Daily Briefing: Friday 25th June

Pokémon GO fans aren't happy about a reversed pandemic change

Last year Niantic made a number of changes to Pokémon GO to make it still possible to play in the middle of a pandemic. These included extended Incense duration and new features like Remote Raids - but one of the most useful pandemic-era changes was the ability to interact with Pokéstops and Gyms from further away. Sadly, Niantic have announced plans to reverse this specific change starting sometime next month.

• The decision has been met with overwhelming negativity from fans. Reverting the interaction distance to pre-pandemic measurements cuts it down by about half - but many players welcomed the increased distance as a victory for accessibility. It also simply made the game more fun for players - making it easier to play the game without sacrificing safety or exercise. Niantic deciding to patch out a chunk of fun from their game is a strange call.

Kerbal Space Program will get a free next-gen upgrade

Kerbal Space Program Enhanced Edition is set to release on Xbox One and PS4 sometime this fall, and the game's publisher this week confirmed that a free next-gen upgrade is also on the way. The PS5 and Xbox Series X|S version will offer improved resolution, shaders, and textures alongside general performance enhancements.

• It's a big year for Kerbal Space Program as it celebrated its 10th anniversary earlier this week - and the Enhanced Edition should be a solid way to introduce the franchise to a wave of new players. There is also a Kerbal Space Program 2 on the way so a general franchise re-introduction will likely do some good ahead of that. The sequel is currently expected to release in the second half of 2022 after a series of delays.

Halo Infinite devs want to keep grind to a minimum

343 Industries this week went into a bit of detail on Halo Infinite's seasons, and outlined that making them manageable from a player perspective was a high priority for the development team. Infinite's seasons will last three months which, according to 343, should give players enough time to explore and experience everything while simultaneously not feeling too long or too short. 343 want to avoid it getting boring or "constantly pulling the rug from under players."

• Essentially, 343 Industries want to avoid the grind. Halo Infinite progression designer Christopher Blohm outlined on Halo Waypoint that that the team want to reward players with fun content, events and rewards without demanding players spend "a ton of hours every week" to complete everything. 343 don't want players to "grind it like it's a job" which, considering the state of so many season-oriented titles, is definitely a good thing. Halo Infinite is set to release sometime during the holiday season.

Overwatch's cross-play is pretty confusing so far

Overwatch's cross-play beta launched this week (it only took five years but whatever) and things...haven't been going so well. Ahead of launch we knew that players on console and PC would be able to play with/against each other but that those two ecosystems would be kept separate for competitive play. That all makes sense, but the reality has proven a little more confusing than that.

• Console players can't match up against PC players unless there is already a PC player in their party when matchmaking starts. If a PC player is present, then the game will automatically search for matches with other PC players. If there's no PC player, then the game will only search for games with other console players. It's also pretty difficult to see which players in the lobby are actively using cross-play which, while not a huge deal, is just another example of how bad Overwatch is at communicating information. Oh, and spare a thought for anyone on Nintendo Switch who manages to make it into a PC lobby with their locked 30fps and tiny thumbsticks.