what’s up guys welcome back to NewsWave to start today with some Switch 2 sales updates specifically this coming out of the UK and we can see this is posted up this is over on the game business says Nintendo Switch 2 is the fastest selling Nintendo machine in UK history it beat the previous bestselling hardware launch for the company that was the 3DS and outsold the launch of the Nintendo Switch by more than 2 to one the company has revealed that being Neielson IQ now of course they mentioned the Switch was supply constrainted at launch and this would actually place it fourth overall that being the Switch 2 when it comes to console launches so it’s still trailing the PlayStation 5 PlayStation 4 and Xbox series when it comes to units this is excluding just dedicated handheld so the UK in general isn’t like obviously Nintendo’s biggest market but it shows here when you compare it to Nintendo themselves the Switch 2 yes is very popular and yes it it is selling despite even that higher price tag coming in at a baseline of $450 now we just need to see more information coming out specifically from Nintendo themselves hopefully soon with some sort of update as to how exactly the system did at launch i’m sure if it’s worth bragging about they’ll want to make sure it’s known before their annual gathering of the shareholders later this month also here’s an interesting thing that popped up online take a look at this this is posted up by Grunt API who the a lot of information that can get posted here this is from a reliable data miner okay they say “I didn’t expect to come across this today but I can now officially confirm a Halo game is coming very soon to PlayStation as of now there’s no sign of a version for the Nintendo Switch 2.” They go on to reply to someone saying the title now exists on the retail API no ETA though so I’m I again we’ll get into the direct thing but I I do think there’s going to be a place for Microsoft to announce that Halo is going to platforms outside of the Xbox ecosystem here soon and I think in turn a PlayStation version will follow on the the Microsoft or Halo website when they make that official press release and announcement like we’ll see in a a PlayStation show or or Nintendo Direct where they’ll announce a game it doesn’t have the other logos there for the systems but then you find out from that company itself that behind the game is like oh yeah it’s also coming to the other these other platforms i think that’s how that’s going to happen with Halo and I think that’s how a PlayStation version could be announced here pretty soon i’m not really sure which one it would be though because the Master Chief Collection wouldn’t necessarily make sense to roll out now if we’re getting a Halo Combat Evolved remake in Unreal like the the rumors have said for next year with the big 25th anniversary i almost wonder if this is Halo Infinite as weird as that sounds but it’s their active game and it’s a way for them to get more money out of microtransactions it’s free to play maybe that’s the strategy get Halo Infinite on Infinite on some of these other platforms including PlayStation but I I guess we’ll see here soon oh and we have an update to look forward to for people who use their PlayStation Dual Sense controller on multiple devices we can see this is over the on their official account where they say “Want to pair your Dual Sense controller to multiple devices at once an update planned for later this year enhances pairing functionality stay tuned for more details.” So the idea here would be your PlayStation 5 Dual Sense controller to my understanding would be able to save profiles for what devices it’s synced to and then switch between them quickly on the fly the Xbox Series controller can already do this you double tap the sync button and then it’ll go between synced profiles so it’s very easy to go back and forth say between a PC or an Xbox or I mean who knows maybe PlayStation is branching out further and you can sync it to an Android device or so on i mean the Dual Sense controller works across a a a number of different devices so this would just be more convenient in general and enable them to sell more accessories which are high margin for them so we we’ll see how they tackle that exactly maybe there’s a button you double press or a combination in order to jump between devices and guys with some of the quick news out of the way let’s get into the bigger stuff let’s start right away with Nintendo announcing an update and actually a new game for Splatoon 3 and this does work in their favor when it comes to the Switch 2 because well the it’s gonna be Switch 2 specific but also they’re going back to Splatoon 3 and getting it set up for the new hardware so let’s take a look this is posted up over on Nintendo’s website where they say Nintendo announced the first ever Splatoon spin-off game Splatoon Raiders coming exclusively on the Nintendo Switch 2 system they say as a mechanic you’ll go on a mysterious adventure on an island and seems like it’s going to be just just single player based so that that’s cool because while we have had of course single player DLC and just in general kind of like a story mode that worked to teach you the game but also just allowed you to do something other than just multiplayer it