We've been hearing for awhile now that a new trailer for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie is right around the corner, which will give us our first look at Sonic's redesign. Apparently that trailer is coming tomorrow, as Fandango Latin America has posted up a teaser stating so. I guess we'll find out if that's true soon enough!

The Stretchers was a surprise release for the Switch last week, having been announced and launched all within 24 hours. Obviously the release wasn't a surprise to Nintendo, as they created the game! That said, it seems like Nintendo might have been waiting a decent amount of time to release the game.

Dataminer SimonTime went snooping around the backend of the Switch eShop, and found out that the game's first upload was all the way back on May 29th, 2019! Whether that upload was the finished game or just a dummy file is unclear, but it's surprising to see just how far back the game's first appearance on the eShop was!

Numerous third party accessory and peripheral manufacturers create controllers and more for Switch. Some of the products are great, and others aren't so hot. It's always a crap shoot with third party efforts, but in some instances, your only option is the first party outing.

That's the case with the Ring Fit Adventure Ring-Con, which is only made by Nintendo. Rumor has it that a Chinese manufacturer was trying to make their own Ring-Con controller. We're not sure if they planned on selling as a legit replacement or a knock-off, but either way, it seems the project isn't moving forward. Apparently the manufacturer involved with actually replicating the Ring-Con failed in their efforts, and the project was scrapped.

The latest episode of WayPoint Radio makes a rather bold claim about the current situation over at Game Freak, the developer behind the Pokemon series. In this episode, WayPoint’s Austin Walker claims that the morale of Game Freak employees is at an “all time low”, but he doesn't elaborate on why that is.

If morale is low, we can easily speculate as to why that is. Fans have been rallying against Pokemon Sword and Shield for quite some time now, as the decision to not include every Pokemon has not gone over well to say the very least. Obviously Game Freak's employees want to create an experience that fans will enjoy, and most Pokemon games are usually met with insane amounts of buzz before launch. That's still the case with Pokemon Sword and Shield, but it's not exactly positive buzz.

The leaks just keep coming for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. This would be the third look at Sonic's supposed redesign for the film, and once again, it does seem like Sonic will come out looking decent in the end. Again, this art isn't confirmed just yet, but it falls in line with the recent leaks.

Playtonic just recently released Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, which was quite a hit with most critics. What's next for the company coming out of that success? Depending on how deep you like to dive into rumors, the company could have some major moves going on.

Just yesterday, we saw that former RARE dev Ed Bryan was officially brought on as an employee at Playtonic. Bryan was a character artist on Banjo-Kazooie, and eventually left RARE in 2011.

Fans noticed that Bryan tweeted out the above image/tweet on Nov. 3rd, 2019, and when someone asked him what was up with the bag, Bryan responded by saying, "It’s come out of retirement!" As you can see the Microsoft branding on the bag, this has drummed up some speculation that Playtonic and Microsoft are, at the very least, working on something.

Going a step further, Gavin Price, co-owner, studio and game director at Playtonic Games, recently added this to his Linkedin profile.

Playtonic Credits

Yooka-Laylee, Yooka-Laylee & The Impossible Lair, and in the foreseeable future that game #3, #4 and the #5 one too which is the one I always thought would be game #1.

Finally, we have the news of Playtonic registering a new company name recently. The company, PLAYTONIC GAMES DEVELOPMENT LIMITED, popped up without any explanation on Sept. 17th 2019.

There's certainly a lot of smoke building up here, but where's the fire? What could Playtonic be working on? It's clear something is up, but is speculation running too wild, or is Microsoft really bringing the band back together for a new Banjo outing?

UPDATE: We have some new details that both answer some questions, and raise new ones. First up, Ed Bryan has responded to the hubbub about his bag tweet.

Second, we have two new job listings opened at Playtonic. They are looking for an Experienced Gameplay Engineer, and an Experienced Technical Generalist. One of the listings specifically mentions the Unity engine.

Third, and most interesting, are some comments from Playtonic Community Manager Daley Johnson. He was asked for his thoughts on all the rumors swirling about, and answered with this.

UPDATE 2: Playtonic has come out to deny all of these reports.

There's a reason why we haven't been reporting on any of the leaked Pokemon Sword and Shield news. That info was stemming from a stolen copy of Pokemon Sword and Shield, which was then distributed online. Obviously, Nintendo and Pokemon Co. haven't been too happy about the situation, but rumor has it they've finally tracked down who started their nightmare.

While we don't have information on who it was, we're hearing that Nintendo used a single profile pic to do some backwards digital detective work to hunt down the leaker, who was eventually unearthed via a Facebook profile. I can only imagine what kind of Hell awaits this leaker.

We've been looking at a lot of construction pics for Super Nintendo World locations around the world, but now it's time to get back to something a bit more colorful. A new round of concept art for Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Orlando has popped up, and the pieces come from the park artist’s personal portfolio.

The first piece of art, seen above, gives us a flat look at the horseshoe-shaped park design. As you can see, this is an all Donkey Kong affair, showing off not only the Donkey Kong mine cart ride, but the design of the surrounding area. You'll find things like a gift shop in Funky's plane, a stage show underneath Donkey Kong's hut, and more.

The second piece of concept art goes more into detail on the temple design, which is a landmark piece for this part of the park, as well as the entrance for Donkey Kong's Mine Cart Madness.

These pieces of concept art align themselves perfectly with the leaked model of the park from a number of months ago. Looks like we can consider the concept art the real deal!

It wouldn't be Smash Bros. without speculation and rumors, and that's just what we have here. Sometimes the rumors are spot-on, and other times they're nothing more than the fever dreams of super fans. Today, we once again find ourselves staring at yet another supposed leak. Is it real or fake? Hit the jump to see what we're talking about, and see which side of the fence you fall on.

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The 3DS has been fizzling out for years now, with support dying off quite awhile ago. According to Game Informer’s former senior editor Imran Khan, Nintendo did have plans for some other remakes for the 3DS, but decided to scrap the efforts when they saw how poorly later 3DS games were selling. The extremely slow sales of Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr’s Journey were the final straw, which sealed the deal for later projects being shelved.

Among the rumored titles was another Fire Emblem remake, although specifics on which game would be remade were not share. We also don't know what other titles from other franchises Nintendo were planning to remake, and I guess we might never find out now!