Background

Unless you've been living under a rock (or don't pay much attention to video games), you've probably heard of the Animal Crossing series -- especially its most recent title, Animal Crossing: New Horizons. For the most part, it's a casual and carefree simulation game, in which players see their characters shipped off to a deserted island populated by anthropomorphic villagers. New Horizons was released in March of last year to near-instant success, and was praised for the level of customization it offered players, giving them free rein of the layout of their islands, and (most relevantly) of gender-unrestricted hairstyles, skin tones and clothing options for their avatars.
Despite its relaxing gameplay, the game has already been at the center of attention on this subreddit numerous times, from the creation of a virtual furry slave trade, to an infamous spat with PETA.
One of the sources of conflict in the Animal Crossing community comes from the fact that the game hit a peak in popularity in the spring/summer of 2020; outside of the virtual universe, not only was the world dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak, but racial tensions were hitting an all-time high in the United States, stemming from the unjust killings of several Black citizens by police officers. A byproduct of this has been a rise in high-profile racial justice and awareness movements, and a re-evaluation of what is and isn't culturally sensitive in modern media. Though many online activists are well-intentioned, a vocal minority has bled these sentiments over into games like Animal Crossing -- despite the fact that the series has no political themes or messaging, and tries to stay away from politics altogether. This often results in bizarre drama, like claims that the game's "cottagecore aesthetics" are a byproduct of "white colonialism".

The "Space Buns"

On November 20, 2020, Twitter user Fifi (@stardewleaf, now deleted) posted a picture of her Animal Crossing avatar to her profile. The picture shows her character innocuously sitting in her house, with emphasis placed on her new hairstyle, described by Fifi as "cute space buns". "Space buns" are, in fact, the unofficial name of the hairstyle Fifi was referring to, which her character was now wearing.
The post quickly grew in popularity, gaining tens of thousands of likes over the course of a few days. However, not all of Fifi's fellow Animal Crossing fans were happy with the picture; in particular, they criticized the character's hairstyle. Why? Because, as these users claimed, Fifi's character did not have "space buns": the hairstyle was actually modeled after "afro puffs", which is typically sported by Black women. And Fifi (and her character) are Caucasian.
Many people did not like the idea of a white character being given a hairstyle that they believed was made for people of color. And they were quick to show it -- as the post grew in popularity, Fifi was blasted in the comments section, accused of racism and cultural appropriation. As summarized by one commenter, "stop using Black hair if you're white". Not willing to stop there, a few users also attacked Fifi for using a non-standard font in her username and bio, claiming the unusual font is ableist towards dyslexic people.
Despite the heavy criticism, Fifi was adamant that she had done nothing wrong, arguing with people who criticized her character's hairstyle and later Tweeting "thank you everyone who doesn't hate my space buns". Other fans quickly backed her up, with a variety of people disagreeing with the critics; some were white users who thought the hairstyle was perfectly reasonable, while other Black users saw no problem with Fifi putting it on her character. While the comments section of her Tweet turned into a mess of arguments, with many replies earning dozens or hundreds of sub-comments, users both inside and outside the Animal Crossing community seemed bewildered by the situation.
In the following days, Fifi received messages of both support and hatred from other Animal Crossing players. Some sent her fanart and complimented her character and home decor, while others hoped for doxxing, encouraged others to mass-report her account, threatened to kill her dog, and told her to kill herself via private messages.

The Aftermath

The "Space Buns" drama continued to spread across Twitter for the next week, with mixed responses. While some supported those who had criticized Fifi for using the "space buns"/"afro puffs" hairstyle, many users seemed to think the whole situation was ridiculous, arguing that a hairstyle could not be reserved for a single race of people. Even controversial (far-right) influencer Ian Miles Cheong chimed in, complimenting Fifi's character.
The drama eventually reached the ears of Polygon, a large gaming news and journalism website, which wrote an article on the situation. The article leaned heavily towards Fifi's critics, and dismissed many of her defenders as "folks who bristle at the mere idea of racial inclusivity", provoking plenty of angry responses.
Fifi, meanwhile, didn't fare well from the attention. Though she gained hundreds of new followers and tried to brush off the criticism, retweeting fanart of her character and taking more in-game photos, she was ultimately doxxed by other angry players -- meaning her real-life identity and private information were exposed online -- and she subsequently set her account to private. Led by a former friend of Fifi, Dylan, players continued to encourage others to report her account, to the point where it was suspended by Twitter. (Dylan's account (@DYLANISCROSSING) was later suspended as well, reportedly after he joined in the doxxing efforts.)

In conclusion

Fifi's account was reinstated after the suspension, but has since been deleted, making most of the drama only available through screenshots and archives. Though the theatrics had ended by December, the "Space Buns" drama lives on through the occasional shitpost. The Animal Crossing community has long since moved on, celebrating in-game Christmas and New Year events; whether its fandom's hairstyle usage has shifted to be more "culturally appropriate", however, remains to be seen.

EDIT 1/28/20: Fifi has reactivated her account, this time with a message from Nintendo Customer Support stating:

In-game content such as clothes, hairstyles, etc., are meant for every human being, no matter what race, age, etc.

Thanks to u/Getlucky12341 for posting about this.
Since Fifi's posts are back up, I've added a few screenshots of posts that had previously been deleted.

Announcement Odyssey Update 2021 - Alpha in Early-Spring, PC release in Late-Spring, Console release in Autumn

From forum post, website, and Steam

Greetings Commanders,
We wanted to share an update with you regarding the ongoing development of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey.
2020 was a difficult year for many, but in spite of those challenges we are pleased with our progress towards what is a truly ambitious new era for the game. We’ve been delighted with the excitement and positive response to our development diaries, interviews, streams and trailers and want to thank all of you for your continued support.
The ongoing impact of the pandemic however, including the renewed lockdowns in 2021, continues to put added pressure on our teams and ultimately our development timeline. We have therefore had to make the difficult decision to make some adjustments and changes to our existing development roadmap.
Our PC plans have only been affected by a small amount, however our plans for the console release will unfortunately see a larger development shift. Please do know that these difficult decisions have been made with a focus on making Odyssey as incredible as it can possibly be for all our Commanders regardless of their platform, while also respecting realistic project deadlines for our teams during this difficult global situation.
We would like to sincerely apologise to all of our community. We know you have been waiting patiently and how disappointing and frustrating this must be. With that in mind, we would like to share with you our latest roadmap so that you are fully aware of our plans.

Alpha – early spring 2021

We are continuing with plans to bring Alpha access to our PC players and get boots on the ground. This will now be a little later than originally planned, in early spring.
Much like our original Elite Dangerous release, we will be taking a phased approach to our Alpha, bringing new features and systems online throughout the period. This will allow us to focus and best consider our community feedback while also providing vital user testing on key areas of the game. We will be sharing further information including details of feature drops and Alpha plans as we get closer to release.
Elite Dangerous: Odyssey Deluxe Alpha and Lifetime Expansion Pass holders will get access to this release.

PC release – late spring 2021

Following the completion of our Alpha phase we are targeting a full launch on PC in late spring.
As with every era in Elite Dangerous’ history, we will be closely engaging with our community and continuing to react to feedback refining Odyssey through to the console launch.
Elite Dangerous: Odyssey pre orders will be able to access the game with this release.

Console release – autumn 2021

After continued feedback, iterations and balancing, we are targeting our release on PlayStation®4 and Xbox One in the autumn of this year.

We understand that for many, this additional delay will be frustrating. Once again, we would like to apologise wholeheartedly to our community, especially our console Commanders. However, as mentioned previously, we feel it is vital to ensure that the content being released on consoles meets the highest standards and this will require this additional extension to our roadmap.
Throughout this time we will continue to bring more news, videos and content of the development in progress. We would like to thank you all for the ongoing support and we are very excited to bring in this new era to the game with you. Your feedback, support and involvement is a vital part of this process and we are looking forward to a shared Alpha experience, which will be touching down very soon.
o7 Commanders

More about the Elite Dangerous Odyssey timeframes and COVID-19 impact on devteams:

From FDev's January 2021 Trading Update

Extended home working has created additional development challenges.
Elite Dangerous: Odyssey is still planned for release on PC in FY21, with PlayStation and Xbox releases now coming in FY22 to ensure the best experience for players on all platforms.

HOME WORKING

We successfully transitioned to working from home prior to the official lock-down in March 2020, enabling our teams to continue to work as effectively as possible. Our talented and dedicated teams performed amazingly through the challenges of 2020, continuing to develop and launch high quality content to our player communities, including the great technical achievement of expanding our audiences with Planet Coaster being launched on both current and next generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and Jurassic World Evolution having added the Nintendo Switch to its list of platforms. In general we found individual task-based working in most cases to be just as effective from home as from the office, but are continually trying to adapt our processes for group and planning tasks that require collaborative working. There is no question there are still some efficiency challenges, especially for larger projects, when working remotely.

ELITE DANGEROUS: ODYSSEY

Our next major internally developed release is Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, which is a major new paid era for Elite Dangerous, allowing Commanders to explore distant worlds on foot for the first time, taking on new missions and engaging in intense tactical combat, seamlessly merging with Elite Dangerous' iconic cockpit experience. Premiered during The Game Awards on 10 December 2020, reaction to the Elite Dangerous: Odyssey trailer has been positive and encouraging in advance of its release this year.
Elite Dangerous continues to perform well through an engaged and ever growing community of Commanders. During 2020 Elite Dangerous hit its highest ever player numbers shortly after the Fleet Carriers update at Easter, and then again higher still since on multiple occasions, including just before Christmas. There is a great deal of excitement around Elite Dangerous: Odyssey both outside the Company and within. Over its lifetime Elite Dangerous has already generated over £100m in revenues, with over 4 million base game units sold. A successful strategy to seed new players in advance of the launch of Odyssey yielded an additional 8 million base game owners through the launch of Elite Dangerous on the Epic Games Store in November 2020 including a 'Free Week'.
As always we are committed to delivering a high quality experience through the release of Odyssey, to a large and engaged player community with high expectations. Odyssey is coming together well, despite Covid-related challenges with collaborative working on such a large project, which are resulting in some inevitable minor delays.
Having reviewed project timelines to take into account the renewed need to continue with remote working for the near future, as well as our commitment to release only when we are certain that the experience for our players, on all platforms, will be as enjoyable as possible, our launch plans for Odyssey have now been updated.
Elite Dangerous: Odyssey is expected to release on PC, the biggest platform for Elite Dangerous, before the end of the financial year (which ends on 31 May 2021), albeit slightly later than our initial target for Q1 2021 (January to March). This will be preceded by an alpha period. Our plan for PlayStation and Xbox is to submit console versions for approval as soon as possible after we have released on PC, rather than putting the console developments of Odyssey under additional time pressure by planning for a simultaneous PC/console launch. PlayStation and Xbox console releases will therefore now come in FY22.

David Braben, Chief Executive, said

"2020 was a hard year for a great many people because of the challenges of Covid-19. Despite this, and doubtless helped by lockdown boosting demand for screen-based entertainment around the world, we had a successful year through the hard work and adaptability of our talented teams. Our four great franchises have really long play times and engaging social aspects to them, which make them well-suited to lockdown.
We know that our Elite Dangerous community are looking forward to the arrival of Odyssey this year, and we're focussed on delivering the high quality experience that they expect and deserve. 2021 is set to be another great year for Frontier."

HITMAN 3 PRE-LAUNCH GUIDE (PROGRESSION CARRYOVER)

https://www.ioi.dk/hitman-3-pre-launch-guide/
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Welcome to the HITMAN 3 Pre-launch guide. This blog post will be our place to share in-depth details about HITMAN 3, including how to carryover your progression, our new Access Pass system, what to expect on launch day and more.
We are excited to see all of our players embark on Agent 47’s next journey and experience the dramatic conclusion to the World of Assassination trilogy.
Before you start reading, this is how the game begins.

Release Details

HITMAN 3 will be available on 20 January 2021 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Stadia, Nintendo Switch and PC.
We’re happy to confirm that the Nintendo Switch version of HITMAN 3 will also launch on 20 January. The Switch version of HITMAN 3 is playable via cloud streaming technology. A stable and permanent internet connection is required to play.
Release Time HITMAN 3 will release simultaneously on all platforms at 13:00 UTC on 20 January 2021. To see the exact release time in your timezone, follow this link. This release time will ensure that the IOI teams in Copenhagen and Malmö are best-placed to ensure a smooth launch. At that time, digital copies will be available to play and the games servers will be online.
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Pre-load It will be possible to pre-load HITMAN 3 on PlayStation and Xbox platforms. Make sure that you’ve configured your console to do that and the downloads will begin when they have been prepared and certified. On PC, there won’t be a pre-load option for HITMAN 3 and downloads will begin at the above release time.
(For PS4 and PS5 owners in Asia, please note that HITMAN 3 will not be available for pre-order or pre-load. This is due to recent changes in the age ratings systems in those regions. HITMAN 3 will be available for purchase at the above time.)
Day One Patch HITMAN 3 will require a day one patch for all disc users. The day one patch will be automatically applied to digital players. This patch will include access to the VR mode for PlayStation users and will include the remaining locations that are not included on the disc.
Game Size HITMAN 3 will take up approximately 60-70 GB of storage space on all platforms, with the obvious exceptions of Stadia and Switch. The data that you download will also include all the content required to access HITMAN 1 and HITMAN 2 – but you are still required to own/purchase access to those games. To underline that; purchasing HITMAN 3 does not grant access to the previous two games by default.
Using this method allows us to reduce the file size for all players to 60-70 GB and has the benefit of making the process of redeeming or purchase access to HITMAN 1 and HITMAN 2 as simple as possible. (We talk about that more later). Also, we want to clarify that reducing the file size doesn’t mean that we’ve made any compromises on the visual/audio quality of the game. If you’re curious about the technical aspects that made this possible, we recently talked to PC Gamer about it.

HITMAN 3 - Editions

There are two editions of HITMAN 3; The Standard Edition and the Deluxe Edition.
– The Standard Edition includes the HITMAN 3 base game. Nice and simple. – The Deluxe Edition includes the HITMAN 3 base game and the Deluxe Pack. Again, nice and simple.
The only difference between the two editions is the Deluxe Pack, which includes 6 Deluxe Escalations, in-game suits, items and weapons, a digital soundtrack for each game in the World of Assassination trilogy, an introduction to each HITMAN 3 campaign mission by the Game Director and a digital artbook that highlights the characters, targets and missions included in the trilogy. A free IOI Account is required to download the digital soundtracks and World of HITMAN Art Book.
Here’s a visual look at everything that’s packed into the HITMAN 3 Deluxe Edition:
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Next-gen Upgrade Console players who pre-order or purchase a physical or digital copy of HITMAN 3 (either Standard or Deluxe) on the current generation of consoles (PS4/Xbox One), will receive a free upgrade to the next-gen version of the game for no additional cost. Note that you won’t be able to receive the next-gen upgrade if you purchase HITMAN 3 on disc and you own a disc-free next gen console.
When making a digital purchase, you will automatically be entitled to download the next-gen version when you access the game on that console.
When making a physical disc purchase, you’ll need to insert the current gen disc into your next gen console and you’ll be able to download the next-gen version for no additional cost. Simply keep the disc in your machine whenever you want to play and you’ll be good to go.
Pre-order Bonus The HITMAN 3 pre-order bonus celebrates all three games in the World of Assassination trilogy. Introducing the Trinity Pack. You’ll get it just by pre-ordering the game, no matter what platform or edition.
The Trinity Pack includes a total of 9 items, with 3 distinct sets that represent a different game from the trilogy. Each set includes a suit, briefcase and weapon. From the White of HITMAN 1, the Red of HITMAN 2 or the Black of HITMAN 3, you’ll have all 9 items in your inventory to mix and match as you like. The classic Hitman insignia is etched onto the items in gold to add an elegant flourish.
Note: The Trinity Pack will not be included with either the Standard Edition or Deluxe Edition after January 20.
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At selected retailers, pre-ordering a physical edition of HITMAN 3 will also include an exclusive physical passport. This unique item is filled with details and references from Agent 47’s career and commemorates 20 years of Hitman. See the list of retailers in our previous pre-order blog post.