didn’t feel as maybe robust as it could in that kind of a universe sort of looks like that’s the what they’re going to go for here with Splatoon Raiders so I’m interested to see what they have here there’s no release date shared for this okay so keep that in mind as we go along but again like the idea of a singleplayer experience for what’s the like one of their I guess close okay one of their most popular multiplayer franchise of course something like Mario Kart World or just Mario Kart in general is their most popular multiplayer uh multi multiplayer franchise but Splatoon’s up there okay now the thing with this is Splatoon Raiders has already been rated by the ESRB so it’s not too far off would be my assumption and this plays into the whole conversation that of course has sprung up around a Nintendo Direct and if there is one happening because look they just announced Splatoon Raiders do they need to have a direct if they’re just going to do stuff like this well the way I see it here which we’ll talk about the update here in a second but there’s no release date it’s ESRB rated this to me just seems like a way for them to pair an announcement for Switch 2 exclusive content with an update for even a Switch One game because Switch One owners will be able to benefit with the free update and then they’ll put a date on it maybe even just just release it outright when there is a Direct and again I I was looking at next week potentially I think as a Nintendo Direct uh airing so I had I was taking a guess of like the 18th like right in the middle of the week but it could be the one a like a week after i do think there is a direct that’s going to take place in June it’s just what they typically do and it would be weird to now not do it when you have a brand new system and a new generation to set up here because they need release dates i mean after Donkey Kong they have Pokemon Legends ZA but in terms of holy first party games they have a lot of titles that are at least announced for this year but no release dates seems like that would be a good way to I don’t know maybe get that stuff directly out to people who have now bought your your system of course they have it at Nintendo today app and I guess they could just start just rifling off release dates through it each day but it seems like doing a direct would be just a better course way for them to get everything out there all at once but again we also had a free update now this of course being for Splatoon 3 is coming to the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch 2 on June 12th this will go live tomorrow it is free and the update features the Splatlands collection there’s a total of 30 new weapons uh kits in this collection a returning stage from the original Splatoon game on Wii U called Urchin Underpass it’ll also be added to the stage rotation so you know at least new stage to play well new but old technically although look a lot of people didn’t have the the Wii U i I get it but in this way it’s hey we’re going to bring this up to Splatoon 3 at least a new place to to to splat on i I guess there i mean still though it looks like a pretty big update with all the weapons and other things that went into this and the fact that it’s free it is like a nice to have thing now they do mention that the Switch and Switch 2 will still be compatible however as I mentioned we do have an upgrade here now we can go over to Nintendo’s page that they have set up for the different Switch to Switch to upgrades that are that are free to download for things like Pokemon Scarlet Violet uh Game Builder Garage Captain Toad Treasure Tracker so on and we’ve covered those at length at this point but now we have a new entry and it makes sense why they’ve dated these with update available as Splatoon 3 has now been added for June 12th and we can see the updates include visuals so optimized for the Switch 2 display and high resolution TVs for improved image quality of course they would have to at least have this set up for upscaling to 4K and Splatoon 3 looks pretty clean i think the art style does help it a lot for the the Switch one but now kind of think about that in the sense of it being smoothed out I I would assume completely at this point and being even very vibrant in general uh in 4K doesn’t mention HDR or anything but yeah I mean eventually we’re going to get Splatoon 4 you have to do something to kind of set that all apart and maybe building it from the ground up with something like HDR in mind would would be a good way to go they mentioned frame rate and I heard that I said “Wait a minute this makes sense for a 120 fps game although I guess then you would have a a competitive advantage Switch 2 versus Switch One.” But I This makes sense however it says optimized for Nintendo Switch 2 for smoother movement in the plaza and grand festival grounds so I assume those that usually they’re 30 FPS on the Switch one which is very jarring by the way going from that and then going into the multiplayer and it’s all of a sudden 60 i assume it’s just going to be 60 across the board but I am holding out hope because we we kind of do need a game that takes advantage of the 120 Hz display in handheld mode the only thing we have to my understanding is the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour and it’s just one mode specifically that will turn on 120 FPS or 120 hertz to show you the difference between frame rates people thought that Mario Kart World was 120 FPS in handheld mode seemed to be some kind of miscommunication there between Nintendo and just everyone which that was kind of a running theme leading up to the Switch 2 release not the case though it’s 60 fps this again feels like a good title to try that on but maybe that’s something else they’re saving for the future with an inevitable Splatoon 4 still though really cool update to see of course I’ll be checking it out on the Switch too splatoon 3 is a fun game it’s not my go-to for multiplayer in general but it’s still enjoyable it’s frantic it’s all over the place and actually game chat would work really well here because I’m I’m just not connecting my cell phone to do voice chat so at least Nintendo’s kind of met me halfway there with with the whole game chat thing on the Switch too but there we go june 12th check out the free update and we’ll keep an eye out for a release date I guess on Splatoon Raiders who knows maybe maybe they have a way to get it directly to us here soon next up let’s talk about Mind’s Eye which has not had a great launch so leading up to release yesterday which by the way the game came out in the middle of the day i think it was at at noon or 1:00 in the afternoon and Eastern time and it was kind of strange to see that oh it wasn’t even a midnight release so um you know I’m keeping an eye on on the PlayStation store i’m thinking you know what i’ll grab it there because I said after I went through a very very strange preview process that I would check it out day one to let everyone know how it turns out and indeed I did that in a video yesterday so if you want to hear more of my in-depth thoughts on my experiences through the first few hours check it out there it was something hey you know what it It was real it’s a real game at least people were unsure if it was even going to be an actual thing that released but hasn’t been great in terms of the quality of the title in fact if you look online on social media like on X I mean it’s just post after post after post some of the craziest looking glitches i mean we’ve seen glitches that are almost disturbing to a degree on what they’ll do to some of the character models this is up there there’s a few glitches that where someone runs into an important NPC in the game they’ll fall over and then just not only break into pieces but it’ll stretch out their arms or other things and it looks insane half the time when it happens otherwise though people have reported all kinds of crashes and if you look over on Steam at this time it’s currently sitting at mixed however for a while it was at mostly negative and a lot of the a lot of the frustrations come down to the performance of the game the crashing that’s going on and some about maybe the the story or or the gameplay itself the combat for me I just I the only thing that stands out about this at least in my mind is the story and the setting which I do like where it’s kind of taking place again that like just before Singularity where AI and organic matter start to come together i think that’s an interesting time period to kind of navigate there even though it doesn’t seem like it’s going to span like decades or something it’s going to be more of a confined sort of storyline and and and timeline here but I I think it’s still just an interesting place to be for this to take place but as I’m playing it frame rate’s not good the the game play feels like it’s uh I mean this is 15 years old at this point and I just I just don’t know if the story is going to be enough to hold it up for most people and again shocking performance on even the PS5 Pro where it was a it was lucky to be at 30 FPS most of the time it was significantly lower than that so poor quality all the way around for it if you were interested I would hold out and wait and see if any of the patches they push as we go along which seems like it’s going to be many many patches here to get this all set up to be acceptable and then maybe check it out at that point but let me know let me know if you picked up Mind’s Eye yesterday on a whim and what your thoughts have been for it and in our last bit of news let’s talk about Sony Ben Studio and layoffs which we had heard previously in a report that they had cancelled along with Bluepoint if you remember whatever games they were working on and it seemed like one with Bluepoint was like a multiplayer God of War game and Ben Studios working on a live service game so in that is like throw it on the pile of live service cancellations at Sony but there’s something I’ve mentioned many times now and it’s it’s not necessarily the money aspect sony can waste a bunch of money if they really want to with this kind of thing games get cancelceled all the time anyway but it just feels like the live service push being kind of a dud across the board except for like Hell Divers 2 being an exception i mean it’s cost them a lot of time a lot of development and in fact this you can see posted up this is from Jason Trier on a social media account saying Sony’s Ben Studio which canceled a live service game earlier this year is laying off 30% of staff today