Nintendo Stockpiling US Switch 2s Even Though They Could Sell at a Loss

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everybody, welcome to Game Breaking News with me Jeff Grub,
<v Speaker 1>your host from giant bomb dot com. Thank you for
<v Speaker 1>tuning in. In this episode, we're gonna be talking about
<v Speaker 1>trust in the US being permanently damaged, but at least
<v Speaker 1>we might get the switch to pre orders soon. It's
<v Speaker 1>gonna be a good one because we have Sean Turbo
<v Speaker 1>Sean McDowell on the show. Sean, how are you doing.
<v Speaker 2>I'm doing good? GGS, how about you?
<v Speaker 1>I'm doing good. Yeah, it's Jeff Grub with two g's.
<v Speaker 1>Now that's how it goes. Yeah, I don't know. It's
<v Speaker 1>it's been a week. It's been like four weeks in
<v Speaker 1>one week. Been a hell of a thing. Diffinitely great,
<v Speaker 1>busy and annoyed it everything, And it's like trying to
<v Speaker 1>keep up with the news is as always as stupid
<v Speaker 1>as it's ever been. And then I'm just like I
<v Speaker 1>get to the end of the day and I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>I just want the switch to. I just want the
<v Speaker 1>switch to. It's all I want at this point. I
<v Speaker 1>want to play I'm gonna hold the thing. I don't
<v Speaker 1>even want to play the games. I kind of just
<v Speaker 1>want to hold it. Then I want to play the games.
<v Speaker 2>Do you want to know that's real? When you said
<v Speaker 2>on the BombCast the other day that the Switch direct
<v Speaker 2>was less than a week ago, that's just no, that
<v Speaker 2>can't be right, right. We're talking about.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, like a six months worth worth of news, and
<v Speaker 1>like switch to news specifically happened in that time, let
<v Speaker 1>alone everything else that had happened.
<v Speaker 2>Everything's just been crazy, you know what. I'm in my
<v Speaker 2>comfort zone now. I'm probably wearing my Combo Breaker T
<v Speaker 2>shirt and I'm looking forward to buying many, many more
<v Speaker 2>of these in the years to come.
<v Speaker 1>Well, we'll hopefully get everything kind of somewhat back to normal,
<v Speaker 1>although you know, it's weird how things can be so
<v Speaker 1>messed up still and we're like, well, this is better
<v Speaker 1>than it was, you know, six minutes ago, So I'll
<v Speaker 1>accept this. That's fine. It's very cooking go that way. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I'm still just kind of keeping my ears open waiting
<v Speaker 1>for them to say, here's what's going on with Switch
<v Speaker 1>two pre orders. Do I mean at this point, do
<v Speaker 1>they just like come up with a new plan and
<v Speaker 1>announce it next week or do you think that they've
<v Speaker 1>been like waiting in the wings. Obviously, we have no idea.
<v Speaker 1>But I guess what's your hope.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my hope is that everything goes back to normal.
<v Speaker 2>I know that won't be the case. I know way
<v Speaker 2>too much to know that won't be the case. But yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I just hope that we can get resolution because everything
<v Speaker 2>just seems so concerned for a variety of reasons, not
<v Speaker 2>just in games, when everything else and I cat just
<v Speaker 2>you're right, one of those things is just like, hey,
<v Speaker 2>video games, this is what I know. It would be
<v Speaker 2>cool if we can get this figured out on our
<v Speaker 2>end while every all of this is all messed up.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, absolutely, all right, let's explain what we do here
<v Speaker 1>most weekdays, I, Jeff Grubb, will help piece your gaming
<v Speaker 1>life back together. That includes breaking news and maybe even
<v Speaker 1>some of our own original reporting. For all these topics,
<v Speaker 1>I'll get the input of a bona fide expert who
<v Speaker 1>will make me look smart. If you're watching live on twitch, welcome.
<v Speaker 1>You can always listen to the show later on podcast
<v Speaker 1>feeds by searching for game breaking news, or find the
<v Speaker 1>RSS feed on giant bomb dot com. You can also
<v Speaker 1>catch the show later on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right,
<v Speaker 1>we have a lot to get into, so let's start
<v Speaker 1>the morning mess. There, I did it. I knew I
<v Speaker 1>was gonna do it. It's been a minute. Let's bring
<v Speaker 1>some gaming news.
<v Speaker 2>It's a mess. Let's be real.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely it still is. With switch to price remains in
<v Speaker 1>limbo as new tariffs reduced and paused, with one major exception.
<v Speaker 1>This is from Eddie McCoo at GameSpot. In the wake
<v Speaker 1>of a crumbling global market, US President Donald Trump announced
<v Speaker 1>today that he is scaling back his original tariff plan,
<v Speaker 1>lowering tariff's significantly basically everywhere except China. It remains to
<v Speaker 1>be seen what this means for the switch to, which
<v Speaker 1>was supposed to begin US pre orders today and this
<v Speaker 1>story from yesterday. Trump said on Wednesday that tariffs in
<v Speaker 1>most places will be lowered down to ten percent, but
<v Speaker 1>China is facing an increased one hundred and twenty five
<v Speaker 1>percent tariff rate. Both rate changes take effect immediately. Overall,
<v Speaker 1>Trump said he is initially initiating a ninety day pause
<v Speaker 1>to new tariffs. That ninety days from today would be
<v Speaker 1>July eighth, So maybe Donkey Kong Bananza can get in
<v Speaker 1>underneath there. Everyone wants to know what this means for
<v Speaker 1>the switch to, and we don't know. According to the
<v Speaker 1>financial times. After the first Trump presidency, Nintendo shifted some
<v Speaker 1>manufacturing to Vietnam and Cambodia in response to Trump's position
<v Speaker 1>on trade with China, and like the timeline there is,
<v Speaker 1>they started doing that in twenty nineteen because they weren't
<v Speaker 1>sure if he was going to be president again. They
<v Speaker 1>thought it could get worse in China, so they started
<v Speaker 1>building in those costs at that time. The report said
<v Speaker 1>fifty percent of switch To production has now come out
<v Speaker 1>of Vietnam and Cambodia in recent months. The tariff rate
<v Speaker 1>for these countries as of last week was forty six
<v Speaker 1>percent and forty nine percent respectively. That those were the
<v Speaker 1>new tariffs that Trump was put on those countries. But
<v Speaker 1>now they're both ten percent, which is still more than
<v Speaker 1>it was a couple of weeks ago. It's still more
<v Speaker 1>than what it was. Let's see that's effective immediately. In theory,
<v Speaker 1>this would seemingly help Nintendo keep the switch to price
<v Speaker 1>at four hundred and fifty dollars or at least close
<v Speaker 1>to it, but no one knows for sure, and Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>is yet to comment. As we get to noon Eastern
<v Speaker 1>time here on Thursday, Sean, still no comment from Nintendo.