Progression Carryover

All current HITMAN 2 players will be able to carryover their hard-earned progression into HITMAN 3.
After completing the carryover process, HITMAN 2 players will be able to start HITMAN 3 with their existing player profile, XP rank, location mastery levels, location mastery unlocks, challenge progress, challenge unlocks and Elusive Target suits/unlocks. All of those things are what we call ‘progression’. It’s not possible to pick and choose elements to carryover. It’s all or nothing.
The carryover process requires an IOI Account and can only be done through a web browser, it’s not possible to do it in-game. We will have the website ready to go before launch, but it is not live yet. Once it is ready, we will share the news via ioi.dk and update this post.
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Here’s more about how it will work:
– Progression can only be carried over from HITMAN 2, including progression you have from the Legacy Pack (HITMAN 1 locations within HITMAN 2).
– Progression can only be carried over from within the same platform. There are only three options:
HITMAN 2 (PlayStation) → HITMAN 3 (PlayStation) HITMAN 2 (Xbox) → HITMAN 3 (Xbox) HITMAN 2 (PC/Steam) → HITMAN 3 (PC/Epic)
Note: “PlayStation” = PS4, PS4 Pro and PS5. “Xbox” = Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X.
Essentially, it doesn’t matter what specific console you have earned progression on. It only matters that progression can only move forward and within the same console ‘family’.
– Progression carryover is a one-time process, meaning once you have performed a carryover for a particular platform, you will not be able to do so again at a later time.
– If you have played HITMAN 2 on multiple platforms, you CAN perform a carryover for EACH of those profiles, but only within the same platform, as listed above. For example, if you play H2 on Xbox and PlayStation, you can carryover your H2 Xbox progression into H3 Xbox and independently carryover your H2 PlayStation progress into H3 PlayStation.
– When you complete the carryover process, your existing HITMAN 2 progress will remain as it is (i.e it will not be removed/deleted). However, your progression in H2 and H3 will NOT be synchronised.
– If you have already started playing HITMAN 3 and THEN choose to perform the progression carryover process, you will lose all progression earned within HITMAN 3 up to that point. We recommend you carryover progress before starting HITMAN 3.
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What exactly will be carried over?
When you start the process, you will need to select an account that you have linked to your IOI Account. You will then be able to review the HITMAN 2 progress earned on that account and confirm that you want to perform the carryover process into HITMAN 3.
The following progression will be included in the carryover process: player profile, XP rank, location mastery levels, location mastery unlocks, challenge progress, challenge unlocks and Elusive Target suits/unlocks. Savegame files are not carried over.
Note that there are a small amount of items/unlocks that are not carried over through this process, such as the rewards unlocked through the HITMAN 1 GOTY Escalations, becuase they are linked to a purchase. Those items will be available in HITMAN 3 when you redeem access to the associated content. In addition, the ICA Electrocution Phone has been retired and will not be available in HITMAN 3.
HITMAN 3 on Stadia On Stadia, all progression that players have earned in Hitman: World of Assassination (from both H1 and H2) will automatically ‘carryover’ to HITMAN 3. For additional clarity, Stadia and PC are two different platforms and progress cannot be shared or carried over between them.
HITMAN 3 on Nintendo Switch Progression carryover is not possible on Nintendo Switch because HITMAN 2 is not available on that platform as a standalone game.

Access Pass FAQ

HITMAN 3 allows players to access locations from the previous games in the trilogy (H1 and H2) and play them all under one roof. Essentially, we have setup H1 and H2 as DLC for HITMAN 3. You can buy or redeem/download an Access Pass and get access to its content within H3. For example, if you buy the HITMAN 2 Standard Access Pass DLC for HITMAN 3, you’ll get access to the locations and missions included in the HITMAN 2 Standard Edition within HITMAN 3.
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In addition to the option of purchasing an Access Pass, it is also possible to redeem/download an Access Pass for no additional cost, if you have already purchased that content from the same store that you have pre-ordered or purchased HITMAN 3.
To make this happen, we detect what you already have installed for HITMAN 2 and can make the corresponding Access Pass available for no additional cost on the same store. Note: If you only own HITMAN 1, you will need to import that content into HITMAN 2 first, via the instructions in our Legacy Pack FAQ.
This process will work between console generations. For example, if you own HITMAN 2 on PS4, you’ll be able to download the HITMAN 2 Access Pass DLC in HITMAN 3 for both PS4 and PS5. The same applies for the Xbox family of consoles as well.
We know that’s a lot of information, but once you’ve seen all of the Access Pass options, and there are five in total, it will make more sense.
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HITMAN 1 GOTY Access Pass Includes: Locations and missions currently available in the HITMAN 1 GOTY Edition: ICA Facility, Paris, Sapienza, Marrakesh, Bangkok, Colorado, Hokkaido, 3x GOTY Escalations and rewards and 4x Patient Zero campaign missions
How to get it – Consoles: If you have previously downloaded the HITMAN 1 Legacy Pack, HITMAN 1 GOTY Legacy Pack or HITMAN 1 GOTY Upgrade for HITMAN 2, you will be able to download it for no additional cost. (Yes, that’s a free upgrade to the GOTY Edition if you only own the Standard Edition of H1!). The price for this Access Pass will be listed as ‘free’ when you look for it in the store. – Disc: If you own a version of H1 on disc, you must follow the process in the Legacy Pack FAQ to access that content in HITMAN 2 – and then redeem this Access Pass.
– PC (Epic): If you pre-purchase or purchase HITMAN 3 on EGS within the first 10 days of launch, you will be granted the HITMAN 1 GOTY Access Pass for no additional charge. In addition, if you own or redeemed a free copy of HITMAN – The Complete First Season on EGS when it was available for free, you will be able to download this Access Pass at any time after purchasing HITMAN 3.
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HITMAN 2 Standard Access Pass Includes: Locations and missions currently available in the HITMAN 2 Standard Edition: Hawke’s Bay, Miami, Santa Fortuna, Mumbai, Whittleton Creek, Isle of Sgail, plus 1x Sniper Assassin map: Himmelstein
How to get it – Consoles: If you own a digital copy of HITMAN 2 Standard Edition or HITMAN 2 SilveGold, you will be able to download this Access Pass for no additional cost. The price for this Access Pass will be listed as ‘free’ when you look for it in the store.
– Disc: [See below]
– PC (Epic): As HITMAN 2 is not available on EGS, we have set up an 80% discount for this Access Pass for the first 14 days after HITMAN 3’s launch.
HITMAN 2 Standard Access Pass [DISC] Includes: Locations and missions currently available in the HITMAN 2 Standard Edition: Hawke’s Bay, Miami, Santa Fortuna, Mumbai, Whittleton Creek, Isle of Sgail, plus 1x Sniper Assassin map: Himmelstein
How to get it – Consoles: If you own a physical disc copy of HITMAN 2 Standard Edition, you will be able to download this Access Pass for no additional cost through the HITMAN 2 in-game store. (You will see the full listing price if you look for the Access Pass in the PS/Xbox store as a disc owner.) On Xbox, you also need to own a digital copy of either HITMAN 3 or the HITMAN 2 Free Starter Pack before navigating to the in-game store.
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HITMAN 2 Gold Access Pass Includes: Locations and missions currently available in the HITMAN 2 Gold Edition: Hawke’s Bay, Miami, Santa Fortuna, Mumbai, Whittleton Creek, Isle of Sgail, New York, Haven Island, plus 3x Sniper Assassin maps: Himmelstein, Hantu Port, Siberia and 4x Special Assignments.
How to get it – Consoles: If you own a digital copy of HITMAN 2 Gold Edition, you will be able to download this Access Pass for no additional cost. The price for this Access Pass will be listed as ‘free’ when you look for it in the store. – Disc: If you bought HITMAN 2 Gold Edition on Disc, it will have included a download code for the HITMAN 2 Expansion Pass; you need to use that to get access to the content from the Gold Edition. See below. – PC (Epic): As HITMAN 2 is not available on EGS, we have set up an 80% discount for this Access Pass for the first 14 days after HITMAN 3’s launch. It will also grant access to the HITMAN 2 Expansion Access Pass.
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HITMAN 2 Expansion Access Pass Includes: Locations and missions currently available in the HITMAN 2 Expansion Pass: New York, Haven Island, plus 3x Sniper Assassin maps: Himmelstein, Hantu Port, Siberia and 4x Special Assignments.
How to get it – Consoles: If you own a digital copy of HITMAN 2 Gold Edition, you will be able to download this Access Pass for no additional cost. The price for the Access Pass will be listed as ‘free’ when you look for it in the store. – Disc: If you own a physical copy of HITMAN 2 Gold Edition, you will be able to download this Access Pass for no additional cost because a download code for the HITMAN 2 Expansion Pass was included in the box. If you have redeemed that code, the price for this Access Pass will be listed as ‘free’ when you look for it in the store.
HITMAN 3 Access Pass on PC We’ve done everything possible to make this process smooth and player-friendly. However, due to various circumstances out of our control, we want to acknowledge that the process is different to our initial plans for PC players. We also want to share some of the initiatives we’ve set-up to make sure that PC players the chance to keep enjoying the benefits of the World of Assassination.

The HITMAN 1 GOTY Access Pass will be available to claim in the first 10 days after launch for anyone who purchases (or has pre-ordered) any edition of HITMAN 3 on Epic Games Store.
Owners of HITMAN 1 on EGS (including all players who claimed it when it was available for free in August) will get a free upgrade to the HITMAN 1 GOTY Access Pass at any time after purchasing HITMAN 3.
The HITMAN 2 Standard Access Pass and HITMAN 2 Gold Access Pass will be 80% off for 14 days after the launch of HITMAN 3 on Epic Games Store and will continue to be discounted regularly.

Our hope is that these initiatives help to ensure all HITMAN 3 PC players can able to enjoy the new game with full access to HITMAN 1 and their progression carried over as a minimum.
HITMAN 3 Access Pass on Stadia Due to the convenient set-up of HITMAN 1-3 on Stadia, the Access Pass system is not required. Players will continue to have access to the locations they already own through Hitman: World of Assassination, or can purchase the games that they don’t own through the Stadia Store.
HITMAN 3 Access Pass on Switch HITMAN 3 is the first game in the trilogy to be available on Switch. As such, each relevant Access Pass is available for purchase through the HITMAN 3 in-game store.

HITMAN VR

At launch, HITMAN 3 will support PS VR and all locations in the World of Assassination trilogy can be experienced in a new first-person perspective. Yes, that means you can traverse the outside of the tallest building in the (Hitman) world in PS VR! If you own the previous games from the trilogy on PS4, you can also access locations from them within HITMAN 3. That’s more than 20 Hitman locations from the World of Assassination trilogy to enjoy in PS VR.
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You can either play HITMAN 3 in PS VR natively on your PS4 or via backward compatibility on PS5. To make sure all PS VR owners can experience the game in VR, we’re including a free digital copy of the PS4 version of HITMAN 3 with all PS5 copies, whether you choose to buy it via disc or digital.
If you are playing on PS5, your progress between the PS4 (VR) and PS5 (non-VR) versions is shared between the two versions. You’ll be able to play the non-VR version of HITMAN 3 on PS5 with the next-gen improvements that we support (including Dual Sense support!) and then switch to the PS4 version for VR and all of your items and unlocks will be right there waiting for you. You will need to have both versions of the game installed on your PS5 to make that happen.
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Whether you play on PS4 or PS5, a DUALSHOCK®4 wireless controller is required to play HITMAN 3 in VR. Playing HITMAN 3 in VR on PS5 also requires a PlayStation Camera adaptor. For full details on the requirements for playing PS VR on your PS5, including how to order a free PlayStation Camera adaptor, see the official PlayStation PS VR site.

More to come

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We have got our sights firmly set on January 20 and our entire team is doing everything in our power to make the launch of HITMAN 3 as successful as possible. It’s an incredibly exciting time for us to be so close to releasing our next game, as well as deliver the dramatic conclusion to the World of Assassination trilogy.
Please keep the conversation going on Twitter, Discord, Reddit and in HitmanForum and be excellent to each other.
The World of Assassination awaits…

GME Original Analysis and Thesis for why I bought in at $13.

Evernote link for better formatting https://www.evernote.com/shard/s406/sh/c770a0f8-21e9-75b5-9fa1-8afe83712c8a/b5c179b3717cccf990bd14b187d71dce
Thesis: With the advent of online gaming and e-sport, Gamestop is prime to make a turnaround and grow again assuming it will change direction and adapt post Covid. The support of Ryan Cohen, a e-commerce marketing guru, has brought hope to a once-beloved brand and ignited the flame of this reality. The stock is also enticing because of its 138% short interest which is the highest percentage in the market. Thus, a remote chance of a short squeeze could occur. *Majority of investors do actually believe in the company and is not in it for just the short squeeze opportunity. *

Background: Gamestop was once the most prolific gaming retailer in the brick and mortar time period. They made their profits by rebuying used games/gaming paraphernalia at low prices and marking them up greatly. They relied mainly on foot traffic due to a subpar online presence and they were slow to change. The low price and convenience of online shopping had won over shoppers causing the demise of brick and mortar. Large brands started disappearing left and right and now it was Gamestop's turn with a boost from Covid. Investors wrote GameStop off as a dinosaur company with its shares eventually dropping to $2.5 dollar.

Results: Hedge funds saw this and decided to go short on them, betting on their demise like all the others. The funds abused the mechanism of the market to cause a large selling pressure onto the stock, forcing the stock price down and accelerating the demise. Could this be manipulation? If a hedge fund were to short a company out of spite, they could very possibly bankrupt a company.

How did Gamestop survive for so long? Even though they weren't raking in e-commerce profit, they were still profitable. It was just that that profit stream was shrinking. The profits were also concentrated at a fraction of their stores. As they closed unprofitable stores, they were able to offset cost slightly. Investors were also holding on to the imminent release of the new console super cycle. Investors noted that the golden days were right after the new consoles were released and Dec 2020 couldn't come quicker. Gamestop was patience and managed their financials well with a strong balance sheet. Investors had underpriced the real estate of theirs. They were not valued for growth anymore so they weren't in a situation to raise capital risk free. They have several billions in short-term and long-term debt but they had 600 million cash in hand to cushion with. Lastly, the Nintendo switch had just came out and was the best selling gaming console ever. Gamestop rode the tailend of Nintendo success all through 2020 with Switch sales offsetting losses in the other gaming segments. https://www.evernote.com/shard/s406/res/8832d8fd-2fda-68ce-77ac-5ab3f362f936

The turnaround: A new management team had join in August 2019 that set to slim down the company. They were much more aggressive and sought to aggressively close stores. A comprehensive turnaround plan called GameStop ReBoot was announced with 4 elements:

Optimized the Core Business Reducing unprofitable stores and focusing on what works
Become the Social / Cultural Hub for Gaming Turning Gamestop into a experience center and not just a store
Build a Frictionless Digital Ecosystem Revamp the supply chain to be e-commerce focused
Transform Vendor Partnership Rekindle and make new partnerships

Like all new managements, this one needed time but unfortunately Covid complicated the plans. Investors became increasingly doubtful and even bearish. However, they had underestimated the future of gaming.

