respawn and the newly formed studio Bit Reactor, and appears to be a Star Wars strategy game. The last Star Wars strategy games we remember are Empire of War and Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds. 

What was the first ever game to receive the E10+ rating?

a) Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
b) Shadow of the Hedgehog
c) Shrek SuperSlam
d) Crash Tag Team Racing

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.

Better Nintendo 64 emulation on Switch

The latest Switch system update has updated the Nintendo 64 emulator used to play the games offered in the Switch Online Expansion Pack.

The first version of the emulator was not exactly perfect, and struggled with rendering artifacts and input lag in games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Tech dive: Modern Vintage Gamer has taken another look at the emulator, and it appears Nintendo has taken the criticism to heart and made improvements.

Faithful: The Banjo-Kazooie re-release appears to be a “very faithful version” only marred by a few dips in the framerate, and thankfully no input lag.

Nvidia reportedly abandoning ARM deal

UK regulators raised their eyebrows when Nvidia announced its intent to acquire chip designer ARM, and immediately started putting up red tape. The slow progress has apparently led Nvidia to abandon the $40 billion deal.

Nvidia's various partners have been told that the deal is probably not going to happen, and ARM's owner SoftBank is apparently preparing an initial public offering for ARM instead.

Statement: “We continue to hold the views expressed in detail in our latest regulatory filings – that this transaction provides an opportunity to accelerate Arm and boost competition and innovation,” said Nvidia.

Deal’s end: “We remain hopeful that the transaction will be approved,” added SoftBank. All the hopes and optimism in the world do not matter, however, if the UK government refuses to approve the acquisition.

Where to buy Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is out on Friday, so where can you get the best price on a ticket to the Sinnoh region?

UK

• Amazon.co.uk – £44.99
• GAME – £49.99
• Currys – £38.24 (Code ARCEUS15 at checkout)
• Argos – £49.99
• Very – £44.99
• Smyths Toys UK – £44.99

US

• Amazon.com – $59.99 (Physical out of stock)
• Walmart – $54.88
• Best Buy – $59.99
• GameStop – $59.99

• Final Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin trailer before brawler takes the fight to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on March 18th
• Valve reveals Dynamic Cloud Sync feature that lets you “seamlessly move between” Steam Deck and PC
• Rare will host a Sea of Thieves 2022 Preview Event on January 27th to showcase what's next for the swashbuckling MMO
• Unpacking developers warn of iOS imitators clarifying that the very similar app has nothing to do with its game
• Cinematic trailer for Sniper Elite 5 apparently narrated by Yoda coming to PC, console, and Game Pass

What was the first ever game to receive the E10+ rating?

ANSWER: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat!

The E10+ rating (similar to the American PG-13 film rating) was introduced to categorize games that were just a tiny bit too violent or suggestive to classify for an E rating but not spilling quite enough claret to warrant a T rating. The first game to receive the rating starred everyone's favorite simian, Donkey Kong, and a pair of bongos.

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, which used the bongo drums from Donkey Konga, was a platform game where players commanded the great ape to walk, jump and punch with the beat of their drums. What was so questionable about this jolly-sounding game? Well, it featured some pretty brutal monkey-on-monkey violence.

It looks like Elden Ring is going to be a little bit shorter than Dark Souls then, as the main story took about 40 hours to complete, but we're expecting to spend well over that playing it. Just under a month to wait now, with the game finally going gold.

The new Star Wars strategy game has us thinking of Empire of War and Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds, but it's possible it will have an XCOM flair to it. Bit Reactor, the development team working on the project, consists of ex Firaxis employees who worked on the XCOM franchise.

Either way, it's probably going to be a little while before we see it in action, so plenty of time to fire up Empire of War for some nostalgic moments!

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