around 40 people bloomberg News has learned Studio has been spinning up a new project following the cancellation now just a few hours later we did have Ben Studio put out this statement saying “Today we said goodbye to some incredibly talented teammates as we transition to our next project we’re deeply thankful for their contributions as they’ve shaped who we are and their impact will always be part of our story this is a difficult moment for our team but we hold immense respect for everyone who got us here as we move forward we remain committed to building the future of Ben Studio with creativity passion and innovation in the titles we craft so this is kind of a shame obviously because Ben I mean people are being laid off and yeah that’s a shame 30% or 40 people from a studio that if okay here are 30% and 40 people not a massive studio technically but still I’m sure a very tight-knit group and you go off thinking okay we’re going to do this live service game because Sony wants live service games so we can pitch this and we’ll probably get the green light and they do and then it doesn’t work out that misses a milestone or wasn’t necessarily living up to what they were hoping it to be they cancel it and they get laid off it’s like well great now they’re spitting up a new project and here’s what I meant before when And I say it’s more the time factor guys you might as well start targeting the PS6 i It’s We’re halfway through 2025 now even if they started spinning up their new game at the beginning of this year we’re in the middle of five six sevenyear dev cycles even if they speedrun this thing and let’s say they somehow had a four or five year development cycle on this game we’re talking 2029 2030 and I guess the PS5 could still be around for crossgen but do you actually want that if we’re in the 2030 we already talked about the PS4 logo popping up now and people go “Oh still when we get into 2030s do you really want the PS5 logo to be popping up if you have a PS6 now sitting up on your shelf for a couple of years?” Probably not so that that’s the thing here is Ben Studio has released uh Days Gone Remastered and um there you go that was the PS5 contribution there I guess yeah it’s it’s kind of tough when these live service games are getting cancelled and you pivot and then you kind of spend the entire generation developing games that don’t come out so there we go i guess Ben Studio off and running towards the PlayStation 6 generation feels like uh feels like we got a good four or five years before we really see them again with I guess something to release and before we go to the comments of the day we’ll take a look at the poll that I posted up yesterday where I ask “Are you expecting Nintendo Direct this month?” Look at that 55% said “Now you know what i saw it in the comments.” People were like “Oh yeah i was I was expecting it absolutely.” But then they did this big Splatoon announcement like just out of nowhere randomly and I’m not really sure now i I don’t I don’t think so the Splatoon Raiders threw it off for me but we still don’t know when it’s coming out and it’s coming out soon so sure they could come back next week and say “Okay guys it’s coming out the end of June.” I’m still I’m still holding out for that Nintendo Direct it makes sense for them to have one for a lot of these release dates third party announcements as well like Call of Duty is I think Black Ops 7 is coming out at the end of this year on the Switch too which it would shock me if it didn’t and I think it’s going to be announced in a direct we could see by the way Halo announced in the direct maybe Halo Infinite oh yeah and then also it’s going to PlayStation and that’s kind of the the day the data mining that was spotted there for Halo on PlayStation 5 so we look again I’ll give it a couple of weeks here and by the end of June we’ll see what ended up happening then we’ll finish up with the comment of the day as you’re seeing here this is from JK who says “Man they got Miiamoto making movies instead of games.” To be fair he’s making movies but he’s also doing the theme park stuff and he’s technically still involved with games i mean you can look the last time he was credited from what I’ve seen in games is uh at the end of 2024 he was a senior supervisor role for Mario Luigi Brotherhip and Princess Peach Showtime so there you go he’s involved in in those titles which actually were like some of the worst performing and looking games on the towards the end of the Switch One’s life but hey there’s always a chance for a Switch 2 patch right anyway also Miiamoto is 72 so he’s kind of given a lot of his life to game development and it’s sort of in that phase of what do you want to do Miiamoto and it seems like he wants to do stuff with the movies i mean think about it this way he’s gone from you know unknown to making the most iconic franchises in video games spending decades doing it and now he gets to go turn those into movies where billion some odd dollars made by uh by the Super Mario Brothers movie and he’s doing a theme park that people you know thousands of people come out to like every day or so to to be part of so I seems like he’s uh he’s pretty happy where he is right now and ladies and gentlemen that’s going to do it here for Newsweave if you enjoyed