The first significant move was bringing Reginald Fils-Aimé onto the board of directors. Reginald was known for his market prowess bring Nintendo to what it is today. Investors loved that.

As Covid happened, working from home and home entertainment exploded. Logitech, Corsair, Bestbuy exploded. Online gaming was projected to be very ludicrous in the next decade and Covid had shorten this timeline. Online gaming took off. Activision, Electronic Arts, Zynga, Tencent all exploded. Apple app revenue from their gaming segment exploded. Investors had repriced these stocks higher taking advantage of the first player advantage. One notable company that changed in valuation was Logitech, they were a value company but relabeled to growth. What was missing from this list was Gamestop. The bullishness in gaming was there and everyone else profited. If there was hope of a GME turnaround, their valuation model would certainly flip to a growth model at higher PE multiples. It was only fair.

The next big event that occurred was in October 2020. Gamestop announced a partnership with Microsoft which was the first real tangible milestone on the turnaround plan. Investors started to give the company a second look. Microsoft Partnership caused shares to rally 30% in a day. A bullish sign that the big players haven't given up. However this was short lived as shorts continue to drive the price down as there was no concrete details on the revenue sharing partnership, only that "for every Microsoft Xbox console that GameStop sells going forward, GameStop will get some percentage of the revenue from every digital full game download, DLC, microtransaction, and any subscriptions as well." To me this sounds very bullish that Microsoft still believes in Gamestop.

Next came news that the well-respected businessmen Ryan Cohen released that he had bought up 13% of Gamestop shares, becoming a minority owner. Ryan Cohen was the founder of Chewy, a Petsmart online branch that outcompeted Amazon. Investors labeled him an e-commerce guru/genius. He had bought shares at $4.81 and slowly gobbled up more as the price increased. Rumors started speculating that Cohen would takeover and transform Gamestop and it was materialized when Cohen sent the management a very aggressive letter.

"GameStop’s leadership should immediately conduct a strategic review of the business and share a credible plan for seizing the tremendous opportunities in the rapidly-growing gaming sector. GameStop needs to evolve into a technology company that delights gamers and delivers exceptional digital experiences – not remain a video game retailer that overprioritizes its brick-and-mortar footprint and stumbles around the online ecosystem."

It was a do this or else there will be a hostile takeover. The letter was sent three weeks before Q3 Earnings and investors were now watching intensively for details of a roadmap or of a Cohen reference during the earning call. ER came around and management was mute beside the announcement of a shelf offering of 100mil. Company performance wise, they were negative on profit but had still beaten expectations. The expedited closure of unprofitable of the stores helped. The stock would have soared had not an offering been announce (offering dilutes shares) so instead GME dropped 17%. From the conference calls, many bull investors felt reluctantly weary of this turnaround while some even dismissed management consideration of Ryan and piled on to the shorts. A week later, a filing by Ryan Cohen showed that he had continued to believe that the stock was undervalued and bought even at $14.83. This news rekindled the speculation that Ryan Cohen was going to do a takeover. Stock bounced and soared to $22.35 dollars for the next few weeks before dropping to $17.35.

Jan 2021 - The first squeeze: Shorts were still convinced that Gamestop would not be turn around and so they held steady with a short interest above 130%. Some short sellers had left while new ones piled on.

Monday, Jan 11th, Gamestop decided to drop bombs to the short: - First with an announcement that there was 309% increase in e-commerce sales from 2019 holiday season, 4.8% increase in comparable store sales, 3.1% decrease in total sales. - The biggest takeaway was that their new e-commerce strategy was working. 309% increase is massive. Also this followed their original plan to concentrate on their core. Rise in sales of profitable store was also shown. The closure unprofitable stores hit their total sales but it was not much and implied that these stores were dead weight. They slimmed their bleeding cost segment and increased their profit. This was super bullish. - Secondly, a board of advisor switch up was announced. Ryan Cohen and two main Chewy guys were hopping on, replacing 3 other people. - Ryan essentially brought Chewy Management to Gamestop. They know have 1/3 of the company's vote. - GME Management knew that a takeover was happening, hostile or not and so they opened the doors. They also expanded Ryan Cohen's ability to buy up to 20% of the total shares - Permit And Hestia Capital also align more with his vision so that would put them at a 5/9 majority Result: Even with the news, the stock price stayed range bound at 20.5 and volume was extremely low for that Monday and Tuesday. Shorts were once again depressing the price. However, Wednesday came and the first of the shorts closed their position while bulls bought calls. The stock soared. This catalyzed into a gamma squeeze to kick off the huge rally.

The analysis stopped dead of the gamma squeeze as these recent events have been a gray area of interpretation. Enjoy.

Links: Board of Director annoucnement, https://news.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-release-details/gamestop-announces-additional-board-refreshment-accelerate Partnership, https://news.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-release-details/gamestop-announces-multi-year-strategic-partnership-microsoft Ryan Cohen aggressive letter, https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/RC_Ventures_Letter_to_GameStop.pdf

GME formula cheatsheet aka Bingo board

Management: Ryan Cohen & Gang (5/9 vote), Reginald Fils-Aime, E-Commerce, Partnerships (Microsoft), Console Supercycle, Offering, Q4 ER, Roadmap, Takeover Letter, Acquisition Target +
Retail: Momo traders, FOMO, YOLO, EOM paychecks, Diamond Hands, >15% Float Owner, OTM Calls, Growth Investing, Venture Capitalist mindset, leverage, fair price, DFV, $90 millie wsb whale +
Shorts (Hedge Funds): bleeding, 138% SI, Melvin, Shitron, >20% daily interest rate, margin call, value valuation model, boomers +
MM: delta hedging, gamma squeeze, 8-9 digit loss, bagholders, eating float +
Printer: stimulus checks, shares yolo, consumer revenue, indirect inflation +
MSM: Cramer, Bloomberg, WSB vs Shorts, Manipulation, SP $100 $420.69 $1000

= MOASS, Mother of all Short Squeeze
Position: 400 shares GME. https://imgur.com/a/H8uOP0h
EDIT: Formatting

How I shipped my game solo on consoles & how you can do that too (Q & A)

After a good launch for my game, i started to get some random questions from users across all the channels, but there were one user on reddit (u/TamoorGames) who had many questions and he sent them in a very nice and organized way (mostly asking about the Xbox and Nintendo Switch for each question), i did answer him. Although i own the answers, i did ask his permission to put his questions alongside my answers in public, just in case it can help someone. So, Enjoy it, and feel free to AMA.

Q.1: Have you signed up as Individual or as a company? Or enrolled into Xbox Creator Program? Can you please share the overall process in a quick brief.
- Singed by myself for both platforms, i only had to contact the ID@Xbox team, show them my game, they first didn't approve it as it was not polished enough, so i did try once more time after a couple of years, and then it was approved, and everything started from there. No not Creator Program, and tbh i don't even know what is Creator Program, will google it later.
For Nintendo, I did reach out the Nindies guy who was always on the youtube videos and on twitter (he left by now, a new guy came, and that new guy just left a year ago or so). But in general, this is how i showed my game, just reaching out the nindies team leader.
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Q.2: From which country you’d signed up? Is the Xbox Developer program available for developers all around the world? I’ll signup from Pakistan
- I did from China while I'm not Chinese, i would say Microsfot is the most open company, they don't have per region issues, like for example if you are in China and try to sort things with Sony or Nintendo, it won't be that easy...not at all. Because you've then to go through Japan office (due to region), but then you targeting the western market and English only game...it becomes a lot of communications and troubles.
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Q.3: Can we publish any game on Xbox? Or first we need to get concept approval from Xbox and then we can start our development. Or does Xbox have any categories on which we can only develop our games? e.g. shooting, puzzle etc
- While the certain answer for this question is not from me, but I would say any game. Xbox & Switch are platforms, mostly for gaming, despite the fact there are some apps in there (YouTube, Netflix,...etc.) so whatever your game genre or type is, I'm sure if they like it they won't mind it on their platform.
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Q.4: Which Game engine have you used to develop your game? I am using UNITY. Is it good for Xbox or i’ve to consider any other game engine?
- Unreal. Any Engine is good for any platform. Don't let the engine be your biggest issue, we're are in 2020, all Engines are great and most of them are cross platform. if you are not so confident about Unity, you can just remember it made Cuphead, Ori franchise, Max & Magic Marker, and many more Xbox exclusives. And if we start thinking about Unity games made for Switch, we will have endless list! Even more than Unreal based titles, as Unity already prove that it is super optimized engine for Nintendo devices since the WiiU and 3ds.
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Q.5: Can you please share the list of Hardware that you used for Xbox development and testing? E.g. Does Xbox have their own development kit or we can test our game on any Xbox? Which Xbox you used?
- Yes, i used devkits. With that said, i learned that any Xbox One (consumer device) can be turned to a devkit mode. I tested my game on Xbox One S & Xbox one X (the weakest and the Powerful one, so i can grantee the performance).
For Nintendo, i can't explain what hardware i did use, but once you are approved you've access to the documentations where you can read about the different hardware types, and then you can based on your use and game type or development type request the hardware that you need.
But all in all, for any platform, you need their hardware (aka devkit). And at least one device per platform.
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Q.6: What are the main reasons for rejection from Xbox? And what factors do I need to consider while developing my game?
- If you mean rejected as a project to be released on the platform, I guess when my game rejected first time, because it hasn't a "Full playable loop". Start, Play, End, Restart if you want. It was a punch of levels, not connected, no UI & lots of Debug menus. Xbox team (or any other platform) they need a very clean and clear vision so they can decide..
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Q.7: What kind of Legal document and other Document Xbox require? This will help me to save time by preparing in advance.
- Most of the documents as far as i can remember, they send to you. You don't produce documents, you just read and sign (of course if you find it make sense and nothing against your goals or considerations). Xbox was the least demanding, Nintendo was fine, no magical papers were requested. But Sony for example would require your last fiscal year revenue breakdown and documents to proof that!
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Q.8: Do Xbox have their own tools for leaderboard, cloud, ranking & in-app purchases?
- Any Xbox player already know, all that called Xbox Live (which is a set of services), and most of the engines does have high level interface to deal with those services. Don't worry :) and there is always documentations and pages to help you, either at Xbox websites or at the engine (Unity at your case) site.
For Nintendo it is different, i don't have any online features in my game, because online in Nintendo is treated differently, where any user on Xbox have online access and online features, in Nintendo the online features you purchase as a product (per month, per year,...etc.), so it is common to find many games doesn't have leaderboard or clouds save,...etc.
But again, all engines already have the high level interface for those features, regardless you will support them or no.
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Q.9: Can you please share the complexities of the Xbox development as you’d mentioned in your message? Like which development steps i can follow to avoid delays and rejections (Any Tips and Tricks)
- I was already familiar with the platform[s] (remember I'm already a game engine programmer), but what was new and seemed complex to me was the "rules" of the platform. Those are things you must read about at your first days of developing for the platform, due to NDA i can't talk further about that. But what i meant by the rules it is for example how to save, when to save, for example a platform would give you limit/bandwidth for saving calls per second, where other platform won't care and give you unlimited calls. Or what is the status of a player while playing (online/offline), some platforms won't care, where others would care a lot about that. Can a player change account while playing or not, some platforms would require, where others would not even allow.....etc. those are thing that vary between the different platforms, and they were the reason for any rejection i had (the ignorance of the rules). Because even if your game is already complete and finished before the port, the port to a platform is not just hit "Build", you have to "re-adapt" the game for the platform.
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Q.10: What advice would you like to give yourself, if you are starting today as an Xbox Developer?
- Don't rush things. And try to "Understand" the reason behind any thing in the platform. If you just adapt the game for the platform rules, you will have lots of complications, because you could make something to fit a rule, but it break with another rule. If you understand perfectly the platform, and the reason behind everything, you will not suffer during development.
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Q.11: What are the things you wished you knew when you were starting as an Xbox Developer?
- as i said, the platform set of rules. It takes time to know them correctly.
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Q.12: Can you please share any other tips and tricks or would like to add any point/Question if i am missing?
- just focus on the game more than on what platforms you need to target. If your game is good, solid, bug free, the platform stuff won't take much time. Also some info about how to be recognized by platforms could be changed, I've been Nintendo developer for long time, even before the Switch device announced, and I've been Xbox developer since 2014 i guess, when the ID program was announced. So things might be different, might be easier or might be harder now, not quite sure.
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Finally, few more points:

~~I'll tag him as soon as i get his approval, i wanted to put his name, but yet there is no answer from him.~~
All questions were duplicates, one version for Xbox and other version for Nintendo Switch, for the sake of making this shorter, i put the Xbox question version only, but each answer is about both.
I wanted to put all those in Audio/Video format, but dunno, it is not my thing, and I'm not good at it.
The game (if you're interested) is Chickens Madness, which is now on Steam, Xbox& Switch. Solo developed in 7 years.
This is my twitter handle, follow if you're interested in the upcoming adventures :)

[Competitive Pokemon] The Mazarbot: Why Ubers Will Never Return to Tournaments

What are Competitive Pokemon and Smogon?

Unless you live under a rock you probably know what Pokemon is. You catch little monsters and force them to fight each other in turn-based battles of up to six a side. Pokemon range enormously in power, and some of them are competitively worthless while others are nearly impossible to stop. Competitive Pokemon is split into two main communities: singles and doubles. Like in tennis, doubles are 2v2 games whereas singles have only two Pokemon in play at any one time. Nintendo themselves almost entirely support doubles in the competitive scene, as singles is prone to much longer games which wouldn't be conducive to IRL tournaments. Singles play also enables a playstyle known as "stall", in which you combine six purely defensive pokemon that beat the opponent via passive damage and pp stall (running your opponent out of attacks). This is widely hated by new players and makes for a terrible viewing experience, so Nintendo discourages this at all costs. Due to the complete lack of support for official singles play, something called Smogon emerged in the early 2000s.
Smogon exists mainly to provide standardized formats for people to play- lots of people dislike Smogon as they "force you to play a certain way" but without "tiers", or specific rulesets for a game, the game is nearly unplayable from a competitive standpoint. Smogon also has forums, where people host tournaments and generally converse about the game. Rather than play on cartridge, most Smogon users play on Pokemon Showdown, an online battle simulator which vastly speeds up the process of playing the game. Like many niche forums on this subreddit, Smogon has had its fair share of drama, the absolute best of which is probably the Bloo saga, detailed in this post which is definitely worth a read. Basically, a player named Style came out of nowhere and began demolishing all their opponents, only for it to be revealed that Style was actually an alt of the top player, Bloo, who was leveraging their community standing to gain privileged information which let Style easily win all their games. If this sounds absolutely insane to you, it's because it is absolutely insane.

