Daily Briefing, Thursday 7th January 2021

Hello, friends, and welcome to another edition of the Bellular Daily Briefing - industry news right at your fingertips.

More Switch Pro rumours surface

This time courtesy of well-known dataminer SciresM, who has claimed that the Switch's most recent firmware upgrade references a new hardware - codenamed Aula.

• Aula reportedly uses the same chip as the Switch Lite and the updated 2019 Switch model, which SciresM suggests will be pushed to higher clock speeds. They also believe the firmware supports 4K resolution, possibly via an updated console dock, and that the tablet itself could have an OLED screen.

Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo back in the day

According to a new Bloomberg report, Microsoft were looking to splash the cash around 20 years ago with the launch of the original Xbox - and met with a number of big companies to discuss acquisition possibilities.

• EA were top of the list but they politely declined, and a later deal with Square feel through due to the price being "too low." Nintendo, meanwhile, "just laughed their asses off" at the inquiry. Xbox's then director of third-party relations, Kevin Bachus, describes the meeting as "an hour of somebody just laughing at you." Yeesh.

Outriders gets another delay

This is the third time the upcoming collaboration between Square Enix and People Can Fly (Painkiller, Bulletstorm) has been delayed. Originally announced back at E3 2019, the sci-fi shooter is now set to release April 1st, rather than in February.

• While another delay is disappointing at this stage, Square Enix have announced that a demo will be released on February 25th. Players will be able to take any class through the first few hours of the game, either alone or in co-op, and take their character and progress forward into the main game.

Minecraft Earth to shut down this summer

The game was released into early access in late 2019 and, as you can probably guess, has had a rough time of it ever since - what with it being an augmented reality game based around being able to go outside.

• A statement released to the official Minecraft blog admits that the current global situation has made the game "near impossible" to operate, and it will be shuttered at the end of June this year. A new update will make the game easier to play indoors, while adjusting microtransactions, so there will still be some fun to be had before July rolls around.

That's all for today - catch us back here tomorrow for another collection of daily happenings