E3 2021: Nintendo and Ubisoft team up again with Switch sequel “Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope"
12 June 2021
Two of gaming’s biggest companies are creating a game together for the third time in five years with a Switch sequel, “Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope.”
Why it matters: Nintendo rarely lets other companies work with its characters, making its continued partnerships with Ubisoft a rare sign of trust.
- The game is a crossover that combines Ubisoft’s feral bunnies with Mario characters in a series of strategic turn-based battles.
- It follows 2017’s hit “Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle” and 2018’s “Starlink: Battle For Atlas,” which co-starred Nintendo’s Star Fox characters in its Switch version.
Between the lines: Announcements of Nintendo games seldom leak, while Ubisoft’s do often.
- But “Sparks of Hope” seemingly leaked this morning via Nintendo when a product page went live on the company’s website hours before Ubisoft’s E3 showcase.
Ubisoft’s event Saturday also showcased several other games.“Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora” (launching in 2022) was teased years ago but finally shown Saturday, offering a look at an upcoming action game set in the James Cameron Avatar franchise.
- This was Ubisoft’s show closer, a sign it has high hopes for the game.
Image via Ubisoft
“Rainbow Six Extraction” (launching Sept. 16), a new 1-3 co-op humans-vs.-aliens game that follows from Ubisoft’s phenomenally successful competitive multiplayer game “Rainbow Six Siege.”
- It was announced at E3 2019 as “Rainbow Six Quarantine” but has received a name change due to COVID connotations.
“Assassin’s Creed Valhalla,” the company’s big fall 2020 Viking adventure will get a paid summer expansion and a free fall update that turns the game into an educational tour of the Viking age.
- Ubisoft announced that more expansions are on the way, indirectly confirming that there will be no new “Assassin’s Creed” for some time.
“Rocksmith+” is a music learning subscription service that goes into closed PC beta today. It leaked earlier today.“
Riders Republic” (launching Sept. 2) is a massively multiplayer extreme sports game.
The event did not include direct mention of the company’s ongoing issues with workplace misconduct that started making headlines a year ago.
- Last month, the hashtag #holdubisoftaccountable trended, following a report that Ubisoft had not sufficiently improved things.
- At the end of Saturday's showcase, CEO Yves Guillemot did thank his developers for their work during a “challenging year,” a reference that could, of course, have been referring to COVID.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.