Background Information

Different "tiers", which could alternately be described as game modes or rulesets, allow different Pokemon of varying power levels to be used. The main Smogon singles tier is called OU, short for overused. This is by far the most played tier, and basically consists of all the most powerful mons (community shorthand for Pokemon) except for "cover legendaries" such as Kyogre or Xerneas, which appear on the game's box art and are far too powerful for the vast majority of mons to compete with. When a mon is deemed too powerful for OU, it will be voted on by the community, and players who meet the requirements can vote whether or not to ban it- recent examples include dracovish and pheromosa. If a mon is not used enough in OU, it falls to UU (underused), and then to RU (rarely used), and then to NU (never used).
Where, then, can one use these broken monsters? All the mons banned from OU go to a playable banlist called Ubers, where one can use basically anything except for the most degenerate, luck based strategies (evasion, baton pass, OHKO moves) and Mega Rayquaza, a mon so insanely overpowered it had to be banned even from Ubers in 2014. Ubers had a sizeable playerbase for a long time, but since 2016, has not been in a single official Smogon tournament. Why?
Well, the most popular Smogon tournament is something called Smogon Premier League, which is a team tournament in which ten teams of the absolute best players on the site each compete in a variety of tiers. This is considered the most prestigious team tournament, and hundreds of people tune in live to spectate each SPL match on smogtours.psim.us. In the eighth SPL, one of these tiers was Ubers. I myself did not really pay attention to the tournament scene at this point (early 2017), but I've gone back and looked over the forums posts and game replays to provide as accurate an account as possible.
For whatever reason, the Ubers community had a reputation of being prone to cheating, and so it had been a long time since the tier had this kind of official platform. There are several ways to cheat in Pokemon. By far the most common is called "ghosting", where you play in a call with another player who assists you with your plays or outright tells you what to do. It is nearly impossible to fully enforce the ban on ghosting in tournament games, and it is widely reviled by the community at large and probably a dozen ghosting scandals arise every year. However, this is commonplace, and what transpired in this writeup was truly infamous.

The Rise of Mazar

Starting about midway through SPL VIII, a German player named Mazar switched from playing OU (where he was average at best) to Ubers for his team and subsequently went on an absolute rampage. It is important to note that playing the game is only one aspect of a battle. Equally important is building your team of six Pokemon so that it can handle as many metagame threats as possible and carry out an effective gameplan. A "set" is a combination of moves, an ability, and stat adjustments. Some sets are considered standard for their tier, and others are niche. A lot of games are decided purely based off matchup- one team might have a threat the other cannot fully account for, or a combination of mons that the other team simply cannot kill.
Mazar wasn't just beating his opponents, he was absolutely destroying them. He won every single Ubers game he played, carrying his team to the tournament's finals. He was even chosen to participate in finals tiebreakers- his team placed the utmost faith in him to win, and win he did. His teams were bizarre- they seemed ill-equipped to handle common metagame threats, but he was completely steamrolling opponents with niche sets/teams such as ingrain xerneas, substitute + reversal mega blaziken, and poorly constructed stall teams.
I found these replays in the old forums post- if you don't understand what you are watching, let me just say that his team choices were baffling and yet perfectly smothered his opponent every time. In the third game, notice how he switched his Ho-oh in to wall the opposing Primal Groudon (Pdon). No experienced Ubers player would ever make this play- Pdon usually runs a rock type move, which can easily one-shot a Ho-oh. However, somehow Mazar could tell this Pdon had only ground + fire attacks and thus his Ho-oh could easily stall it out.
To a lesser extent, his teammate The Trap God was having similar wins, such as one in which a double kick terrakion (???) one-shots a smeargle on turn 1. You can see his opponent's reaction and frustration in this video he posted afterwards. A quick technical explanation of why the turn 1 exchange was so suspicious: Smeargle is an extremely niche pick which has atrocious stats but learns every move in the game. With the item focus sash, smeargle can live any one hit, put the opponent to sleep with the move spore, and then set up stealth rocks or sticky webs, which are very powerful field effects that can swing the game in your favor. Terrakion, The Trap God's lead, is not used in Ubers. It is a decent mon in its own right but lacks the power to compete with the behemoths in Ubers, and even if one were to use it, they would not use double kick, which is a pitifully weak move compared to close combat, which Terrakion always runs instead. The literal only possible benefit of double kick is to counter this specific smeargle set and bypass its focus sash, preventing it from setting up sticky webs. I genuinely cannot think of one other situation where double kick Terrakion would ever be an optimal choice in the SM Ubers tier.

Mazar's Downfall

You can probably tell where I'm going with this, and so could a lot of other players at the time. Not only were there rumors that Mazar was being ghosted, but lots of people were beginning to comment on his suspiciously good team matchups. Though nobody could prove it, lots of people were beginning to make accusations. In one of his games in the tournament, Mazar told someone "gg" after winning (perfectly normal and polite), and the opponent responded "fuck off cheater".
Mazar's team would go on to win the tournament in April 2017, and for a while, people forgot about SPL VIII. However, in October 2017, the tournament directors posted a shocking discovery. One of Mazar's accomplices had leaked private messages which showed that not only was he being ghosted, but he had a much more innovative strategy as well. Linked is the original administrative decision. Mazar had been using a bot in order to steal his opponent's teams, so he always knew exactly what was coming. The bot worked as follows: each game hosted on Pokemon Showdown has a unique URL. You can set these games to private, so that nobody can join them, by typing the command /modjoin + in the battle chat. Before you play a tournament game, you want to test the team you're using against your teammates, so you know it is at least somewhat effective. However, at this time, there was at least a second or two where your game would be public. Nobody would actually take the time to refresh every second, checking if you had started a new game, so this was not considered a real issue.
That was, until the Mazarbot, as it is known today. The Mazarbot, made by one of Mazar's friends for him, searched through every single starting game for a specific tier 24 hours a day, until it found the user it was looking for. It would join the battle on an unregistered account (so it wasn't visible that the bot account was spectating) and transcribe the battle so that Mazar knew exactly what his opponent's team was. Imagine a bot which could tell NFL football teams their opponent's entire playbook- winning would be near trivial for any competent coach, and this is no different. Why did Mazar have to switch to Ubers? As previously mentioned, OU is by far the most played tier, and as a result way more OU games started every minute than Ubers games. The Mazarbot couldn't parse all these games, so Mazar switched to Ubers, which his bot could handle.

The Fallout

This offense was deemed so bad that the entire SPL VIII tournament was retroactively cancelled. The Circus Maximus Tigers (Mazar's team) all had their trophies stripped, and the forum currently lists the tournament as "Smogon Premier League VIII [NO WINNER]". While most cheating infractions merit a few months' to a year's ban from tournaments (as opposed to forums activity as a whole), Mazar's was so severe that he was permanently banned from Smogon forums. Zarel, the person who runs Pokemon Showdown, was forced to implement the !ionext command. This allows you to preemptively set your next game to private, preventing something like this from ever happening again. Nobody has heard from Mazar since. The Ubers community's reputation is still at rock bottom, and it is unlikely that it will ever be considered for inclusion in SPL again. SPL X will start in several weeks with no Ubers games in sight. To this day, if you lose a game due to terrible matchup, you might say that you were “botted”.
Smogon has had lots of hilarious drama throughout the years, and this is amongst the craziest. If you enjoyed this, definitely read about the Bloo saga that i linked earlier.
TLDR: A German Pokemon player used a bot to scout his tournament opponents' teams before he played them. This let him win all of his games with ease until he was eventually exposed and permanently banned. He so irreparably damaged the reputation of playerbase of the specific game mode he played it will likely never be included in another tournament.

Nintendo's silence/lack of action regarding malfunctioning hardware is horrendous

My DD on GME and their potential future as a buisiness

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor, and this should not be taken as financial advice. I eat the peels of oranges and throw out the fruit. This is for entertainment purposes only.
Just wanted to run through a few points on GME in hopes of having some quality discussion. I’m going to try and focus on the long term potential of the company, and less about squeeze related potential.
For a moment, lets forget about the GameStop hype train, and get down to the basic facts and fundamentals of the business, in hopes of trying to pick apart it’s future potential in the world of gaming. Video games are a $150 billion industry, with that expected to grow twice the GDP by 2023 Source. This market is largely untapped at the retail level, the reasons for which can be argued into the dirt. Yes, brick and mortar businesses are the next blockbuster, I get that. But even when Blockbuster was dying, there were other competitors fighting for every movie rental customer out there. And do you remember going to Blockbuster every Friday or Saturday night with the family because it was movie night, and how enjoyable it was to wander around to pick out the nights movie? Perhaps GameStop could corner this potential nostalgia for younger generations? Parents are still going to need to go to the mall to pick out school clothes or groceries. Why can’t they dump their kids at GameStop while they go do the shopping the way they left us in the magazine aisle of the grocery store?
Understandably, the gaming industry is shifting towards digital and online purchases. Does that mean children will never ever leave their house again? Look how cooped up Covid has made you feel. I would kill to go to a mall right now. DFV believes that while the shift is happening towards digital gaming rather than physical discs, it is not happening at the speed everyone thinks, and likely won’t see it’s full realization until the next generation of consoles in about 3 years Source DFV. DFV notes that while numbers are hard to pin-point, estimates that between 40-50% of games are still purchased in physical format. Switch Animal crossing had sales split right down that middle at 50/50 digital/physical. This buys GameStop at least a few years of revenue from physical sales while the transition is made towards a more digital consumer basis.
GameStop has already made it clear that they are to reduce store locations considerably due to rising costs their leases, and overseas brands almost entirely liquidated. It is still too early to say if they will reopen storefronts overseas, but I think that will largely be based on the success of their new test stores.
An experimental store was opened in Tulsa Oklahoma, and proved very successful while trying out new strategies like DnD and tabletops style game rooms. Much like the video game market, the tabletop market is widely untapped and has a massive market for purchasing new games, accessories, figurines, paints, dice, you name it. Furthermore, offering a place to play creates atmosphere, with in-store purchases for DnD or WarHammer 40k sessions only an arms-reach away, opening up the opportunity for spur of the moment product sales. Geek culture has come out of the woodwork in the last decade, and it’s here to stay. I think GameStop could potentially offer a place of gathering for all sorts of like-minded tabletop gamers. They also floated ideas like PC building stations, and learning to program a video game. These are massive growing industries and GME could be the stepping stone for those that are too intimidated by them.
We’ve all heard the “Brick n mortar is dead” counter argument from the bears, but while there may not be a place for 5700 GameStop locations world wide, it does have its place in this world. Apple products are all available on their website, or even through BestBuy, but why is the Apple store at the mall always packed when you walk by it? How often do you see people in there who don’t even intend to buy anything? Product image is a powerful force, and should never be discounted. Seeing an artificial line up outside the Pandora jewelry store creates an image that their market (mainly younger to middle-age females) cannot walk by without feeling compelled to see what all the fuss is about. Or when you go out on the town, do you go to the club with the dude trying to solicit you to go inside, or do you go to the bumping one with the loud music sexy girls waiting in line trying to get in. Walking by and seeing a Super Smash bros tournament going on will cater to their consumer basis in the same fashion.
I feel that GameStop has already taken many steps in this direction, and is well underway towards becoming this powerhouse business within the gaming industry. With board members like former Nintendo COO and CEO Reginald Fils-Aime Watch this to see this guys massive potential! He’s already a widely known face and well loved within the gaming community, and could fall into GameStop promotion without breaking a stride.
We all know of Ryan Cohen’s success in cornering a market in pet toys and food that could’ve easily been filled by Amazon. How did he do this? Through outstanding customer service. People were willing to pay more because of the relationships he built with his clients. Things like sending hand-written cards to pet owners goes a long way.
Ryan of course brought with him 3 of his Chewy buddies to the exec team, including Kelli Durken the new VP of customer care. Chewy scored a Net Promoter Score of 86 in 2018. Anything less than 80 is bust for those of you who aren’t familiar with the rating, and is not easy to obtain. I believe this was largely part of Durken’s efforts.
GameStop’s bonds will also be maturing on March 15, 2021. With share prices so much higher than expected, they will easily be able to pay back investors on this loan should they choose to raise capital via issuing more shares from the treasury. GameStop before the massive hype was also considering buying back shares, which of course would raise their value considerably, as well as put any short-sellers in a bind as they are further reduced from the available share float from which they are shorting.
OR AS A BONUS THIRD OPTION, GameStop could issue a one-time cash dividend to all shareholders, as an appreciation to all those investors supporting the company (Lets say it’s $25 / share, $25 * 51,000,000 available shares = $1.275 billion) HOWEVER, if you are currently shorting any shares, you now must PAY $25 per share. If 100% of shares are currently shorted, then shorts are coughing up $1.275 billion. This is essentially a direct cash transfer from short sellers to share holders and has little direct benefit to GameStop, but we can all speculate on what this would do for publicity given the current thoughts on GME shareholders and Hedge funds that are shorting GME. I don’t know all the ins/outs of this, feel free to provide more info if you know more about this.
Will any of these moves carry over to the $150billion gaming industry? Or will people just order video games off Amazon and Wal-mart and play CoD in their basement? This of course does not touch on the potential for e-sports, as I feel that would almost deserve a post for its own discussion. I even read potential for an agreement with console makers / developers to “trade-in” digital copies of games for credit towards another, with GameStop acting as the hub which you can do this, taking a $0.50 commission. That’s free revenue for virtually no cost. Curious to hear more thoughts on that model. Source
I encourage you to poke holes in the potential I see. My opinion is obviously biased at this point, and welcome any alternate views or theories for discussion. It seems hard to have quality talk regarding GME without spamming memes or getting voted down by bots and bears.
Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor, and this should not be taken as financial advice. I eat the peels of oranges and throw out the fruit. This is for entertainment purposes only.
Position: Diamond handing 2326 shares. I just like the stock.
Tl;dr:

Potential to corner gaming market
Physical games still in demand for a few years
Test store in Tulsa Oklahoma very successful
Expansion into tabletop / board games market
Powerhouse of talent welcomed to the board
Bonds maturing March 15, 2021. Opportunity to clear debt or even screw shorts.
Still potential revenue for in-store trade ins on a digital market.

State of Nintendo in 2021 (rumors and predictions)

I am here with another year of reflection and prediction. I have done this for 2020, 2019 and 2018 as well: You can see those predictions here:
2020 mid-year: https://www.reddit.com/nintendo/comments/i3i7jm/state_of_nintendo_in_2020_7_month_retrospective/
2020: https://www.reddit.com/nintendo/comments/ee2xav/state_of_nintendo_in_2020/
2019: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/189706-nintendo-switch/77354321
E3 2018: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/189706-nintendo-switch/76268685
2018: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/189706-nintendo-switch/76150741
Keep in mind that this is meant to drive discussion, don’t be a hater. Predicting the future of company plans from a fan perspective is not a precise science and some may be correct and many may be wrong. State what you think will happen in the coming year and why to add to the discussion.

