You. Do you crave more Nintendo Directness than you’ve already had this month? Do you want to learn more about Mario Kart World? Well, big Ninty has confirmed hoe long the special MKW Direct it pencilled in during the Switch 2 Direct will run for. You can also watch it right here.

Hey, it’s not like you’ll have anything better to do on a Thursday than watch Mario and Luigi show off their latest attempt to run each other of the road, because only one brother can remain.

You’ll be able to tune into this Mario Kart World Direct via the video above on April 17, 2025. It’s set to kick off at 2PM BST, which is 6AM PT, 9AM ET, and 3PM CEST. Just press play at that time wherever you are and boom, racing action with Toad, Daisy, and all the other characters who’re riding their coat-tails if we’re being honest.

It’ll run for “roughly 15 minutes” – about the length of a Grand Prix – and tell you a bunch more stuff about the game on Switch 2. Will the entire chat be screaming ‘DROP THE PRICE’, like they were during the Treehouse livestreams the other week?

We’ll have to see, but Mario Kart World’s price tag has definitely been a part of all that controversy, though it certainly hasn’t been the lone source of ire. The console itself, the Switch 2 Welcome Tour, and most recently the Switch 2 edition of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild have all caught flak from fans due to Nintendo’s pricing decisions.

In other recent Nintendo news, a leaker has claimed that Switch 2 pre-orders in the US and Canada could be back on soon, after Ninty delayed them so it could see how those pesky tariffs played out.

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When the Trump Mobile T1 was announced, it arrived wrapped in the kind of marketing language you’d expect from a product tied to Donald Trump: bold claims, patriotic branding, and plenty of references to American values. What wasn’t immediately clear was what made the phone itself special.

Now, thanks to a detailed teardown and CT scan analysis by iFixit, we appear to have an answer. And it’s not exactly the revelation Trump Mobile was probably hoping for. After peeling back the gold-colored exterior, investigators found what looks remarkably like another smartphone already on the market: HTC’s U24 Pro. That’s awkward for a device marketed as something distinct.

Beneath the gold paint, the similarities pile up quickly

Smartphones often share components — that’s normal. The industry is built on common suppliers, shared manufacturing partners, and reference designs. But what makes the T1 interesting is how little seems to separate it from HTC’s existing hardware.

The internal layout reportedly mirrors the U24 Pro almost component-for-component. Are the camera placement differences visible from the outside? Apparently, little more than cosmetic adjustments. The flash assembly wasn’t relocated internally; instead, a longer cable was used to make it appear different from the exterior. Even the speaker system appears unchanged. The only noticeable variation is a slightly altered grille pattern machined into the chassis.

Think of it like buying a sports car only to discover it’s the same sedan underneath with a new paint job and different wheels. Technically, it looks different. Mechanically, it’s telling a different story. The display tells a similar tale. While the Trump Mobile marketing materials list slightly different screen dimensions, teardown findings suggest the panel is effectively the same one used in HTC’s device. The deeper researchers dug, the harder it became to find meaningful distinctions.

Motherboard layouts match, component placement matches, screw locations match, and even the anti-tamper stickers sit in the same places. At that point, that’s basically shared DNA.

The “Made in America” question remains complicated

The more fascinating part of the teardown isn’t actually the HTC connection — it’s what the findings reveal about Trump’s broader manufacturing claims. For months, the phone has been wrapped in messaging emphasizing its American identity. Yet the hardware itself paints a more complicated picture.

According to the teardown analysis, the T1 appears to rely heavily on the same global supply chains that power virtually every Android phone on the market. Researchers believe many of the device’s components trace back to existing production lines in China, which would make sense given the phone’s rapid development timeline and aggressive pricing. There is one notable exception: the battery.

Unlike most smartphone batteries, which are typically sourced from China, the T1’s battery reportedly comes from a Philippine manufacturer. It also offers a larger capacity than the HTC model, though that gain comes at a trade-off. Charging speeds are capped at 30 watts, while the HTC U24 Pro supports 60W charging. Still, one battery component doesn’t fundamentally change the bigger picture.

Building smartphones domestically is extraordinarily difficult. The challenge isn’t just assembling parts; it’s creating an entire ecosystem of suppliers, manufacturing expertise, tooling, logistics, and skilled labor. That’s why even companies with vastly greater resources than Trump Mobile rely on international supply chains. The reality is that “assembled in America” and “made in America” are very different claims. The former may involve putting together imported components on U.S. soil. The latter requires a far deeper domestic manufacturing footprint that very few consumer electronics products can genuinely achieve.

A familiar phone wearing a different badge

Perhaps the most surprising conclusion from the teardown is that the T1 isn’t necessarily a bad value. In fact, based purely on specifications, it compares fairly well with the HTC device it’s believed to be derived from. Buyers aren’t paying dramatically inflated prices for weaker hardware, which is often the fear when celebrity branding enters the equation; the bigger issue is transparency.

Consumers were led to believe they were getting something uniquely American, distinctly different from what was already available. The teardown suggests the reality is far less dramatic: a largely existing smartphone design dressed up with a new identity and a patriotic marketing campaign.

