Xbox Game Pass Gets EA Play, Switch 4K Hints

Microsoft opens next-gen pre-orders and bundles EA Play with Game Pass

Xbox Series X pre-orders open on September 22nd, ahead of the November 10th launch. The Xbox Series X will be $499, while the Series S will be $299. Microsoft is also expanding the Xbox Game Pass with EA Play titles.

You can also sign up for Microsoft’s Xbox All Access program, which lets you have an Xbox Series X for $34.99 or an Xbox Series S for $24.99 per month for two years, which includes Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. You can then upgrade your existing Xbox All Access package for Xbox One

Play with EA: Microsoft is partnering with Electronic Arts to bundle EA Play with Xbox Game Pass, so Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC subscribers will also receive EA Play membership “at no additional cost starting this holiday.” Simply put, subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC to get access to the whole EA catalogue, at no additional cost.

Play hard: You can try Xbox Game Pass for a month for $1, giving you access to a big library of games playable on Xbox, PC and Android devices. Looks like Microsoft is serious about becoming the Netflix of games!

Which company published Demon’s Souls in North America?

1. Sony
2. Sega
3. Atlus
4. Namco Bandai

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.

Star Fox became Starwing in Europe because of German pronunciation

Star Fox for Super Nintendo was called StarWing in PAL territories like Europe thanks to a German company called StarVox. Germans tend to pronounce ‘V’ as ‘F’, and Nintendo didn’t want to risk running into any conflict over the name.

How come later games in the series were called Star Fox? Well, Nintendo probably figured it had a strong trademark by then, or perhaps StarVox simply went out of business. In any case, the problem is resolved and in hindsight looks a little bit like an oferreaction.

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

Torterra visits Pokémon Café Mix

This looks like a quiet week in the world of Pokémon, but at least there’s a new visitor combing to Pokémon Café Mix, while the Pokémon Masters EX Family Ties event starts tomorrow.

Pokémon Journey returns on September 20th, following Ash and Goh studying Pokémon fossils in Pewter City. The new series started in November last year, and is the 23rd season of the Pokémon anime.

Pokémon Café Mix

• Torterra visits and can be recruited until September 23rd

Pokémon Masters EX

• Family Ties begins September 10th
  • Lillie, Gladion & Lusamine Sync Pairs introduced
• New Kanto Challenge in the Champion Stadium
  • Resets once per week, changing which Pokémon you face

Pokémon Go

• Final week of Go Battle League Season 3
  • Great League, Ultra League and Master League formats in play
  • Master League Premier Cup format also in play
  • Current formats run until September 14th

Nintendo Switch production up again

Nintendo’s production partners have been asked to produce 5 million extra Switch units by the end of the fiscal year.

Nintendo raised its order to 25 million units in August, but the console’s continuing tremendous success has led to stock shortages. Hardware manufacturers are struggling to increase their output, as existing production lines are said to be operating at 120 percent capacity already.

Lockdown sales: China’s lockdown response to the COVID-19 outbreak disrupted supply chains, but production capacity has returned to normal levels. However, the surge in demand for Switch hardware caught Nintendo by surprise. The games industry has seen sharp increase in demand since the pandemic began.

Fresh hardware: Switch Lite launched late last year and helped unlock new markets for Nintendo, who was pleasantly surprised to find that Switch Lite did not cannbibalize sales of the flagship Switch console. Rumours say Nintendo is asking developers to make 4K titles, suggesting that another new model could be on the horizon.

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Necromunda: Underhive Wars

Developer: Rogue Factor

Version played: PC

Necromunda: Underhive Wars puts you in charge of a gang fighting for power, territory and loot in the violent and dangerous no-man’s land beneath a Spire. If you’re new to the world of Necromunda, you should play the campaign to familiarize yourself with the rules and setting before you sample the real meat of the game.

Once you’ve braved the campaign’s terrible voice-acting and learned the ropes, you are free to create your own gang and begin scavenging in the Underhive. Your operations span several missions, and last until you have scoured all the loot in a sector. You can also pit your gang against others in the multiplayer mode.

The gameplay is an unusual take on turn-based combat, putting you in control of one character at a time in a third-person view. Each round, you and your opponent pick a character to move, and the one with the highest initiative goes first. Then you move freely within the character’s movement range before choosing an action to perform before the end of your turn, typically attacking or using an ability.

Aiming weapons and using abilities also involves manually aiming, but the outcomes are still determined by die-rolls in the background. It’s a bit of a shame, since the idea of mixing turn-based strategy with real-time tactics is good, but in the end it’s a pretty standard turn-based combat system with a slightly unusual presentation.

There’s a lot to like about Necromunda: Underhive Wars, but it’s hard to recommend it unless you’re a Warhammer 40k or Necromunda fan. The pacing is slow, and fights lose their intensity by taking too many rounds to complete – but if all you want is to lead your gang of misfits into the ruthless struggle to survive in the Underhive, then this is the game for you.

6/10

Thumbs Up

• Nails the 40k aesthetic
• Deep tactical options

Thumbs Down

• Many mechanics feel poorly balanced
• Extremely slow pacing

Necromunda: Underhive Wars Codes

You have a chance to nab a Steam code for Necromunda: Underhive Wars 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.

Necromunda: Underhive Wars is available today on Steam for $29.99 or £27.99, and we’ve got some codes to hand out this week, with the giveaway ending this Friday.

Deep below the nightmarish, polluted hive cities of Necromunda, in the twisted, vertiginous, dark tunnels of the Underhive, rival gangs fight to the bitter end for personal power, wealth, survival and the honour of their Houses. Only the strongest survive.

• Apple launches counter suit against Epic Games over “willful, brazen, and unlawful” behaviour, accusing Epic Games of “commission theft”
• PlayStation 5 box art leaks ahead of classification though some are marked “not final”, including Demon’s Souls and Destruction AllStars
• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be out on November 10th, alongside the Xbox Series X, and can be upgraded for Xbox Series X at “no additional cost”
• Other games launching on November 10th:
  • Gears Tactics
  • Tetris Effect: Connected
  • Watch Dogs: Legion
  • Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Which company published Demon’s Souls in North America?

Answer: Atlus!

Demon’s Souls was the bridge between King’s Field and the Dark Souls series, a surprise sleeper hit on PlayStation 3 and had many different publishers. Atlus published the game in North America, Bandai Namco handled Europe while Sony did the honors in Japan and South-East Asia.

Demon’s Souls didn’t take off in Japan, straining the relationship between Sony and FromSoftware. Since Sony owned the rights to Demon’s Souls, FromSoftware created Dark Souls to suggest some continuity between the two games without stepping on Sony’s toes. Fortunately, the Souls games eventually became a global phenomenon and Sony came knocking on the door once again, resulting in the PlayStation 4 exclusive Bloodborne.

Today’s issue of DailyBits was written by Gavin Herman, Erlend Grefsrud, Matthew Ralphson, and Jamie Davey.