Daily Briefing: Monday 12th April

Nintendo put renewed focus on developing original IP

Speaking in a recent interview with Nikkei, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has confirmed that the company will invest in more original content in the future, in addition to supporting its ongoing core franchises - something they have struggled with in the past.

• Nintendo may have one of the most diverse franchise portfolios in gaming, but the vast majority of them were created in the 80s and 90s and since then Nintendo have primarily focused on expanding these franchises. Nintendo's most recent new properties were Splatoon in 2015, Wii Sports in 2006, and Pikmin in 2001 - so they're absolutely due a new idea or two.

A Sonic Colours remaster could be on the way this year

The notion comes courtesy of Gematsu, who reported that German voiceover studio iksample have listed Sonic Colours Remastered on their portfolio of ongoing projects. The game was also briefly listed by French retailer SoGamely, detailing a 2021 release date on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

• Sonic Colours released on the Wii and DS way back in 2010 and was a genuinely solid outing for Sega's often embattled mascot. This year marks the 30th Anniversary of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and Sega have previously promised a spate of major announcements - could this supposed Sonic Colours remake be one?

Epic have lost a ton of money on Epic Game Store exclusives

A host of new court documents have emerged from the ongoing Epic v. Apple legal dispute and, among other things, they've revealed that Epic have spent a lot of money on securing exclusives and deals without recouping much. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney is entirely unphased, the money question a "fantastic investment" on Twitter.

• According to the court documents, Epic spent around $444m in 2020 securing exclusives and free games for their store. Players reportedly spent $700m on the Epic Store last year but third-party games, the ones Epic made those big money deals for, only accounted for $265m of that larger total. If you include deals from 2019, Apple estimate that Epic are at a $330m deficit.

The code to unlock TimeSplitters 2 in Homefront: The Revolution has been found

Last week we reported that a native 4K port of TimeSplitters 2 was hidden inside Homefront: The Revolution and, while it could be accessed with an unlock code, the developer that put it there had sadly lost the code. We said to give the internet a week or so to figure it out, but it only took four days.

• Self-anointed "emulation ninja" Spencer Perreault took to Twitter to share the lost code and open up TimeSplitters 2 to anyone who wants it. It isn't a perfect port by any means and there are a few crashes here and there but, considering this is essentially a sneaky bonus port of a game that never originally came to PC, we'll take it.