That’s not unusual in the smartphone industry. White-label devices and ODM partnerships have existed for years. Smaller brands frequently license designs from manufacturing partners rather than creating phones from scratch. What’s unusual is how aggressively the T1 was marketed as something special. After all the talk about American pride, domestic production, and a new vision for smartphones, the teardown’s conclusion feels almost anticlimactic. The Trump Phone wasn’t hiding a revolutionary new design; it was actually hiding an HTC phone and not particularly well.

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In March, Japanese outlet Nikkei released a report about Nintendo working on a new Switch 2 revision to comply with European Union rules, which allows users to replace batteries in consumer electronics themselves.

There has been an update about this week, with Nintendo’s official European website confirming “future compliant versions” of the Switch 2 for this region will come with “unique model numbers” and the additional code ‘OSM’ visible on the packaging, designating them as separate products.

As noted in the official compliance message below, this will come into effect on 18th February 2027. Here it is in full:

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 concerning batteries and waste batteries (Batteries Regulation)

Like the WEEE Directive, the Batteries Regulation aims to reduce the environmental impact of the manufacture, distribution, use, disposal and recycling of batteries and rechargeable batteries. In doing so, it forbids the supply of batteries and rechargeable batteries with certain hazardous metal content and sets out requirements for batteries’ labelling, safe removal from appliances, collection and recycling. Nintendo products are fully compliant with these requirements, and Nintendo cooperates fully with authorised regional institutions to facilitate the proper collection and environmentally sound recovery or disposal of its batteries.

In addition, the Regulation requires that from February 18th, 2027, batteries integrated into certain appliances and sold in the EU must be easily replaceable by end-users at any time during the lifetime of the product. Nintendo is implementing measures to comply with these requirements by preparing versions of products to meet the Regulation. For current products with model numbers starting with “BEE”, future compliant versions will have unique model numbers and the additional code “OSM” visible on the packaging, designating them as separate products for regulatory purposes.

As you might recall, ‘OSM’ was the mystery product code that sparked rumours of a new Switch 2 model earlier this year. Of course, as we now know, it is to comply with these rules in Europe.

It’s worth noting there may not necessarily be any noticeable cosmetic difference in the revised model. Nintendo quietly released a revision of the original Switch 1 model in 2019, offering improved battery life and also closing a security hole in the original hardware’s Nvidia chipset and it looked the same. So it’s not the first time it’s done revisions like this.

The Japanese firm also recently announced Switch 2 price revisions. These will come into effect this September in the west.

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CD Projekt Red is “working to address” the accidental inclusion of realistic vaginas in the updated The Witcher 3.

The recently released next-gen patch for the game includes realistic genitals for female monsters, which was not part of the original game, reported Kotaku.

CD Projekt Red has since confirmed to Eurogamer the accidental inclusion stems from the use of mods from the community.

“The next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt features several community-sourced mods not created by CD Projekt Red, on top of numerous enhancements created and implemented by the studio internally,” said a spokesperson.

“Merging everything together was a complex process and the textures in question are an unintended result present in the release version. This is something we are working to address.”

CDPR has also confirmed to Kotaku the visible labia and pubic hair textures will be removed “as these textures were not meant to be present in the release version of the game”.

Of course, this isn’t the first time full frontal nudity has been seen in a CDPR game – Cyberpunk 2077 includes genitals in its character creator.

Digital Foundry recently looked at The Witcher 3 next-gen patch 4.01 and its performance tweaks.

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Creative Assembly has reached out to Total War: Warhammer 3 fans, promising that details about “new content” are on the way.

Total War: Warhammer’s game director, Rich Aldridge, opened up about “why we are where we are” in a new video update, and gave a brief – but frank – assessment of the team’s progress to date, as well as reveal that we’ll find out more about the studio’s post-launch content in April 2023.

“We knew that we needed to get Immortal Empires to you in the best possible state, and that’s where we focused all of our efforts last year,” Aldridge said at the start of their five-minute statement (thanks, PC Gamer).

“Looking forward, I think we’ve got a really exciting year,” Aldridge added. “There’s going to be new content, bug fixing, quality of life improvements, taking on-board everything that you’re reaching out and telling us. I daresay some of this is going to hopefully be on your Wanted list, but I also think there’s going to be a few nice surprises there, too.”

The team is reportedly “finishing up with [its] final touches” on that first unspecified “piece of new content” and will be sharing it with the community this “passion project” “come April”.

“A lot of steps are needed in creating a DLC, and I’m sure you’re aware of that,” Aldridge explained. “Starting with the creative spark, development, but much goes on behind the scenes. Everything that we need to get looking and feeling just right before we can showcase and release it to you all.”

Alridge further added that the studio plans to “deliver two more exciting experiences also later this year – so one in summer, and one in the winter” – and confirmed that patches will also be rolled out in between this new content, too.

“We want to be as concrete as possible, but in doing so, we need to be in that position before we can communicate it to you. We don’t want to disappoint, we want to excite. We’re passionate about what we make, and we want to make great content for you to enjoy for years to come.

“We’re moving as quickly as we can on this, so please do bear with us even if it doesn’t always look that way at times. I’d really appreciate that.”

Developer Fatshark has delayed Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s upcoming Xbox Series X/S release, saying it has made the decision to spend the next few months solely addressing fan feedback after the game “fell short” of expectations.

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