2020 Retrospective

What a year, this is definitely one that will go down in history if only for how the world was shut down economically. Not going into what should have been done, so with the global pandemic hitting many industries, programmers had work from home orders which in turn caused numerous delays to titles that were being prepared for release. Regardless we still saw a steady stream of high-quality titles and the completion of DLC for titles of previous years.
DLC releases
Fire Emblem: Cindered Shadows (February) final DLC with the season pass included new characters and a bonus story playable at any time focused on the catacombs below the school
Super Mario Maker 2: The final update included new snow mechanics and a world maker where you could create a full Mario game (April)
Luigi’s Mansion 3: saw the release of two multiplayer packs (April)
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The final expansion “Fantastic 4: Shadow of Doom” (March)
Pokémon Sword/Shield: Two expansion packs in one pass “The Isle of Armor” (July) and “The Crown Tundra” (October) for the first time in a Pokémon game, bringing back many favorite Pokémon
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: finished the first character pass with Byleth (January) and had previously announced a second waiver of character pass with 6 characters. Currently we have seen 3 – Min Min (June), Steve from Minecraft (October), and Sephiroth (December) and 3 more to go.
Major Releases
Super Mario time
Celebrating his 35th anniversary, Nintendo came out with a slew of products starring our favorite Italian Plumber. First was Paper Mario: The Origami King (July) which advanced past the previous two entries but was not quite back to its RPG routes like fans want. Next was Super Mario 3D All-stars (September) which included ports of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy. Adjusting control schemes to account for the lack of analog triggers and pointing controls, the ports were solid but not the best way to play the games. Also missing was Super Mario Galaxy 2 from the package and any extras like documentaries making the games. An MMO-platformer Super Mario 35 (October) was also released free to NSO subscribers where you compete to complete levels in the original Super Mario Bros. Lastly was a Game & Watch version of the original Super Mario Bros.
Pokémon Battle
As stated before, we got the first DLC ever for a Pokémon game and it came in two packages “The Ilse of Armor” and “The Crown Tundra” which added extra Pokémon (both new and old) and new areas to the game. Some criticism on the way the DLC was handled as if you bought the expansion for the wrong version, it would not work despite being the same content. Pokémon Home (February) final arrived on the Switch. The spin off Mystery Dungeon series came in the form of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (March) which was an updated port of the old Mystery Dungeon games. A free puzzle game Pokémon Café (June) to little fanfare. Also promises of a new Pokémon Snap which was delayed into 2021.
Other notable releases
· Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore (January): port of the Wii U game with a few added extras and English voice acting.
· Animal Crossing: New Horizons (March): hit at the start of the pandemic, added features and a promise of evergreen additions made this game Switch’s best-selling game that has not been a pack-in (ie only beat by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe). This game allowed gamers to escape reality and build their own island.
· Streets of Rage 4 (April): Return of the 2D brawler
· Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition (May): a remake of one of Wii’s top RPGs with newer graphics, and a cleaner layout, it also included a bonus mission that connects the ending to the sequel.
· Bioshock Collection (May): A collection of all three critically acclaimed Bioshock games for the first time on an Nintendo console.
· Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (June): A collection of various minigames like Connect Four, various card games, Mahjong and more. Barebone options and quick online play for random or with friends.
· Jump Rope Challenge (June): A free exercise type game that makes use of the joycon to mimic jumping rope
· Burnout Paradise Remastered (June): An open world arcade racer that was critically acclaimed at its original release and updated for modern consoles. Also shows EA putting in more dedication to the Switch console.
· Kirby Fighters 2 (September): A fighting game starring Kirby and his power ups and nobody else.
· Hades (September): Rogue like game that tells the story as you die. Many different gameplay styles depending on which weapons you use.
· Ori and the Will of the Wisps (September): Metroidvania that is visually stunning and developed originally only for Xbox.
· Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit (October): Not wanting to give up on the AR experience, Nintendo released toy RC cars that you control with the Switch and a free software download.
· Pikmin 3 Deluxe (October): not done porting all their Wii U games to Switch, this includes all the added DLC at no extra charge
· No More Heroes/No More Heroes 2 (October): Ports of the Wii games with better graphics and framerate and alternate control style to prepare for the upcoming sequel.
· Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (November): Based on the past events of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, this musou game changes up its formula but still plays like a musou game.
· Doom Eternal (December): competent port of the PS4/XB1 first person shooter by Bethesda.
· Among Us (December): Shadow dropped indie title that has taken mobile and Twitch by storm.
While not the best year, it was far from empty. Still lacking some key releases such as the sequel to Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Metroid Prime 4, Bayonetta 3 and Super Mario Odyssey 2. There are many Nintendo teams that we have yet to see titles. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic a lot of development has been postponed due to work at home directives set by government.

Current Release List for 2021

· Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game (Jan 14)
· Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy (Jan 26)
· Cyber Shadow (Jan 26)
· Little Nightmares 2 (Feb 11)
· Romance of the Three Kingdoms 14 (Feb 11)
· Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury (Feb 12)
· Persona 5 Strikers (Feb 22)
· Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection (Feb 25)
· Bravely Default 2 (Feb 26)
· Harvest Moon: One World (Mar 2)
· Balan Wonderworld (Mar 26)
· Monster Hunter Rise (Mar 26)

First Party Software

Nintendo Entertainment Planning and Development Tokyo
Kenta Motokura
In charge of the team that was previously under Yoshiaki Koizumi (whom was promoted to Deputy General Manager of the Tokyo office). This team was previously the lead development group of Super Mario Odyssey and developed Super Mario 3D All-stars for September 2020. Due to ports being easier to produce. Now that has wrapped up and they have created an update to allow for inverted camera controls, chances are they have been placed back on developing a sequel to Super Mario Odyssey which will likely be seen in 2022.
Koichi Hayashida
The other team that helped with Super Mario Odyssey also did the port of Captain Toad: Treasure Trackers. They have been busy working on a port of Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury for Switch due February 2021. They have been focused on implementing numerous changes to that title including: full 3D movement, online gameplay, and amiibo support with Cat Mario and Cat Peach. With all the extras being added, this game probably got pushed out of 2020 and into 2021 due to the pandemic changing the development lifestyle. Also, there is a highly likelihood was that they were working with Motokura’s group originally on Odyssey 2 but plans changed to get out more games for Mario’s 35th Anniversary. I expect them to fold back into Motokura’s group on Odyssey 2 when their port is completed.
Nintendo Entertainment Planning and Development Kyoto
Eiji Aonuma
Known as the “Zelda team”, there are two core teams. I believe both are working under Hidemaro Fujibayashi and Hiromasa Shikata to help develop the sequel to Breath of the Wild. Nintendo knows that Zelda sells consoles and what they have shown at e3 (2019) while stating the title is “in full development”. Nintendo know the popularity of the Breath of the Wild game and wants grow on that title. They have done so with the musou game Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity in which this team has assisted Tecmo Koei with development and the overall story. In September 2020 during an online presentation for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Aonuma stated that gamers will have to “wait a bit longer before we can provide more updates” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifm8tpcO4vw). With the 35th Anniversary of the Legend of Zelda series coming in 2021, I do expect this title to be a highlight for the holiday season as long as the game is not pushed back due to unforeseen circumstances in development.
Hideki Konno
This team is the team behind the Mario Kart series. Their latest endeavor was with Augmented Reality (AR) and developing Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit which was released this past October. Not having a full game released since Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in 2017, they have been developing something over the past 3 and a half years. The problem though is MK8D still sells incredibly well and if they develop Mario Kart 9 that will cannibalize any additional sales of their previous title. While chances are they could have altered their development to change it from Mario Kart 9 to another kart racer such as Donkey Kong Racing, I think gamers will probably see something from them when Nintendo showcases a newer model Switch (either the rumored PRO or an actual Switch 2) so I would not expect a full game release until 2022 at the earliest.
Hiroyuki Kimura
Super Mario Maker 2 and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe were developed under Kimura with the help of Takashi Tezuka. In April 2020, Nintendo released the final major update for Super Mario Maker 2 which included a World creator, where you can make your own full fledged Mario game. They also released New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe in January which is an updated port of the Wii U game. There have been rumors of a new Wario platformer being developed which this team has likely been developing. Chances are likely that we will hear about their new title this year.
Kosuke Yubuki
Previously worked on ARMS in 2017 and its DLC. This producer also worked with Konno so it is likely this team was folded back into the Mario Kart team to prepare something for this year or next. It is possible they are working on an ARMS follow up, but with the success of Smash and one of its main characters Min Min being the first of the second waive of Smash DLC, it is unlikely. Most likely working on something brand new which we may see in 2021 or the following year.
Hisashi Nogami
This is the young producer in charge of both Animal Crossing and Splatoon series. He worked with another young producer Aya Kyogoku on Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. With the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons taking an evergreen approach with constant DLC content, especially when it comes to special occasions. A more seamless online experience and a lot more to do, I am sure this group is still working on Animal Crossing. Its next game will be a while away while they focus on Animal Crossing in the current future. Do not expect anything new from this team for a while.

2nd Party Studios

Camelot Software Planning
Their last title was Mario Tennis Aces (2018) and its respective DLC. Being a smaller studio, it takes some time for development. The team was hit harder due to the pandemic. Now, with all the DLC on Mario Tennis Aces completed early 2019, they have likely been busy in full development on Mario Golf. Most likely will see Mario Golf sometime in 2021. It is likely they were probably aiming for a 2020 title buy delayed the development into 2021 – so expect a release this year.
Game Freak
They just released the 2 DLC packages for Pokémon Sword and Shield for the Nintendo Switch this year to mixed review. They typically have something Pokémon related out each year and they also developed their own title Little Town Hero last year meaning they have been hard developing some titles. Current rumors suggest either a Let’s Go remake of Gold/Silver or a full remake of Diamond/Pearl since Ruby/Sapphire were the last full remakes. Personally, I think we will either see Sword/Shield 2 or a whole new Pokémon game due out this year since they have been incredibly busy, are a larger studio that works on many titles at once, and have not had a big release in 2020.
Grezzo
This team just release the port of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening in 2019. Mostly known for their 3DS ports of Zelda titles and TriForce Heroes, chances are they are still working on the Zelda franchise. With 2021 being Zelda’s 35th Anniversary, there have been many rumors of a collection or ports of some of the older Zelda games to be released in 2021. Since 2018, there has also been rumor of a Zelda: Skyward Sword port (which was shot down by Aonuma) (https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-11-26-nintendo-fans-excited-by-zelda-skyward-sword-nintendo-switch-port-reports)
Good Feel
They released Yoshi’s Crafted World in 2019 and has likely they have started on the next Yoshi game as it tends to sell well and it is what they know. It is also possible that Nintendo has given them another 2D IP to work with such as Wario Land, however; I think that series might be in development by the 2D Mario team under Kimura. It is highly likely that we will see something from them in 2021 and depending on how the pandemic hit their development cycle it may have either a 2021 or 2022 release.
HAL Laboratory
Developer of all things Kirby, we have seen some smaller Kirby titles lately. Their last games were Kirby Fighters 2 and Part-time UFO both digital only eShop games. They have teased something for early this year but on the smaller scale (https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/12/kirby_developer_hal_laboratory_teases_new_projects_for_20211) . I think they may also have a full-fledged Kirby game due this year as our last one was early 2018.
Intelligent Systems
This team was hard at work as it finished the DLC on Fire Emblem: 3 Houses and released Paper Mario: The Origami King in July of 2020. They also continue to work on Fire Emblem Heroes on mobile as that is Nintendo’s highest grossing mobile project. Growing the studio in 2019 to be able to handle numerous projects at a time, they likely have a few titles in development. The biggest rumor is that Nintendo is readying another Fire Emblem game but a remake of an older title. Current rumors are remakes of Geneology (next one in line for a remake) or Binding Blade (the game that introduced Roy). If it is a remake, then we will likely see the release in 2021. If it is not a remake, then creating the scenario will take some time so we will likely see the game this year with a release for 2022. Chances are they are likely working on another title as well but that probably won’t be seen until 2022.
Next Level Games
Last responsible for Luigi’s Mansion 3 and its DLC that was released in 2020. They have also worked on Metroid and Punch-out! With actual 3D Mario titles being handled internally by Nintendo’s Tokyo studio, they are likely working on something new. Possibly a sports title, new Punch Out, or even a 2D Metroid (though I doubt this despite rumors of development). We may see what they have developed this year, but I would expect a 2022 release to be more realistic for what they are working on.
NDCube
Responsible for Super Mario Party in 2018 and they did Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics for 2020, which was a barebones release in the form of options. Considering the lack of DLC for Super Mario Party, chances are they are working on a sequel to the game that sold well. The single problem if they are working on Super Mario Party 2 is that the original is still selling incredibly well even 2 years after release with over 12 million units. Even if the game is ready this year, I think Nintendo will hold out on Super Mario Party 2 until 2022.
Monolith Soft
Responsible for help with Breath of the Wild and the Xenoblade franchise. We did not hear much from them in 2019 or 2020 with their only release being a remake of the original Xenoblade Chronicles in May. In 2017 they advertised jobs for a new fantasy action-RPG which likely was transferred to their help with the Zelda franchise. I believe we will see the sequel to Breath of the Wild this year and first glimpse of a new Xenoblade game for 2022.
Retro Studios
This year also marks the 35th Anniversary for the Metroid series. Unfortunately, the series is not as high priority as many other Nintendo franchises. With the sequel of Breath of the Wild likely coming out this year, it will be the focus for Nintendo in 2021; we probably will not see any development from Metroid Prime 4 until 2022. Nintendo knows that they need to make Metroid Prime a quality title so they will give Retro Studios as much time as they need for the title. As for the long-rumored port of the Metroid Prime Trilogy, I still have hopes that we will see some information on it this year, potentially in August to support the anniversary and prepare for Metroid Prime 4 the following year.

3rd Party collaborations

Bandai Namco
Collaborating with Nintendo on the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and its DLC, there are still 3 character-packages to go before they are finished with that game. Additionally, they are the development team behind New Pokémon Snap, which was originally due 2020 but delayed into an unknown time 2021 – so expect that title. The Tales team is busy on Tales of Arise which is not bound for Switch, so outside the DLC and Pokémon game do not expect much.
Bethesda
The parent company Zenimax was recently purchased by Microsoft. The sale included Bethesda and all its partnering companies. The last release was Doom Eternal released in December 2020 and was a digital only release. The move from physical to digital only was due to the fact it came 9 months after the main PS4/XB1 release. With no Switch games scheduled on the horizon and its recent acquisition and focus on next generation, I think we have seen the last Switch game from Bethesda
Capcom
They have ported many of their older titles (REmake, RE0, RE4, RE5, RE6, Rev1, Rev2 DMC 1,2,3) to Switch and have brand new games: Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter Stories due in 2021. With the Capcom leak, there is a game due Q4 of 2021 called Biohazard Outrage which is rumored to be Resident Evil Revelations 3 and featuring Rebecca Chambers. There was also a leak of a new Dragon’s Dogma and Ace Attorney 7 which are rumored to come to Switch.
Electronic Arts
They have pledged 14 games from April 2020 to March 2021 fiscal year. EA has kept the games closely guarded and it is unsure if the global pandemic has postponed any of the planned games. Still waiting on Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 and some Plants vs Zombie games.
Koei Tecmo
Since Nintendo has invested heavily in this studio, they have worked increasing hard for Nintendo hardware. They finished the Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 DLC, assisted with Breath of the Wild in 2017, assisted with Fire Emblem: 3 Houses and released Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity in 2020. They co-own the Fatal Frame franchise with Nintendo and it has a game that is rumored to be in development. There is also a possibility of a port of the Wii U game to come to Switch. It is likely they are helping with the sequel to Breath of the Wild as well. Lastly there has been a year long rumor on the return of Ninja Gaiden and it seems that Switch would be likely candidate for that game considering how well their games are selling on Switch
Platinum Games
They are working on Bayonetta 3 and have a good relationship with Nintendo. Being in development the over the past 3 years, I do expect to at least hear something about the title in 2021 if not a release but I have been wrong before.
Ubisoft
I went out on a limb last year and said Assassin Creed ports and they are working with Nintendo on a new Star Fox game. We have seen ports for Assassins Creed 3, Liberty, 4: Black Flag and Rebel. New Assassins Creed games are a bit too much for Ubisoft, but I still think we will see another Nintendo collaboration and I am positive it will be a new Star Fox game. Ubisoft will also continue to support Nintendo with Just Dance and look forward to a lot of their smaller titles to also come to the Switch.
Sega
Their biggest releases were games along the Sega Ages line (which they recently discontinued https://nintendoeverything.com/sega-confirms-the-end-of-sega-ages-but-teases-more-plans-for-switch-and-past-titles/), Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, and Football Manager 2021. They also released Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo Olympics late 2019. They are likely working on a new Sonic game for Switch and while the Sega Ages line is gone, they are still open to port older titles on the system.
Square Enix
Bravely Default 2 has a release date of February 2021 after being pushed out of 2020. They have also released in 2020 a few collections of older games, Trials of Mana, and Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory which is a music game spin off for the Kingdom Hearts series. Rumored to have The World Ends with You 2 in development for Switch. I would also expect some more collections to come out (or at least ports) and a rumored new entry in the SaGa or Mana series.
Take Two Games
Released 3 collections for Switch in May of 2020 with their 2K Games development studio. I think they likely will have some more games in development, especially with the way EA has provided lackluster support in the sports games field. There has also been a long rumor of Rockstar developing Grand Theft Auto V for Switch but that seems to be more of a dream than an actual rumor as Rockstar is working on development of GTAV for PS5 and XSX. Ports and complication packages being quick and easy turnover, I am certain they will delve into their back catalogue and find a release for the Switch in 2021.

