Daily Briefing: Thursday 18th February

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is headed to Nintendo Switch

Last night's Nintendo Direct was packed full of announcements but one of the biggest was that Skyward Sword, which first released on the Wii in 2011, will head Switch on July 16th. It'll have updated visuals, reworked controls to make it playable in handheld mode, and a snazzy set of new Joy-Cons if you fancy them.

• This Direct wasn't as Zelda Anniversary-focused as many had anticipated. Eiji Aonuma introduced Skyward Sword after briefly apologising for not having anything to show about Breath of the Wild 2 - though he did confirm that things are "progressing smoothly" and we should get more news this year. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is also getting an Expansion Pass, but that was about it.

4A Games have some issues with Xbox Series S GPU performance

The Metro Studio have stated that the console's relatively low GPU performance "presents challenges" when developing future games - which stirs up the old industry belief that Microsoft's insistence on having two disparate current-gen consoles would impact game development.

• 4A are currently working on enhanced Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC versions of Metro Exodus for release later this year. All the new console versions will offer ray-tracing and 60fps - with the Xbox Series X and PS5 hitting 4K and the Series S targeting 4K. But 4A chief technical officer Oleksandr Shyshkovtsov says that the studio currently have a "compromise solution" for the Series S. Yikes.

Xbox's Bethesda acquisition reportedly influenced Stadia studio closures

According to a new Kotaku report that cites several anonymous employee testimonies, Google Stadia Boss Phil Harrison pointed to Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda as one of the reasons behind Google's decision to shutter all its internal development studios.

• Google had previously been aggressively growing their portfolio of first party studios in the hopes of bolstering Stadia, with staff saying that Harrison sent an email praising them for their studios' "great progress" just one week before the decision to close all the studios was announced.

Josef Fares is betting big on It Takes Two

The man known for his bold statements has made another following the news that co-op puzzle adventure It Takes Two had gone gold - he says it's "impossible" to get bored with the game and that he'll give $1,000 to anyone who says they are "but they have to be honest about it."

• It Takes Two is the latest title from Hazelight, the developer behind other cooperative titles like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and A Way Out, and will once again team up with the EA Originals publishing label. Fares is certainly confident that this latest game will be a lasting hit, but will he actually pay up if that turns out to not be the case?