Daily Briefing: Wednesday 24th March

Rumoured Nintendo Switch Pro will allegedly use Nvidia's DLSS tech for 4K upscaling

That's according to a new report from Bloomberg, which claims that the new Switch is set to release later on this year and will rely on an updated Nvidia chip for improved graphics and processing. The report also outlines that the new chipset will also bring increased memory and a better CPU.

• A previous suite of rumours suggested that the Switch Pro is targeting 4K visuals while in docked mode and, while this is a lofty ambition, Nvidia's DLSS tech could certainly make it possible. The technology is exclusive to Nvidia's own RTX graphics cards and uses an AI to upscale in-game resolution without suffering a performance hit. Perfect for Nintendo's hybrid handheld, if true.

Ikumi Nakamura launches new indie studio, working on something spooky

The former Ghostwire Tokyo creative director, who captured hearts and minds at E3 a few years back, announced her new studio via a snazzy documentary released to YouTube channel Cutscenes - which see Nakamura visiting various spooky ruins throughout Japan. Nakamura is an open fan of the occult, so it'll be interesting to see what her new studio is up to.

• Alongside this announcement, Nakamura also confirmed for the first time that her departure from Ghostwire Tokyo developer Tango Gameworks a few years back was due to illness. Nakamura's career in the industry now spans 16 years - she got her start at Capcom with Okami and has experience on Bayonetta and the cancelled Scalebound, before spending 10 years at Tango. It's great to have her back.

New Amazon Games studio is helmed by Rainbow Six Siege veterans

Amazon's new Montreal-based studio will apparently focus on making original AAA games. Their first project will be a multiplayer title that is intended to draw on the collective experience of the group of devs Amazon poached from Ubisoft. The studio's founding members include Rainbow Six Siege's former production director, creative director, and brand director.

• The Montreal studio is still very much in its infancy and is still recruiting new staff across a variety of disciplines, but there's definitely a core of quality thanks to the experience of the studio founders. The big problem with this venture though is that it's an Amazon studio, and Amazon have been seriously struggling to break into the gaming space. Will things be different this time?

Blizzard won't be making any more Overwatch League MVP skins

The Overwatch League just released two special skins to celebrate this past season - one commemorating season champs the San Francisco Shock, and another presenting the season MVP Byung-sun "Fleta" Kim. Tucked away on the League website, however, was the little caveat that Fleta's will be the final skin made for an Overwatch League MVP.

• Blizzard haven't yet confirmed why they're stopping MVP skins, but it may have something to do with 2020 MVP Jay "Sinatraa" Won who is currently embroiled in some serious sexual and emotional abuse allegations by a former girlfriend. Blizzard essentially scrubbed his commemorative Zarya skin from existence once the allegations broke, and it looks like going forward they'll just be playing things safe regarding creating lasting in-game representations of individual personalities.

A CEO in Japan is giving employees the day off to play Monster Hunter Rise, like a hero

Masaki Hiyama, the CEO of VR development company Mark-on, took to Twitter to declare this coming Friday "MonHun Day", and officially give all of his employees the day off so they can stay home and hunt some monsters. Hiyama's vacation notice to employees noted that "it is expected that we will not be able to concentrate on our work" which is honestly fair enough.

• The release date of a new Monster Hunter is pretty much an unofficial national holiday in Japan anyway, so it's probably for the best that Hiyama just made things official - the holiday applies to everyone at Mark-on apart from executives. Early reviews of Monster Hunter Rise are looking very promising, so it looks like that day off will be well utilised. Can we have the day off too, please?