Sony reportedly ditches developer for its Twisted Metal reboot

Twisted Metal reboot offered to new developer

Rumour has it that Sony's Twisted Metal reboot is no longer in development at Lucid Games and that it's now a first-party project at one of Sony's internal studios.

• The first Twisted Metal game launched in 1995
• The last game in the series was another reboot from 2012
• The TV adaptation stars Anthony Mackie
• Co-creator David Jaffe is not involved in the adaptation

Car combat: Neither Lucid Games nor Sony are talking about why the project changed hands, but the lacklustre performance of Destruction AllStars may have played a role. Another European studio is taking over the game.

CES teaser: Sony showed Twisted Metal artwork during its presentation at CES 2022, confirming that work on the TV show is underway following its announcement in 2019.

Which Nintendo character appeared in the Gamecube version of Soul Calibur 2? 

a) Samus
b) Ganon
c) Link
d) Mario

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.

Elden Ring character creator leaked

Videos of the Elden Ring character creator have leaked online, and it seems to be a major upgrade from the ones in Dark Souls and Demon's Souls.

The new system offers a much broader range of customization options, and fans are already joking that the characters almost look human this time.

Network leak: The leaked footage comes from the recently conducted network test, which limited players to just five pre-designed characters and the footage shows that a lot of the functionality is disabled.

Not final: In other words, some of the options may not actually make it to release so don't get too attached to what you see in the video. On the positive side, modders will probably restore any cut functionality to the PC version.

Take-Two buys Zynga for $12.7 billion

Take-Two Interactive has bought Zynga, which makes this the biggest video game related acquisition yet, priced at $12.7 billion valuing each Zynga share at $9.86.

Zynga stockholders will receive $3.50 in cash and $6.36 worth of Take-Two common stock as part of the deal, which will make Take-Two one of the “largest and most diversified” mobile game publishers.

Going mobile: “This strategic combination brings together our best-in-class console and PC franchises, with a market-leading, diversified mobile publishing platform that has a rich history of innovation and creativity,” said Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick.

Billionaires: The second largest game-related acquisition of all time was Tencent's $10.2 billion Supercell acquisition, while the third-largest is Microsoft's $7.5 billion ZeniMax Media deal for Bethesda.

Rescue Party: Live PC keys need a home

We have some Rescue Party: Live! keys for Steam burning a hole in our virtual pocket, so you could be the lucky owner of a charming local co-op party game by Tag Studio and 505 Games!

Save the day by entering our Rescue Party: Live Giveaway and prepare to fumble and stumble your way through danger alone or with up to three chums when the game launches on January 13th.

CI Games, Indie Hits and Anime sales

There's some serious sale action going on at Humble Bundle, starting with the CI Games Publisher Sale offering up to 80% off its catalogue, which includes the Sniper series.

Then there’s the Indie Hits Sale with up to a 90% discount on indie games, while the Degica Sale lops 90% off the asking price on a bunch of anime-based games.

• Quantic Dream is working on a medieval fantasy game based on its Dark Sorcerer tech demo
• Techland claims that Dying Light 2 will take 500 hours to complete if you want to do absolutely everything on offer
• Xbox version of Age of Empires 4 seems to be under testing since a product bearing the game's working title Cardinal appeared in the Xbox Insider Hub
• An 1800 hour Switch OLED burn-in test left no noticeable damage proving that Nintendo's latest hardware revision is a solid piece of kit
• Capcom is celebrating Street Fighter's 35th anniversary and commemorating “epic fights, fireballs, and iconic rivalries”

Which Nintendo character appeared in the Gamecube version of Soul Calibur 2? 

ANSWER: Link!

Soul Calibur is famous for its roster of guest fighters, a tradition that started with Soul Calibur 2. Each platform featured its own exclusive character, with Heihachi from Tekken appearing in the PlayStation 2 version and comic book hero Spawn gracing the Xbox version with his presence. And the GameCube version? None other than the legendary hero of Hyrule: Link.

Armed with a sword, shield, and variety of power inspired by his past adventures, Link quickly became one of Soul Calibur's most popular fighters. While Soul Calibur 2 has been rereleased for more recent Sony and Microsoft platforms, the GameCube version is still only available for GameCube, so if you to give it a go you'll have to find yourself a second-hand copy … or just fire up Dolphin.

We'd be very interested in hearing what games our readers have spent 500 hours playing, we'll list the top picks in tomorrow's issue.

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!