It’s not just the Christmas week that’s traditionally fairly slow in the world of gaming news; the week immediately following, also rather cutely known as “Twixtmas” by some, is also generally quite a quiet one.
As always, though, “quiet” doesn’t necessarily mean “devoid of news”, and so there are still some interesting tidbits to pick over from the week following the revelries.
We can’t help but wonder, as we begin a new year, about what the industry will look like after another twelve months has elapsed. For now, though, let’s take a look at what’s been happening this week!
Looks like the Switch 2 will have some kind of upscaling method
As the Switch 2’s inevitable announcement draws closer and closer, a new patent revealed this week suggests that the console will have some kind of upscaling capability built into it.
In case you don’t know what upscaling is, it’s effectively a method by which resolution can be improved through the use of AI and other software processes, thus allowing less capable graphics cards to output at higher resolutions.
It’d make sense if the Switch 2 sported such technology; it’s bound to be a less powerful machine than the PS5 and the Xbox Series X, so building in some way to improve game visuals through software would be logical.
Black Myth: Wukong’s producer says the game isn’t on Xbox because of Series S
A while back, Microsoft said that platform problems weren’t the reason Soulslike action game Black Myth: Wukong hasn’t appeared on Xbox yet.
This week, however, Black Myth: Wukong producer Feng Ji appeared to contradict Microsoft’s claims when he said that the Series S’ memory limitations were holding back an Xbox version of the game.
According to machine translation, he said that “years of optimisation experience” would be necessary in order to make a port of Wukong for the Series S. Ouch. Looks like you’ll have to wait a while if you want to play this one on Xbox.
Stardew Valley has hit 41m sales
Just in case you’re doubting the ongoing popularity of everyone’s favourite farming sim Stardew Valley, developer and publisher ConcernedApe revealed new sales numbers this week.
It turns out Stardew Valley has managed to cross the 41 million sales threshold as of December last year (that’s 2024, in case you need bringing up to speed), and more than half of those sales are on PC.
In case you’re interested, almost 8 million of the sales were on Nintendo Switch, which means that between them, Xbox, PlayStation, and mobile systems pick up the remaining 7 million or so.
Apple’s Vision Pro is reportedly winding down production
We’ll readily admit this one’s more gaming-adjacent than purely gaming-focused, but it’s worth reporting on given the size of the company, as well as the eye-watering price Apple was asking for the headset.
According to a Kotaku report (which cites a paywalled site called The Information), Apple will begin winding down production of its Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, owing to what Kotaku calls a “backlog of unsold devices”.
Honestly, we can’t say we’re surprised. The Vision Pro feels too expensive to fit into the lifestyles of any but those with a significant amount of money to burn, but then again, ‘twas ever thus with Apple.
Golden Idol developer reveals his next game
Will Ackermann, who worked on the excellent The Rise of the Golden Idol, has revealed his next project, and it’s another Golden Idol-style puzzler by the name of City of Voices.
He won’t be working on this one alongside Golden Idol developer Color Gray Games, however; instead, he’ll be developing it as part of his own company, Kini Games, alongside artist and animator Matt Frith.
Fear not, though; it looks like the game will contain all of the puzzling joys you’ve come to expect from the Golden Idol games, albeit with images as the core mechanic this time rather than words.
Minecraft creator Notch has “basically announced Minecraft 2”
This week, Minecraft creator Notch, also known as Markus Persson, “basically announced” a spiritual successor to the phenomenally popular sandbox game Minecraft, although it’ll naturally be called something different as Microsoft owns the rights to that particular franchise.
Notch posted a poll on his X (or Twitter, if you’re ancient like us) account asking players which of two projects they’d like to see from him: a dungeon crawling roguelike a la Nethack or ADOM, or a spiritual successor to Minecraft.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, respondents overwhelmingly voted in favour of Minecraft part deux, and so it looks like we know what Notch will be working on for the next few years, assuming he stays true to the poll.
Elden Ring Nightreign won’t have messages in it
Perhaps one of the most iconic elements of the Souls series and its offshoots is the messaging system, whereby players can leave messages on the ground to help (or hinder) one another.
Well, along with a deep story and a focus on single-player adventuring, it seems that messages are another element From Software intends to cut out of upcoming multiplayer-focused survive-’em-up Elden Ring: Nightreign.
The developer says you’ll still be able to see other players’ ghosts, but that you won’t be able to read messages anymore. If you ask us, there’s little point without seeing “dog” written next to turtles across the Lands Between.
Yet another Switch 2 leak seems to show Joy-Cons
In more Switch 2 news this week, another leak apparently emerged from China that purports to show the new console’s Joy-Con controllers, which will seemingly be improved over the original design.
Obviously, improvements make a lot of sense; a new console is a good opportunity to correct fundamental design flaws and quirks that weren’t possible to significantly change during the cycle of the first console.
If these leaks are accurate, then we can expect features like magnetic attachments rather than the sliding mechanism used by the current Joy-Cons, as well as bigger SL and SR buttons and more.
