Recap: Analogue has announced that its Pocket handheld will be available to purchase starting December 14 at 8 a.m. Pacific. The last time we checked in with Analogue, they were gearing up to ship out the first wave of Pocket pre-orders. Fortunately, those are still scheduled to go out starting December 13.
It won't simply be as easy as placing your order and waiting for it to show up a week or so later. Analogue said it is implementing a fulfillment protocol. Group A will receive their units sometime in the first quarter of 2022, while Group B will have to wait until the fourth quarter. Group C won't receive their orders until sometime in 2023, we're told.
Worse yet, because of industry-wide component price increases, Analogue is increasing the cost of Pocket by $20 for all new orders.
Nintendo for the second time in as many weeks has announced a new game coming to the N64 section of its Switch Online service.
Banjo-Kazooie from Rare launched on the Nintendo 64 in mid-1998. The platformer tasks players with controlling Banjo the bear and Kazooie, a bird, as they attempt to rescue Banjo's younger sister, Tooty, from the wicked witch Gruntilda, who wants to steal Tooty's beauty for herself.
Banjo-Kazooie was a commercial success in the US, selling nearly two million copies. Come February 2022, you'll be able to play it through Nintendo's Switch Online Expansion pack. When announced back in October, Nintendo said additional games were coming to the service including The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, F-Zero X, Mario Golf, Pokémon Snap and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Will we see another announced next week?
The makers of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds announced during The Game Awards 2021 that its hit battle royale game will be adopting a free-to-play model starting January 12, 2022, on both consoles and PC.
It's been nearly five years since PUBG launched on Steam early access. To date, more than 75 million copies of the game have been sold. It also laid the foundation for the battle royale genre, spawning numerous clones including the remarkably successful Fortnite.
When PUBG goes F2P, Krafton will simultaneously launch an optional premium upgrade called Battlegrounds Plus. For a one-time fee of $12.99, buyers will get access to custom match functionality, ranked mode, the career - medal tab, extra experience points, additional in-game currency and more.