Daily Briefing: Monday 19th July

Nintendo deny plans for further Switch models

Rumours of another upcoming upgrade to the base Nintendo Switch have been knocking around since the OLED model was announced a few weeks back. The prevailing belief among those disappointed by the lack of a full Switch Pro is that the OLED model is a sort of stopgap update, with a more pronounced one set to arrive on down the line. Nintendo may have just quashed those dreams, however, with confirmation that they "have no plans for launching any other model [of Switch] at this time."

• Alongside this confirmation came an official response to another rumour that Nintendo's profit margins are set to increase with the OLED Switch compared to the base model. This refers to a report from Bloomberg last week that suggested the OLED model only costs an additional $10 per unit to make, which would mean more profits for Nintendo. The company deny this, saying in a statement that they "want to make clear that the claim is incorrect." So there you go.

Rainbow Six Extraction and Riders Republic delayed again

Both games were actually shown off during last month's Ubisoft Forward presentation and were both originally slated to release this September. Over the weekend, however, Ubisoft confirmed that both titles need a bit more testing and will therefore have these release dates pushed. Riders Republic will now launch October 28th, while Rainbow Six Extraction has been knocked back to January 2022.

• In a statement, Ubisoft outlined that the delays will "give more opportunities for players to test, play firsthand, and give feedback" on the games so that Ubisoft can work to help them "reach their full potential." The company believe that the delays are the right decision to ensure game performance and player satisfaction, though tellingly there was no mention of protecting employee health or anything like that.

It sure seems like The Coalition are working on something new

The weekend saw a new spate of rumours that the Gears of War studio are working on a new IP. The notion comes courtesy of one of the studio's level designers who recently updated their LinkedIn profile with mention of a "new IP" project they'd been working on for the past six months. That update has now been removed, but not before it got the rumour mill turning.

• The studio confirmed back in May that they would be shifting their focus to next-gen development as enabled by Unreal Engine 5, but were quick to emphasise that they wouldn't be announcing any new games in the near future. This, of course, isn't an announcement, though it does give a wee bit of a look behind the scenes. The Coalition are actually set to provide an update on the work they've been doing with UE5 at GDC this week, which should be worth a watch.

Valve worked really hard to combat joystick drift with the Steam Deck

While the Steam Deck is obviously aimed at an entirely different market than the Nintendo Switch, the form factor alone means that it won't be able to escape comparison with Nintendo's hybrid console. One of the more worrying aspects of this comparison, of course, is related to the reliability of the Steam Deck's joysticks. Valve have confirmed that they are well aware of the potential issues surrounding the hardware, and have done a lot of internal testing to avoid the "risk" of joystick deterioration.

• In a new interview with IGN, and a number of the Steam Deck's designers and engineers went into a bit of detail on the measures taken to avoid the increasingly prevalent joystick drift issue. These include picking only the highest quality components and doing a "ton of testing on reliability" in order to ensure customers will be "super happy" with the end product. While the Nintendo Switch is the reluctant poster child for joystick drift, both Microsoft and Sony have also been served with their own share of class action lawsuits. Valve are likely hoping to avoid the same fate, but we'll have to wait to get our hands on a Steam Deck to see just how sturdy it is.