The Biggest News In Gaming (Week Beginning 03/02/20)

Nintendo Says There Are No Plans To Release A New Switch Model In 2020, Gets Hit With Coronavirus

Despite many a rumour and speculative statement, Nintendo says it has no plans to release an updated model of the Nintendo Switch this year.

Suspicions that the Japanese company was planning to release a “Switch Pro” have been surfacing since Sony and Microsoft released the iterative versions of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa, however, has dismissed the possibility.

He said “Regarding Nintendo Switch, we believe that it is important to continue to communicate the appeal of both Nintendo Switch systems and expand the installed base. Please note that we have no plans to launch a new Nintendo Switch model during 2020.”

Despite announcing a limited-edition Animal Crossing Nintendo Switch, the company did release the Nintendo Switch Lite, a handheld only version of the console late last year.

Unfortunately, Nintendo has reported this week that its production lines have seen a hit due to the infamous Coronavirus. Furukawa has described the production hit as “unavoidable”.

“If shutdowns exceed a month or so, game schedules will be delayed,” said Ken Rumph, an analyst for investment banking group Jefferies.

Rumph also warned that the next-gen Xbox and PlayStation could also take a production hit should the delays continue. “New consoles may likewise suffer supply issues from a prolonged disruption, ahead of their Fall 2020 planned launches,” he said.

Take-Two Interactive Stock Drops After Co-Founder Leaves Rockstar

Dan Houser, one of the co-founding brothers of Rockstar Games, announced this week that he was leaving the company in March. Since then, Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar and 2K, has seen a sudden drop in its share price.

The video game publishing power-house saw a 6% share price drop in only a day, which totals around $800 million in the stock’s global value.

Before Houser’s announcement, the value of a Take-Two share was $127.44, but it subsequently dropped to $119.81. At the time of writing, the share price has since risen once again to $126.84.

Rockstar has been helmed by the Houser brothers for over 2 decades and has been the foundation of Take-Two’s financial success since the releases of the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption franchises.

Rockstar’s most successful outing in recent years has undoubtedly been Grand Theft Auto Online which, in December of 2019, celebrated its most popular month in concurrent players in a baffling six years after its release.

Sony Remains Cryptic About PlayStation 5 Details

Sony has revealed no new concrete details about the PlayStation 5 this week but has hinted that major details will be given in the near future.

This week, the company added a PlayStation 5 page to the official PlayStation website, filed patents for the console name in Europe, and said that the console’s price hasn’t fully been decided yet.

Firstly, Sony added the PlayStation 5 to their website, saying: “We’ve begun to share some of the incredible features you can expect from PlayStation 5, but we’re not quite ready to fully unveil the next generation of PlayStation.

“Sign up below to be among the first to receive updates as we announce them, including news on the PS5 release date, PS5 price and the upcoming roster of PS5 launch games.”

The company also filed a patent in Europe for the PlayStation 5 this week, which only allows a small margin of time for them to actually deliver a marketplace announcement.

Finally, during an earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki said that the price of the next PlayStation hasn’t fully been decided on yet.

“First we must absolutely control the labor cost the personnel cost. It must be controlled.” Totoki said.

“It’s very difficult to discuss anything about the price at this point of time. And depending upon the price level, we may have to determine the promotion that we are going to deploy and how much cost we are prepared to pay. So it’s a question of balance.” He concluded.

Xbox Head Says Amazon and Google Are The Main Competition, Not Sony And Nintendo

Microsoft’s investment in video game streaming seems to be more important than anyone had realised - the company’s head of Xbox, Phil Spencer has said that he considers the company’s central competitors to be those in the streaming market, not the console market.

Spencer said, “When you talk about Nintendo and Sony, we have a ton of respect for them, but we see Amazon and Google as the main competitors going forward,

“That’s not to disrespect Nintendo and Sony, but the traditional gaming companies are somewhat out of position. I guess they could try to recreate Azure, but we’ve invested tens of billions of dollars in cloud over the years.”

The Xbox veteran suggested he believes subscription and streaming is the future of the mass gaming market, not in-home consoles as he said “I don’t want to be in a fight over format wars with those guys while Amazon and Google are focusing on how to get gaming to seven billion people around the world,

“Ultimately, that’s the goal.” he finished.

Arguably, this has been a result of the success Microsoft has seen with the launch of the Xbox Game Pass, and the subsequent news that while game revenue is down, subscription for their streaming service has doubled.

Next Ratchet and Clank Game Rumoured to Be Part of PlayStation 5’s Launch Line-up

According to Colin Moriarty, a former editor at IGN and a long-running PlayStation commentator, the next Ratchet & Clank game could be coming out alongside the PlayStation 5.

“We’re going to get a Ratchet & Clank in-between [Spider-Man and an also-unannounced sequel] on PlayStation 5.” Moriarty said on his podcast, Sacred Symbols.

“I feel like that’s going to be a launch game, the Ratchet & Clank game that’s long been in development at Insomniac.” He said.

Of course, this is just rumour, but Moriarty’s connections with Insomniac are high in number, and it’s more than possible that he’s heard from the studio that the game they’ve been working on has been a Ratchet & Clank title.

This would make sense for Insomniac’s first game release as a Sony first-party studio, as the franchise has been a long-running PlayStation staple.

It should also be noted that Ratchet & Clank, released in 2016, was the studio’s most successful game of all time before it took on the globally-known franchise of Spider-Man.