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Daily Briefing: Wednesday 7th July
🕑 Added 2021-07-07 13:01:04 +0000 UTCCodemasters' CEO and CFO depart following EA buyout
EA confirmed this week that CEO Frank Sagnier and CFO Rashid Varachia are set to leave Codemasters at the end of the month. The pair leaving a full four months after EA's acquisition of the racing giant was finalised is a little curious, though EA's statement confirming the departures emphasised that they had "always been part of the plan", though the timeframes were walked up a little due to the speed of Codemasters' integration into EA.
- It's not all change at the top, however. Codemasters' Slightly Mad studio (which operates Project Cars) will continue to be led by CEO Ian Bell. Codemasters, meanwhile, will now be led by SVP of product development Clive Moody and SVP of publishing Jonathan Bunney. EA said just last month that they had no intention of turning Codemasters into "just another EA studio", but that angle may be a little harder to swing now.
Nintendo confirm new Switch model has "no major internal changes"
Nintendo's new OLED Switch model was announced just yesterday and, though improvements like the bigger screen and increased internal storage were plain to see, there wasn't any immediate word on actual performance improvements. We now know that this was because there aren't any - Nintendo have confirmed that the OLED model "does not have a new CPU, or more RAM" compared to previous models.
- This rather flies in the face of all those Nintendo Switch Pro rumours that have been swirling about for going on three years. The newly-announced OLED model is undoubtedly the Switch Pro detailed in rumours when you get down to it - but the lack of significant hardware improvements or rumoured 4K support make the new machine feel like a bit of a wasted opportunity. It's still 1080p docked and 720p handheld and it's the same ol' Joy-Cons, so drift will still be a thing. Super.
There's an actual RoboCop game releasing next year
The game, which is officially titled RoboCop: Rogue City, is currently in the works at Teyon and is slated to release sometime in 2023. The studio was responsible for 2019's surprisingly engaging Terminator: Resistance, so it'll be interesting to see what they can do with another classic movie property.
- RoboCop: Rogue City is based on the first three RoboCop movies and is part of an ongoing partnership between developer Teyon, publisher Nacon, and film company MGM to create a game experience that is "faithful to the franchise's DNA." Like Terminator, RoboCop is a fairly historic franchise with the first instalment releasing over 30 years ago - will it make the jump to games as smoothly as Terminator?
New Sony State of Play airs later this week
The new, 30-minute show is set to air tomorrow night (July 8th) at 5pm EDT/2pm PDT/10pm BST and will offer an in-depth look at Arkane's upcoming exclusive Deathloop as well as details on "exciting indie and third-party titles." Sony, like always, have set expectations ahead of time and warned fans not to expect updates on games like Horizon Forbidden West or God of War: Ragnarök.
- Not to completely nuke everyone's enthusiasm for those games, however, Sony will reveal more details on these types of games sometime "throughout the summer." It'll be nice to have a bit of deep dive on Deathloop too, although it'll be pretty weird to see a Microsoft-owned studio being a lynchpin in a PlayStation showcase. Ah, modern gaming.
