Daily Briefing, Monday 4th January 2021

New year, same news delivery service! Here's hoping this is the year you finally make good progress on your backlog.

Bayonetta 3 is apparently still doing fine

Despite hearing absolutely zero news for three years now, Hideki Kamiya has reassured fans that development of the Nintendo Switch-exclusive sequel is still "progressing smoothly."

• Kamiya told Famitsu that the team have seen success in verifying the various new systems at play for Bayonetta 3, and have asked fans to please not be worried by the extended period of silence. Kamiya also said that project GG, Platinum Games' other big project, has "finally started progressing."

Microsoft would like that Xbox controller drift lawsuit to go away, please

A new motion by Microsoft has asked the Washington Court to compel arbitration, which would see the individual drifting complaints resolved outside of the courtroom by an impartial adjudicator. Microsoft believe this approach is in accordance with Xbox's Services Agreement.

• This particular lawsuit was filed in April last year, and alleged that drifting issues have been experienced by a large amount of Xbox players across a variety of controller types. The complaint was amended earlier this year to add new plaintiffs and request a jury trial, which Microsoft are obviously now disputing.

Are Ubisoft games headed to Xbox Game Pass?

The suggestion comes from Windows Central editor Jez Corden, who claimed on Twitter that Ubisoft could be considering incorporating their own Ubisoft+ platform into Xbox Game Pass in the same vein as EA Play.

• Corden believes that the incorporation could be "a vault or smaller slice of older games" but wouldn't rule out a bigger, EA-like, agreement. Xbox Marketing GM Aaron Greenburg has previously suggested that Microsoft are "open" to more partnerships, so we'll see!

After nearly four years, NieR: Automata's "final secret" has been found

Popular modder and dataminer Lance McDonald made the discovery, which involves entering a rather complicated cheat code to skip to the game's final ending (and unlock its bonus modes) after only defeating the first boss.

• McDonald says that the discovery was made following "hundreds of hours of reverse engineering" and is a genuine cheat code that is programmed into the game - not a glitch. A more in-depth video is now live on his YouTube channel, while the discovery itself has earned Yoko Taro's seal of approval.

That's everything for today - join us back here tomorrow for another dose of daily gaming news!