FAQ to help new users know where to start and what software to choose

Q. Can my Switch / Serial number be hacked? A. Check here: https://ismyswitchpatched.com/ If it shows as unpatched then its hackable out of the box, regardless of firmware. If its patched then you will need a modchip. ALL Mariko (red box) and Lites are patched.

Q. How do I mod my hackable system? I don't know what guides to use
A. Use this guide specifically for entering RCM. Do not use this guide to set up cfw if you intend to pirate games, it does not include things like sigpatches or installers which you will need. Use Birb's guide to set up your modded system once you are in RCM. Do NOT use video guides. They are generally full of misinformation, outdated information, bad advice and stupid configurations.

Q. How do I prevent bans? A. Keep your sysnand completely clean, only use homebrew/backup games on your emunand and make sure you either have incognito installed on the emunand or its completely offline.

Q. What is an emunand? A. Its essentially a copy of your system that can be modified separately of the original. If you install homebrew to one of them it wont affect the other. Emunand is NOT the same as cfw.

Q. What happens if I get banned? A. Youll lose access to playing games online and accessing the eshop. Generally accounts are not banned and you can still update the system through nintendo, although this is discouraged.

Q. How do I update? A. Download the latest compatible firmware here https://lmgtfy.app/?q=darthsternie Extract to a folder on your sd card, named firmware for example. Then select the folder in your updater app (for atmosphere its recommended you use daybreak, for sxos choidujournx is the usual app). Choose the exfat firmware regardless of sd format.

Q. What format should my sd card be? A. Fat32

Q. But how do I install big games from a fat32 sd card? A. Most people either install over a usb cable (with tinfoil and nut or awoo and nsusbloader) or over shops. If you dont have a usb cable, ftp works as well.

Q. What are shops? A. Shops are basically online collections of games that you can browse and install similarly to how you would on the eshop. They are accessed through tinfoil.

Q. What cfw should I choose? What are the pros and cons? A. Atmosphere is the popular choice right now. Its pros include being free, constantly updated and having a lot of community support. Its cons include not having any out of the box support for installing games, so you need to add sigpatches yourself once they are out.
Sxos is another popular option, and the only option currently for modchip units (although atmosphere is working on support). Its pros include being made directly for piracy, so it supports installing games out of the box and it can load off of external hard drives. Its cons include being paid and being a questionable choice at the moment. Due to multiple members of the group being arrested its unclear if it will receive much more support.
The last modern cfw is reinx. Reinx works out of the box with games and it is free. However it is now no longer being updated and it has fewer features than atmosphere.

Q. Where do I get games from? A. For shops you should check out JITS and Quota shop. Those should provide you with easy and safe access to games. Rebirth is discord server that provides gdrive and tor links to full game stashes for download on pc. Theres multiple websites you can find by googling, and you can find large libraries via torrents. Most torrents and websites will be hosting 'scene' dumps, groups like venom or suxxors, who release privately to ftp servers with other scene groups. These dumps get rehosted to private torrent trackers, and then websites will upload them publicly.

Q. Why are my downloads failing? A. You should probably ask the source of the download. If thats a shop then join the shop discord to ask.

Q. Why wont my switch boot? A. Most likely its in rcm, try injecting a payload. If its not in rcm then its probably just out of battery. Bricking the switch canNOT prevent it from accessing rcm and hekate, so if you cant get into hekate then it isnt bricked. Youre doing something wrong or you broke the physical hardware.

Q. Can I transfer save files between sysnand and emunand? A. Yes. Transferring from sysnand to emunand is easy. When you make the emunand the saves should transfer automatically. After that you can go offline on the sysnand, make a nand backup, run cfw on it to dump the save and then restore the backup. This way the nand will be completely clean. For going the other way around its a bit harder. You can dump the sysnand and inject the same on your computer into the nand before restoring it, but this cannot guarantee you wont get banned.

Q. How do I unhack my switch? A. If you use emunand then its as simple as not booting into rcm. If you use autorcm then disable it in hekate. If you do not use emunand then youll need to format your console with something like this https://github.com/StarDustCFW/Haku33

Q. What are the different game formats? A. The 'standard' format people most often use is nsp. This is the common format used for eshop games. Another common format is xci, which is a gamecart dump. Any cfw can install nsps OR xci to the console to run like an eshop game. However, sxos can also mount xci as if it was a gamecart instead of installing it to the home screen if thats something youre interested in. There is also nsz and xcz, which are compressed versions of nsp and xci which save space and bandwidth. They can be directly installed, the same as nsp and xci, so they are considered objectively better.

Q. What installer should I use? A. Currently theres a few popular installers. The most popular right now is tinfoil, which can be found at tinfoil.io. It has the most features of any of the installers, being able to run shops, manage save games and cheats, link accounts, install incognito, hdd support and much more. It supports installing any of the 4 game formats mentioned above.
Next we have awoo. Awoo is a popular installer that is based on adubbz tinfoil's install code and xortrolls gui. It is the most popular lightweight installer, being able to support every format the same as tinfoil. An alternative to this program would be tinleaf which is also based on the tinfoil install code and xortrolls gui, giving it a similar feel and functionality but without the anime girl theme.
Lastly of the currently used installers we have goldleaf, which is xortrolls spiritual successor to tinfoil. Goldleaf has some features the other two lack, such as a web browser. However it supports the fewest formats, only nsp, and unlike tinfoil and awoo it wont check if a game is modified before installing, so it would be easier to accidentally install a malicious file using goldleaf.

Diablo Immortal AMA with Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer) and Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer)

Hello folks,
Today folks who are part of the technical alpha for Diablo Immortal had the opportunity to ask questions in an AMA style format for Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer) and Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer). Below is the full text of the AMA. Enjoy!
sVr: Will there be seasonal buffs or events ? (RedDragonFlayer)
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): So we are definitely looking to have a variety of cool events. There's actually one event in the game right now which is the Challenge Rift Event. You can see this on the left side of the main menu. The backend that drives that event can and will be used to run new events in the future. Maybe we'll make Halloween a special thing?
sVr: Will PvP have a reward system? (RedDragonFlayer)
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We have more plans for PVP that we can't talk about just yet. But I hope you guys have been able to check out the Bilefen Zone Trial. One thing I can say now is that none of our PVP plans are going to move the game towards an eSport. What we want is a fun place that players of all types can gather and have a good time killing each other.
sVr: We have runes, however, they are just materials currently. What about Runewords and what made you "not include" them? (Swootcandy)
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): No current plans for Runewords. Runewords are super cool, but their functionality overlaps a bit with Legendary items. We wanted to include runes as a consistent thematic element so using them as a reagent in the crafting recipe seemed cool.
Leviathan: Can you speak towards Hardcore and if it will be in? If not, philosophies on why?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Hey Levi. Not only does Diablo Immortal extend character progression, but it is also an inherently social experience, in that we want to encourage players to join guilds and build in-game friendships. Having your buddy permanently disappear from your guild because their character died in an unfortunate and gruesome way could be a fun idea for some, but it's not the experience we're looking for, so we do not currently have plans for Hardcore mode.
MuggleMama: Is there a reason some legendary gear needs to be identified but some does not?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Sometimes we identify the gear when you get it from somewhere like the free track on the Battle Pass, but the legendary drops from the rest of the game should be unidentified. Right now there's actually a bug in the game that makes this inconsistent, and we'll be fixing that in the future.
Leviathan: Some of the people on my stream notice (and love) that many of the sounds are from old Diablo games. Are they placeholders or there to stay? Great nostalgia.
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): All the sounds you hear are intended to stay unless we have a reason to change it. Personally I love the nostalgic sound of gold falling on the ground.
Leviathan: Will there be a transmog system or ways to customize characters so that people can differentiate themselves from one another?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We are not currently looking at a transmog system but we do have a couple things which are similar. The first is that we are looking at a way for your to manage your legendary powers more easily. No details to share about this right now but stay tuned.
The second is that we are planning to have full body cosmetic outfits. These will be available as a real money purchases in addition to being on the paid track of the Battle Pass.
sVr: What are your plans to "circumvent"/"restrict" the continuous powercreep inherent to ARPGs (with each major content patch)? (Demonic Eevee)
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Hey sVr. I'll answer in two parts. We plan to cap Paragon progression and gradually raise that cap with each new content update. Legendary powers are designed to scale and will carry forward to higher level versions after content updates as well. Gems and Legendary Gems can also be unsocketed and carried into a new sweet item in the future. The second part would be with regards to the numerical tuning. Without diving too deep into the math right now, one of the reasons we have both "Attack" and "Offense Rating" as well as "Life" as well as "Defense Rating" is so that these attributes can scale linearly over time, while still making you feel more powerful. Normally you need exponential numerical growth to really feel the power difference, but the dual-attribute system should allow us to avoid crazy large damage numbers over time.
Leviathan: Will the Bestiary have statistical details on enemies (like if they have Armor and such - could help with gearing/more info) or be more flavorful/lore based?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): The Bestiary entries are going to show more about the lore of the creatures than gameplay related details. We want to reveal more of the world every time you get a new page.
Leviathan: How is the Power stat on items calculated? What does it take into consideration?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Power is calculated from all the stats on your item. The attributes on your item (strength, int, fort, spirit, willpower) are all 15 points each. Your particular build might value one attribute over another, but we didn't want to try and guess which ones you are looking for so they are all weighted equally. Then there are extra points added for magic and legendary properties. Again, we try not to make judgement calls on which property you might want for your character, the points added varies with the level of the item but not with the property itself. Finally, sockets are given a base score (I believe it's 48? Don't quote me on that) to make the socket appealing. Ultimately the "Power" of an item is supposed to give a rough gauge of which item might be better for somebody who doesn't want to do a lot of math but the actual best item might differ for somebody who wants to do a lot of min/maxing.
Dredscythe: Reforge seems to be unlocked at 45 (current level cap). Is that the plan when 60 is the new level cap, or can we get access at lower level 30, 45, etc.?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Reforging is available when you get a Legendary item to Rank 6, not when you reach a certain level. It might not be common to get to that point before max level due to the amount of crafting materials needed to rank up your items.
Dredscythe: The XP to level ramps up after 30 quite a bit, what’s the plan going forward looking at 60. Aimed for play time in hours range?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): I can't give any specific time amounts because we'll be analyzing data and feedback from the Tech alpha to possibly go back and make adjustments to the 1-45 experience as well. However, a few high level goals: (1): The amount of XP and time required to level post 45 continues to increase in the same way that things increased after 30. (2): We like the way level 1-20 feels in that it's very fast which is great for getting people into the game. (3): As a singular data point the last level from 59 to 60 should be about 2.5 hours for most players.
Neinball: Is it possible to use the phasing tech when interacting with quest givers/story points so that we don’t get swarmed with mobs while unable to control our characters?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): In Technical Alpha we have an issue where sometimes you are attacked by mobs while you are in a dialog sequence with an NPC. We definitely will be fixing this in the future.
echohack: Upgrading individual items and gems is a major shift for Diablo Immortal from previous games. We currently know about several upgrade systems: Gems, Legendary Gems, Charms, Reforging, and Salvage. What limits are being put into place to prevent Pay2Win from dominating these upgrade systems? Are there some upgrade systems that will be driven by gameplay only, and never influenced by monetization (such as the current Blacksmith / Salvage system)? (Chaosteil)
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Echohack, great question! When we set out to make Diablo Immortal one of the first "tentpoles" we laid down is that the gear should be earned strictly through gameplay. I think the question understates just how important gear is (and by extension salvage/rank up) and how it affects gameplay... it's the majority of your power. I think it's worth noting that I don't think the "hunt" part of the item hunt feels strong enough yet and we hope to tune it more after the Tech Alpha. sVr alluded a bit to this in feedback he gave relating to the stats on items (still waiting for you to send over your details sVr!!!) The "magic" attributes that roll on items such as "+3% damage for your primary attack" don't feel impactful enough yet, and the attributes that initially appear on an item might be a bit light compared to the attributes gained from rank-up. Beyond items, Paragon is another example of a system you use to upgrade your character solely by playing the game. We don't have XP boosts and that was a conscious decision. At its core everything you do in Immortal is tied to gameplay: how you progress, acquire gear, earn various items, etc. all have to be done by actually playing the game, there's no way to bypass that.
echohack: Will bluetooth controllers, or other mobile phone controllers such as the PS4 / PS5 / Xbox / Nintendo Switch Pro / Razer Kishi be supported?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We get this question a lot! During Technical Alpha we're focused on making the best mobile experience for our players. However, because it's been such a common request from the community we hope that we can test controller support in the future.
Lord Fluffy: It seems pretty clear that a lot of assets were reused from Diablo III? I assume work wasn’t done to actually recreate these assets exactly as they were in D3. So, assuming you’re somehow importing them... why not import everything to give us a a way bigger pool of Elder Rift maps?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We are still in active development on the game, so the assets in Technical Alpha now will not necessarily be the versions we ship with. I'll talk about environments for a second because you brought up Elder Rift maps. The game engine for Immortal is in many ways capable of higher quality in art than we were able to achieve in Diablo 3. On top of that, we have a large talented art team that have their own creative ideas on how Sanctuary should look in Immortal. So between the tech and the team we have invested a lot in making new zones that have never been seen before, but also recreating zones you have seen so they are fresh and reflect our commitment to quality.
echohack: Can you talk in more detail about rewarding players for exploration? Specifically, can you talk in more detail about Lairs and "Legendary Monsters" (name?) -- these seem very interesting!
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): The Lairs are intended as fun side dungeons that are rewarding to explore when you come across them but not quite common enough to explicitly farm. Ideally when you're out in the world for other reasons, like main questline, a Zone Trial, or doing bounties you see a Lair and think "ooooh! Shiny!" and jump in, but we don't necessarily want you to wander the world aimlessly looking for them as your top priority. With regard to Legendary Monsters, they're a bit similar to Lairs in this regard, but with the possiblity that you may or may not ask some guild mates to come and join you if they're online. I'd love to know if you all think we're close on these goals.
echohack: Is the current hub-and-spoke model for towns similar to what we will see at release? (ie: Westmarch the main hub with minor towns in other zones)
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Yes - the way the minor towns are set up with Westmarch as the capital city is the plan for release.
Lord Fluffy: Would Blizzard ever consider a pay to play server of Diablo Immortal where you couldn’t pay to win?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Hey Fluffy! We really want to introduce Diablo to as many players as we can around the world, and we believe the best way to do that is with a free to play game. It's also important for us to make one shared experience and not split up the community. I was watching your stream when you were pushing Challenge Rifts and I know some concern was brought up that this wouldn't be as enjoyable for you when the Crests are ultimately purchasable in the future. In that regard, I think an important note is that Challenge Rifts are not going to be the ultimate end game that Greater Rifts are in D3. I don't want to spoil anything right now, but I will say it includes both PvE content and activities for larger groups of players. Grats on getting #1. BTW, in Australia there's a Barbarian who cleared 40. :wink:
sVr: For the remaining 15 levels to 60, is each class going to see new skills? (or are the current skills stretched over to 60)?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): The tech alpha does not include all the skills characters will be able to learn when the final version of the game is released. There are 2 additional skills per class and we are hoping to add more skills to each class post-launch as free expansion content.
Mugglemama: Will phasing be used to reduce the number of people you see in places like Westmarch? Or will it become overloaded with players?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): There are a few things we're doing to help combat having too many players on screen. First, when many players are in the same zone at once we do spin up a second copy of that zone and divide the players between the different areas. Secondly when a large number of players are on the screen at once we do some dynamic culling of players who may be farther away from you to help performance. Even right now we are hanging out in Westmarch and you can see how characters fade in and out depending on their proximity to you. We will continue to tweak and improve this system so that points of interest in Westmarch are not overcrowded.
ECHO Gaming: How will the battle pass work across multiple character accounts. If you purchase the pass will it only work for one character per account or across all characters on that account.
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Hey Echo. The current plan is that you purchase the Battle Pass once and it unlocks the benefits and paid reward track on all of your characters. Pretty sweet right? While we're on the subject I want to clarify that we are currently thinking of a monthly battlepass that starts at the beginning of each month and ends at the end of the month. During tech alpha the duration is set to 2 months only because we didn't want the battlepass to reset partway through the tech alpha in the event it goes past Dec 31 (duration of tech alpha still TBD. We are getting lots of good data and fixing bugs on the backend as it relates to server stability and other behind-the-scenes stuff).
Orelus: Will there be additional zones with upcoming patches once released or any plans for another classes joining the roster?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Yes! We are planning for more of everything. New Zones, new Dungeons, more legendary items, quest lines and bounties. We will even be working on new Classes to add. All of this will become a part of the game for everyone to enjoy for free without purchase.
Raxxanterax: How will the sharing of resources (if at all) be implemented into the released version of immortal? Currently our paragon levels seem to carry over to other characters, will anything else? Shared stash? Any other shared resources?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Hey Raxx, I lurked in your stream on Saturday, it was nice to see you enjoying the game. Right now most of the progression is done on a per-character basis. Before I dive in I want to caveat that this is definitely an area of design that might change (or might not). We would love for more things to be shared between characters but the problem we ran into is that we also have bonuses (such as bounties, first kill of the day, battlepass) that reward you for activities on a daily/one-time basis. We don't want the best way of progressing your main to be rolling up a stable of alts and then funneling all the resources into your main.
Neinball: So after starting up a new character: is it meant to be a whole new experience (no shared currency, completely reset battle pass, etc) per character or a limitation of the alpha? And do paragon levels on those new character only unlock at max level?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Paragon is shared across characters but only unlocked when those characters reach max level. We did this to have a more meaningful leveling experience similar to World of Warcraft when your main character is the primary focus. We wanted to to make sure that a level 33 Demon Hunter and a level 34 Wizard had reasons to group and tackle hard challenges and create a social environment that is beneficial to the game. If that level 33 Demon Hunter had 300 paragon points to spent they would not need to engage in leveling the same way.
Leviathan: Has there been anything from the reports, videos, streams, that has surprised you in the alpha whether pleasantly or unpleasantly?What do you think of the alpha thus far, community reaction, etc.
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): I'm really overwhelmed by the positive reception. It's definitely been a busy two years and it's very rewarding to be able to "show don't tell". I think one moment that gave me a chuckle on Sunday was opening two streams at once (I think it was Gregg and Raxx?). The two of them were partied up. I was on my anonymous-smurf account and joined them in the party. But then Gregg booted me from the party! LOL. Fortunately I could hear Gregg talk in stream about how I think he was poking around the UI.
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We've been saying that "playing is believing" mantra for a long time. It's great to finally see you all play the game and hear their reaction. I've been watching multiple streams constantly for days and it's only made me more excited about making this game! Also I really thought I was good at CR pushing until a few days ago :frowning:
Lord Fluffy: Will there be end-game currency conversion? hitting that arcane dust blocker on the alpha right now and the progression slow down feels pretty bad. Just playing for rare drops and having thousands of reusable parts.
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Tuning the materials is one of the areas we're looking at for technical alpha. Things are constantly in flux during development, and the ratios of crafting materials is an area we wanted to learn more from this test. I don't know if running out of Arcane Dust feels any better than running out of Scrap Materials (you're always going to be blocked by /something/). One solution is to provide a conversion mechanism, but another solution is to provide different activities for different resource types. Maybe activity X is good for parts, activity Y is good for gold, and Z is good for Arcane Dust. All that said, it's awesome to see people getting to this part of the game, and this will definitely help inform decisions for the next phase of development.
Raxxanterax: How important are clans going to be? In Diablo 3 theyre mostly just another looking for group channel. Are clans in Diablo Immortal going to have more importance?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Guilds in Diablo Immortal are a great way to group up with like-minded players and we have achievements to help guide some of the activities. But I have to say that we have larger plans for social groups beyond what Guilds are in Technical Alpha. Can't say more than that today but we are excited to share more in the future.
Megax: What information do you intend to add to the bestiary? I couldn't find a way to decipher what power each rare and elite monster brings with it. The icons help but it is still not the complete information
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): The Bestiary will contain lore information on the many enemies to defeat in Immortal, but will not contain gameplay details. The Elite monster powers are dynamic every time they are spawned in the world. I think it's a good point of feedback that we should make sure that these powers are easily understood by our players.
Wudijo: Do they plan on trying to do a low config version for like 2-3 years old phones?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): During Technical Alpha we intentionally have a pretty narrow list of supported devices that help us test compatibility, performance and stability. At ship our game will support as many devices as possible. And even after installing the game, you can customize the graphics quality to suite your preferences.
Wudijo: Items being the root of Diablo, will they add primal kinds of items in DI?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): There are no current plans to have Primals (or Ancients) in the game. That said, we do want to add more content after launch and Primals and Ancients are certainly on the table. However, I think systems like that are more interesting when they are also tied to new content (new ways to interact with the game).
Wudijo: At BlizzCon they said a fully fledged mobile game with no PC version, is it still the case or will this change?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We are focused on creating the best mobile Diablo experience. We are excited to bring the epic action rpg elements to Diablo veterans and newcomers alike on their mobile devices.
Wudijo: If there are no primals, what would be the other version, like uniques kinda replacing legendaries in D4, but for DI?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): For launch I feel the item system we have with game-changing legendaries and the rank up system is fairly robust. We do need to examine and tune the numerical values on attributes but no major changes planned right now. (but this is tech alpha, so things are always subject to change)
Wudijo: Considerations for another skill slot for movement or utility skill only?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): We have explored that but no current plans. We're pretty happy with the control scheme right now and want to avoid adding too much more complexity.
NotPatrick: What is the design intent, pacing and soft limits for your gameplay and paid systems? For example, gear upgrading and the amount of crafting material, paragon, and how to engage with the market?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): The short answer is we want the game experience to be enjoyable for both players who want to remain free and those who choose to spend money. How all of these systems interact with the player experience is something we're paying close attention to, and tuning them will be important to get the balance right.
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Hey everyone I'm going to sign off for now. It was great hanging out and getting to answer all of your questions. I just want to say that this Technical Alpha is just a part of the game we are making and have much more to reveal in the future.
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Thanks for all the great questions. A few extra tidbits of information that I picked up from watching videos and streams over the past few days.
Auto-navigation is unlocked for a zone when you complete the main questline for that zone. That's why it's not obvious at first, but then available later (most often when a bounty sends you back to a previous zone). We could do a better job communicating this.
I don't know how many of your found Guild Achievements, but I've already made a note that we need to iterate on the UI here. If you open up your guild page and hit the arrow to expand to full screen, there's a UI for guild achievements.
Thanks again for all the great questions and I'll see you around!

