TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the trending stories in gaming. In today’s news: Nintendo impresses consumers with dazzling E3 game line-up; Microsoft could set sights on Asia; and Nintendo speaks out against crunch.

Nintendo impresses consumers with dazzling E3 game line-up

Always closely watched at E3, Nintendo came up with the goods at its press event. With people having already asserted that Nintendo has 'won' E3, something every company aims to do each year, the company focused on software for existing hardware, compared with almost every other company, which has announced new hardware or services.

The big news: Nintendo confirmed a sequel to the popular title, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as well as a list of other games. Ultimately, consumers will be delighted, but there are questions around how Nintendo intends to evolve its offering going forward.

Microsoft could set sights on Asia

In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, following the announcement of Microsoft's acquisition of Double Fine, the 15th studio to become part of Xbox, head of Xbox's Phil Spencer admits they'd like to find an Asian studio, in particular, a Japanese one: "I liked it when we had some first-party capability in Japan. We have a small team there, but I think we can do more."

With Xbox's subscription service, Game Pass, coming to PC, the company is looking for opportunities to scale, and that will need to be through acquiring new studios and content - with some great content coming out of Asia and some productive collaborations in the past, this might be the next logical step for Microsoft.

Nintendo speaks out against crunch

Crunch, referring to the sometimes ridiculously long work hours required by game developers, leading to burnout, has been an industry issue for a long time. Back to Nintendo, the company's new president of America, Doug Bowser, has spoken out about the issues of crunch in the gaming industry, and the importance of ensuring companies offer employees a good work-life balance.

Something game industry execs need to consider is employee wellness versus 'crunch time' and the potential that, if employee welfare is put at risk, game release dates need to be delayed.

As a business, Nintendo is actively doing this, but the pressure to monetise titles and keep investors and consumers happy and engaged, especially from smaller developers and publishers, can overshadow developer welfare.