10 Overlooked Indie Platform Games

There are also some links within the first link that discuss indie local multiplayer games and upcoming indie games as well.
Note that previous lists were not themed solely around platform games.
Introduction
We're all familiar with the Shovel Knight’s, A Hat in Time’s, and Celeste's of the world. These are some of the indie platform games that hit the big time. Of course, for every one of these games, there's 100 other indie games that have been glossed over, relegated to a spot in a digital store few people will ever find themselves in. I wanted to bring attention to some of these lesser known indie games once again.
Platformers from Previous Lists
I’m going to list the platformers that were in the previous three lists. None of them will reappear on this new list. 1-6 are from the first list, 7-11 are from the second list, and 12-14 are from the third list. They are as follows: (1.) Four Sided Fantasy, (2.) Daggerhood, (3.) Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, (4.) Biolab Wars, (5.) Gravity Duck, (6.) Penarium, (7.) Cursed Castilla (Maldita Castilla EX), (8.) Hayfever, (9.) Duck Souls+, (10.) Cybarian: The Time-Traveling Warrior, (11.) Verlet Swing, (12.) Valfaris, (13.) Primal Light, and (14.) Tamashii. Note that both Biolab Wars and Valfaris are listed as run & guns, but they have platforming elements and are considered platformers by some people. Hayfever and Valfaris were my favorite games for their respective lists and are some of my favorite games in the genre. These 14 games listed range from puzzle platformers, precision platformers, action platformers, first person 3D platformers, Metroidvanias, run & guns, etc. There’s also Flat Heroes from my 10 local co-op recommendations list found as a link within the first post. Guacamelee is on there too, though it doesn’t qualify as an overlooked game.
Details About the List
All 9 games available on Steam are currently on sale. When this post is 17 hours old, the sales for these games will be over. Genre is going to be more like a short descriptor of the game for this list since these are all platformers. I’ve also included games with local co-op mixed in with solely single player games, including one built around the co-op experience for this list (before I did separate lists for single player only and games that included local co-op). I'm going to order them according to Metacritic Critic Ratings. One of the games towards the bottom has a pretty low rating (60%) that I personally disagree with, but it's only fair that you hear from more than just me. Since Steam has 9/10 of the games on the list (Switch has 8 of them, Xbox One has 6 of them, PlayStation 4 has 5 of them, and Wii U has 1 of them), I will be using the Steam Metacritic Critic Rating of each game, except for #9, where I will use the PlayStation 4 version, since that’s the only version of it available currently. I’m going to list 5 2D and 5 3D platformers for this list. For the purpose of this post, I’m just going to stick with saying “achievements” and “getting all achievements” instead of “trophies” and “platinum trophy” since Steam has 9 of the games on the list. You can basically substitute these with “trophies” and “platinum trophy” if you’re a PlayStation gamer. I will make mention of the two games on here that don’t include a platinum trophy however.
Platforms will include a link to the U.S. store page of the game for each platform. Price is in U.S. dollars.
1. Levelhead

Platforms: Xbox One, Switch, Steam, iOS, Android
Includes 4 Player Local Co-op
Regular Price: $19.99
Steam Sale Price: $13.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Sample Music Track: Main Theme
Genre: 2D Level Creation Platformer
Metacritic: 80% from 1 Critic Review, 90% from 1 User Rating
Description: Levelhead is a drag and drop maker game with a robust set of tools, cross functionality between all platforms, and cloud saves. The most obvious comparison is Super Mario Maker, and on consoles the UI and tools for creating levels are very similar (D-Pad to cycle through items, analog stick to place). However, Levelhead brings a number of elements to the table to make it way more than just a budget clone: near instant respawns upon death, a marketing department to advertise your levels, more advanced switches and logic systems, more mixing and matching between backgrounds and music, etc. Levelhead fixes a persistent problem found in nearly all maker games: many levels are simply dead in the water as soon as they’re pushed out. In Levelhead, the more levels you play, the more marketing currency you earn that can be in turn spent to push your levels to the top. It’s a kind of “play for play” scenario that cuts out the middle man, social media, and integrates it all into the game.
Description Continued: Levelhead also has some unique items that make it standout – in particular, the powerups. There are seven of these and they can really transform the platforming. The Zipper, for example, will teleport your character four tiles ahead through everything but lead blocks. The local co-op allows for up to four players to both create and play levels, including the campaign (known as “Training” in the game) that helps introduce you to the items and tools of the game. There have been a number of updates since its initial release in April 2019 and Community Spotlights on the Steam page of the game.
Completion Time: ~5 Hours
Extra Content: There are over 75,000 community levels to play, with more being added every day. This game could potentially last you hundreds of hours. Achievements are very difficult and would likely require you to make high quality levels to get them all, as some are dependent on the number of people who have played your level.

2. Splasher

Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, Steam
Regular Price: $14.99
Steam & PlayStation 4 Sale Price: $3.74 (Ends January 20th on PlayStation 4)
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Sample Music Track: Capture
Genre: 2D Precision Platformer
Metacritic: 79% from 7 Critic Reviews, 68% from 18 User Ratings
Description: It’s no surprise a group of ex-Rayman developers went on to create another fantastic platformer (not to be confused with Unruly Heroes). The main hook of Splasher are the three liquid abilities you find that influence how your character moves and jumps. Red paint will allow you to stick to surfaces and run on walls and ceilings, yellow paint will bounce you to new heights, and water can be used to undo the effects of either and rescue other splashers trapped by the paint. The game is fast paced, so knowing when to use which is as important as jumping at the right time. You’re eased into each new ability for a few stages before getting a new one so it’s never overwhelming.
Description Continued: Each level has six other splashers to rescue that each spell a letter of the word “Splash.” These act as an expanded test of your platforming abilities. There are also one to three segregated zones per level – these are single screen areas you must survive or win to rescue one of the other splashers. Making these optional zones that exist outside the regular level is a great touch because it allows the game to keep its fast paced “always be moving” approach while still allowing for greater variety in gameplay. You’ll typically either need to defeat a certain number of enemies or platform around the room to release the splasher. There’s only one boss that comes at the end of the game – the rest of the time you’ll be running, jumping, and painting.
Completion Time: ~5 Hours
Extra Content: I only rescued 2/3 of the splashers my first time around, so it will likely take a couple hours to save the rest. In addition, there’s a time trial mode that rewards you three different medals based on your time, as well as online leaderboards that measure your time against the rest of the world.

3. Marble It Up!

Platforms: Switch, Steam
Regular Price: $19.99
Steam Sale Price: $14.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Sample Music Track: The Conqueror
Genre: 3D Marble-based Platformer
Metacritic: 76% from 2 Critic Reviews, 83% from 4 User Ratings
Description: This comes from many of the same people who worked on the Marble Blast series from the early 2000s. The most mainstream comparison to this game would probably be Super Monkey Ball, though unlike that game you control the marble directly here rather than the stage. Your marble can jump and user powerups, and many times you’ll have to use the momentum to overcome the obstacles in front of you. Levels are usually linear, though there are many levels that tasks you with collecting gems in a more open area. There’s a great sense of speed to the levels, and with the proper timing of a good jump this allows you to forge your own path in many levels. Since each level is timed, you’ll see that many of the top players have found a way outside the expected path to the finish. This is great for speedrunning enthusiasts, though it’s still a fun time even if you’re not looking to climb the leaderboards.
Description Continued: Medals are awarded based on your completion time of each level, and the fact that they’re pretty short makes them highly replayable. There are also trophies to find in each level that allow you to unlock more marbles. You can choose between 100+ different marbles to play as. The game leans on the easier side – frequent checkpoints, large platforms, no time-outs, etc., but you’ll likely still die a few times before finishing a level. There are a few nice quality of life features I also appreciate: you can switch music tracks on the pause screen, use either the shoulder buttons or face buttons to jump and use power-ups, hide the timer if fast moving numbers intimidate you, reset the stage with a push of a button, and rewind time in practice mode.
Completion Time: ~4 Hours
Extra Content: You can try for the platinum medal on each level, find the collectible trophy in each level, participate in the daily challenges, and try to top the leaderboards. There are also over 100 unique marbles to collect that are awarded for doing the aforementioned challenges. The Steam version also has Steam Workshop support, which allows you to create and play custom user created content.

4. Spark the Electric Jester 2

Platforms: Xbox One, Steam
Regular Price: $19.99
Steam Sale Price: $8.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Sample Music Track: Technoria City
Genre: 3D Sonic-like Action Platformer
Metacritic: 75% from 1 Critic Review, 76% from 5 User Ratings
Description: This is the sequel to the original 2D PC exclusive from 2017, with another 3D sequel currently in production. If you care at all for the story, it’s recommended you play or at least read about what happened in the first game. Spark 2 actually follows Fark, another jester. Spark 2 emulates many of the high speed moments found in 3D Sonic games, but brings a few ideas of its own. In particular, action is a bigger focus in this game, though platforming is still the priority. Enemies are easy enough to run past with a few exceptions for mini bosses at the end of some levels and the nine main bosses. In addition, enemies can also add to your score.
Description Continued: In addition to Fark’s expanded move-set in combat, he also has the ability to double jump, dash, and wall jump. The jumps give you a lot of air time, lending more leniency to the platforming, and the dash is great for building momentum. There’s quite a bit to explore in each level too – jumping off ramps in the middle of loopdeloops will sometimes result in you finding the game’s main collectible, floppy disks. Fark can also acquire four additional costumes found within the levels that offer some variation in abilities. The game offers five difficulties at the start, with it recommending the second easiest option, Normal, as the default way to play your first time through. Bosses on this difficulty are fairly easy provided you’re competent with timing when to use your shield, though I did lose once or two against a few of them.
Completion Time: ~3 Hours
Extra Content: The game measures both your time and score for each level and rewards you with a gold or platinum medal depending on your performance. Getting all the medals for each of the 14 levels and nine bosses add a few hours to the game. There’s also a Tour Mode that tests you with specific challenges, like beating the whole game with only five lives. In addition, there are 109 floppy disks to find that unlock art. I only found 18 on my first playthrough. You can also replay the game on one of the higher difficulties. The game requires you 100% complete all of this for 100% achievement attainment.

5. Never Alone - Arctic Collection

Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, Steam, Android
Includes 2 Player Local Co-op
Regular Price: $17.99 ($14.99 for just the base game)
Steam Sale Price: $2.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Sample Music Track: Hilltop
Genre: 2D Co-op Focused/Narrative/Puzzle Platformer
Metacritic: 72% from 30 Critic Reviews, 63% from 107 User Ratings
Description: Never Alone centers around an Inupiat girl and a fox and tells a story based on Inupiat folktales. The Inupiat are an Alaskan Native people. The entire game takes place in this icy climate, with the story revolving around the girl finding the source of a blizzard sweeping away her village. This is a slower paced platformer and tends to lean on the easy side of things. The game is built around the co-op experience much like Untravel Two, Putty Pals, and Biped. However Never Alone assigns a unique role to each of the two characters. Only the fox can wall jump and bring visibility to spirits (who act as platforms), while the girl can push crates and throw magical beads.
Description Continued: While the game is built around the cooperation of the two players, it can still be enjoyed in single player, with the player being able to switch between both characters when playing solo. There are a few set-piece moments I don’t see in a lot of 2D platformers that really adds to the feeling of being on a long journey far away from home. The music is also appropriately ambient and reflects the desolate wintery environments. When playing through the game you’ll come across collectibles called “cultural insights,” which are videos that tell you more about the Inupiat culture.
Completion Time: ~4 Hours (including the 1 hour Foxtales DLC bundled with the Arctic Collection)
Extra Content: You can try to collect all the cultural insights and find all the secrets. Getting all achievements will require you to do so. There is no platinum trophy for this game.

6. Shadow Blade: Reload

Platforms: PlayStation 4, Switch, Steam, Android, iOS
Regular Price: $9.99
Steam Sale Price: $2.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Sample Music Track: Jade City
Genre: 2D Action Platformer
Metacritic: 70% from 10 Critic Reviews, 82% from 21 User Ratings
Description: Searching developer Dead Mage’s website for Children of Morta DLC updates exposed me to one of their earlier works – an action platformer reminiscent of Shinobi and Strider. Among a sea of pixel art 2D platformers, Shadow Blade stands out with its 3D characters and backgrounds. And the gameplay complements the modern work – your character has a number of moves at his disposable: wall jumps, wall slides, a downward jump attack, a dash, throw shuriken, etc. Getting in the flow of a level and being able to string all these moves together with the right timing feels really good.
Description Continued: While there are boss fights and times where you’ll be locked in a room forced to dispatch enemies, the game leans much heavier on its platforming elements. Many enemies can simply be evaded, though dispatching them can also increase your score at the end of each level. In addition, there are collectibles and a constant timer that also weighs in on your performance at the end of each level. The game is a bit easier than most 2D platformers, but getting a perfect grade is a difficult thing to achieve. Cutscenes are presented in the style of a comic book. While the story itself isn’t particularly novel, the presentation lends it a more unique flavor.
Completion Time: ~3 Hours
Extra Content: You can try for a perfect grade on each level. There is also a separate Challenge Mode that has specially designed levels that are of a greater challenge than what’s found in the main campaign with leaderboard rankings. There are two higher difficulties that can be unlocked. In addition, the Steam version has Steam Workshop integration with a level editor and custom levels to play. Getting all achievements would be very difficult. There is no platinum trophy.

7. Pumpkin Jack

Platforms: Xbox One, Switch, Steam, Android, [PlayStation 4 version planned for 2021]
Regular Price: $29.99
Steam Sale Price: $22.49
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Sample Music Track: The Wizard
Genre: 3D Action Platformer
Metacritic: 70% from 2 Critic Reviews, 90% from 1 User Rating
Description: This is a 3D platformer that reportedly takes inspiration from both MediEvil and Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. There’s about equal amounts of platforming and combat in this game. While the combat is relatively simple, you’re given a variety of weapons that all feel unique. The levels have a good amount of variety within them – you’ll jump between ships on a ferry ride, ride an undead horse through the sky, play a few mini games as a headless Jack, and fight a boss at the end of each of the six levels. Both the combat and platforming are relatively easy – platforms are typically large and Jack has an edge grab that helps tremendously, and smashing the many destructible objects around the levels increases your health.
Description Continued: This game takes the linear adventure approach, with a number of collectibles sprinkled throughout the levels: crow skulls, presents, and gramophones. Some areas are more open and allow you to choose the order in which you do certain tasks. The game has a decent amount of dialogue in it, which does an effective job of giving some character to Jack, his two animal companions, and the rest of the cast. The visuals and soundtrack are particularly great, especially if you’re into Halloween themed media.
Completion Time: ~4 Hours
Extra Content: There’s collectibles to back for – I got about 2/3 of the collectibles on my first playthrough – skins to unlock – which are purchased with the collectibles you find in the levels – and you get to start a second playthrough with all the weapons already unlocked at the beginning. You’ll also be able to return to any level you want via the level select menu. Getting all achievements is contingent on collecting all the crow skulls, gramophones, and outfits (presents were added in a later update and so aren’t required for 100% achievement attainment).

8. Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure

Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, Steam
Includes a Separate 4 Player Local Competitive/Versus Multiplayer Mode
Regular Price: $29.99
Steam Sale Price: $3.99
PlayStation 4 Sale Price: $5.99 (Ends January 20th)
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Sample Music Track: Parcel Peaks
Genre: 3D Collectathon Platformer
Metacritic: 68% from 6 Critic Reviews, 81% from 7 User Ratings
Description: Unbox takes heavy inspiration from Banjo Kazooie and other collectathons of the fifth generation but has levels far larger than any Nintendo 64 platformer. Fortunately your customizable character can cover huge amounts of ground very quickly via the unbox mechanic, which is basically a super jump you can use up to six times before you need replenishment via item pickups or checkpoints. Both the jump and unbox mechanic are tied to the shoulder buttons, which takes some getting used to but is ultimately one I’m in favor of, as it allows for camera control without removing your thumb from the jump or unbox buttons. The high speeds you can travel make for some great exploration, but the game is still able to disable your ability to unbox by giving you a “fragile” item, allowing for more carefully considered platforming sections.
Description Continued: Each of the three major worlds have four major collectibles: 200 gold tape, 10 caged zippies, 18 stamps, and 1 super stamp rewarded upon defeating the boss of the world. There is also a hub world that has just 200 gold tape to collect. The 18 stamps are the jiggies or stars of the game, and they’re primarily what you’re after to advance the game. 9 of them are hidden across the world, while the other 9 are given by NPCs upon the completion of a task: Digi will ask you to take an item from point A to point B with some platforming in between, Dash will ask you to complete three races around different areas of the map, Superbox will ask you to destroy 20 enemies in X amount of time, etc. The other collectibles simply unlock more cosmetic options for your character.
Completion Time: ~7 Hours
Extra Content: The game only requires you collect 2/3 of the stamps to beat the game. If you want to collect all the stamps, zippies, and gold tape, this could more than double your playtime, as the worlds are massive and finding all the gold tape is a daunting task, though they do make a distinct noise when you are near them once you’ve collected half of them in a level. Your friendly companion Bounce will also give you visual clues on where to find whatever collectible you might be stuck on. I was able to find all the collectibles in the first world but three gold tape with next to no issues, though Bounce helped me with the remaining three. I really have to commend the developers for their inclusion of both audio cues and visual guides built within the game to guide you to collectibles – it makes collecting every last thing a lot less tedious. The high speeds of your character allow you great traversal of the world, which also helps with collecting everything. The achievements require you to collect everything. There is no platinum trophy. In addition to the single player campaign, there are quite a few local multiplayer modes for up to four players – these include Boxing, Collect, Thief, Oddbox, and Delivery. The developers go into more detail on each mode here.

9. A Tale of Paper

Platforms: PlayStation 4, [Steam version planned for 2021]
Regular Price: $14.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Sample Music Track: Unfortunately there’s no soundtrack online.
Genre: 3D Little Nightmares-like Atmospheric Platformer
Metacritic: 60% from 4 Critic Reviews, 70% from 3 User Ratings
Description: A Tale of Paper takes direct inspiration from Little Nightmares, sporting the same sideview camera angle and minimalist narrative. It’s a little less creepy, has a bit more platforming, and it has the interesting twist of transforming into a variety of different origamis on the fly: from a little alien creature, to a frog, to a ball, to a paper airplane, etc., all with the push of a button. You’ll use a combination of different origami shapes to overcome the obstacles in the area, and you’ll be accompanied by some gorgeous sceneries in the process.
Description Continued: The gameplay is pretty easy in both its platforming and puzzles, making it an easygoing, movie-esque kind of game. While the story is minimalist, it results in a satisfying conclusion, and it really feels like you’ve been through quite a journey even with the short runtime. The game evokes the feeling of being a tiny specimen in a larger-than-life world – Toy Story 2 is probably the most apt comparison I can make. Outside of Little Nightmares, I haven’t played another game quite like this.
Completion Time: ~1.5 Hours
Extra Content: I got seven of the eight origami collectibles in my first run through the game. The trophies also only offer a few extra things to do, but I’d recommend reading the list of trophies before you play the game if you want to get the relatively easy platinum trophy.

10. Polyroll

Platforms: Switch, Steam
Regular Price: $9.99
Steam Sale Price: $2.49
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Sample Music Track: Marble Museum
Genre: 2D Sonic-like Platformer
Metacritic: N/A from 0 Critic Reviews, 80% from 1 User Rating
Description: While this game is definitely inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog, the pace is a lot slower - no high speed loopdeloops or anything like that. You're never going at a speed where you can't anticipate the obstacles in front of you. That said, it has a similar visual design, the same kind of ball roll, and a similar level design philosophy, along with some new ideas: turning into a ball allows you to perform a ricochet wall jump, collecting 10 diamonds (the equivalent of rings) fills your hearts from 1 to 6 depending on how many you have, and the gems you collect allow you access to Three Heart Palaces that increase your number of heart containers from 3 to 6. The Heart Palaces also challenge you with a unique speedrun level before you get the heart container increase. Power-ups also have a little extra utility, in that some must be used to access certain hidden areas where gems lie. It also incorporates a smaller Super Mario World style overworld map that allows you to sometimes take different routes.
Description Continued: There are 36 levels spread across 11 worlds, with a good amount of level variety and a sizable number of bosses. There are some cool ideas with the bosses too - like hitting a boss upwards to the top of the screen on a vertical level as he constantly tries to force himself downwards. Bosses generally can be attacked at any time, in contrast to many other pure platformers that require a boss to exhaust his moves before becoming vulnerable. This comes from the same developers as Clash Force – a Mega Man inspired action platformer – Spicy Gyro Games and Shiny Dolphin Games, but Polyroll is a significant improvement over their first game.
Completion Time: ~5 Hours
Extra Content: There are 96 gems to collect – three per 32/36 of the levels. Collecting all of them would add a few hours to the game.

Special shoutout to Levelhead which is my favorite game on the list and one of my favorite level creation games ever.
Have you played any of these games? What are some other overlooked platform indie games?

what games support nintendo switch online video

Nintendo Switch Online is (mostly) required for online multiplayer Before Switch Online launched, Nintendo offered free online multiplayer for games like Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe . The Nintendo Switch Online service lets Nintendo Switch owners enjoy online play in compatible games like Splatoon 2, ARMS, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Nintendo Switch Online members aged 13+ can also access the Nintendo Switch Online app to send play invitations and participate in voice chat for compatible games such as Splatoon 2. In Nintendo eShop, select the Nintendo Switch Online option on the left navigation to activate your free trial. Please note: one free trial period available per Nintendo Account. During the free trial, you can use the online play, voice chat via the smartphone app, Save Data Cloud and Nintendo Entertainment System - Nintendo Switch Online services. Online Play. Great games to play with—or against—other players with Nintendo Switch Online. Nintendo Switch Online membership (sold separately) and Nintendo Account required for online play. The Nintendo Switch Online service lets Nintendo Switch owners enjoy online play in compatible games like Splatoon 2, ARMS, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Nintendo Switch Online members aged 13+ can also... Nintendo Switch Online subscribers will get a similar benefit, but with much older games. Switch Online subscribers have access to a selection of 50 classic NES titles at this point, and new games ... The official Support website for Nintendo Switch. Let's help you out and get you back into the game. Online features, Save Data Cloud and Nintendo Switch Online smartphone app features available in compatible games. Not available in all countries. The Nintendo Account User Agreement , including ... UNO for Nintendo Switch; Unruly Heroes; Victor Vran Overkill Edition; War Theatre; Wargroove; Warriors Orochi 4; Wheel of Fortune; Windjammers; Word Search by POWGI; Worms W.M.D. WWE 2K18; Xenon Racer; Yet Another Zombie Defense HD; Nintendo Switch Online Games The Nintendo Switch Online app enhances your online gameplay experience on your Nintendo Switch™ system. You can use voice chat while playing compatible games—and check game-specific services even when you're not playing with your Nintendo Switch. Use voice chat during online play Now even more software supports voice chat!

Nintendo Switch Online Service FAQ Nintendo Switch ...

what games support nintendo switch online

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PlayStation 4 - News • Discussion • Community

In the Nintendo Switch Online app, you are able to see what titles support Voice Chat but by tapping on their game icon, you’ll be sent to it’s purchase page

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