<v Speaker 1>We are now a day passed when pre orders were
<v Speaker 1>supposed to begin. It is it feels like okay, back
<v Speaker 1>to normal, although obviously this is still such uncharted territory.
<v Speaker 1>Still the unprecedented times is everyone's so sick of hearing
<v Speaker 1>and still only a ninety day pause to these tariffs,
<v Speaker 1>and we know how this president is. He gets bored
<v Speaker 1>and wants to go back and causing mayhem again because
<v Speaker 1>it gets some attention. And I feel like, if you're
<v Speaker 1>a company trying to plan a release, a launch, you'll
<v Speaker 1>take advantage of this, and we'll talk about that here
<v Speaker 1>in a second, But can you make any long term plans,
<v Speaker 1>which is the whole entire idea of running a business
<v Speaker 1>in this moment.
<v Speaker 2>No, definitely, not Like again, an uncertainty may be overplayed,
<v Speaker 2>but that definitely is the word right now. We have
<v Speaker 2>no idea what's going to happen, because we're usually not
<v Speaker 2>in a situation this messed up is maybe the polite
<v Speaker 2>way of putting it, and so I have no idea
<v Speaker 2>what Nintendo's plan is going to be, or any company
<v Speaker 2>for that matter, who is trying to put something out there,
<v Speaker 2>trying to launch anything, anything along those lines. Maybe they
<v Speaker 2>do take advantages window I guess to like stick with
<v Speaker 2>the original plan as closely as they can and keeping
<v Speaker 2>the price low. But again it it makes more sense
<v Speaker 2>from a business point of view to just have the
<v Speaker 2>higher price and then you have baked in all of
<v Speaker 2>your risks associated with adjusting the price from there, yes,
<v Speaker 2>which Nintendo has done for Nintendo reasons, like the three
<v Speaker 2>DS isn't selling, so we're cutting this from what it
<v Speaker 2>was two thirty down to one seventy I believe it
<v Speaker 2>was that what it is from two fifty down to
<v Speaker 2>one sing it yeah, which what a wild price for
<v Speaker 2>that thing. But they do that because, oh, this thing
<v Speaker 2>isn't selling and we need this thing. We got to
<v Speaker 2>scramble to get these out the door. It's not because
<v Speaker 2>everyone is put in this position where we we can't
<v Speaker 2>put out goods. We can't put out things at prices
<v Speaker 2>that people expect because people don't have the money to
<v Speaker 2>pay for these higher goods. It's a it's the politics
<v Speaker 2>of it all. You know. Politics are everything right now, unvoilable.
<v Speaker 2>That's what we're gonna do. Uh, Wages are not going
<v Speaker 2>up to match these increased terrafs because the terrorists are
<v Speaker 2>going to trickle down to the consumer because these companies
<v Speaker 2>aren't going to eat the cost. Smaller companies cannot eat
<v Speaker 2>the cost, and bigger companies they're bigger companies. Yes, sure, agreed,
<v Speaker 2>if that's why you want to call it. But that's
<v Speaker 2>what they do. It's what we should expect.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, if I was running a big business like that,
<v Speaker 1>I would do it too. Like you got like, that's
<v Speaker 1>the way the system set up. You can't be the
<v Speaker 1>one company, not like one company eating the cost. You
<v Speaker 1>could eat maybe eat the cost a little bit, be
<v Speaker 1>like fare like meet them in the middle, but everyone's
<v Speaker 1>going to make the customer eat some of the cost.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, because what it like, hypothetically, if the increase was
<v Speaker 2>fifty percent, is the tax on everything that if your
<v Speaker 2>profit margin is like, you know, let's say maybe thirty bucks. Hypothetically,
<v Speaker 2>let's say like you're making thirty bucks on these consoles
<v Speaker 2>and suddenly fifty percent of the cost needs to go up,
<v Speaker 2>You're not going to go from making thirty dollars to
<v Speaker 2>a napkin math here losing two hundred or whatever the
<v Speaker 2>hell it would end up being. You're just not going
<v Speaker 2>to do that. You do it doesn't make sense.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And I think I Kyle orland Over at Ours
<v Speaker 1>Technica talked to some analysts and they're like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>we do think that they built in the ten percent
<v Speaker 1>to twenty percent tariff risk, especially on China, into this
<v Speaker 1>four hundred and fifty dollars price or yeah, yeah, four
<v Speaker 1>hundred fifty dollars price. God, I'm like that can't be right.
<v Speaker 1>That's too high. Nope, that's right, four hundred and fifty
<v Speaker 1>dollars price. And of course they also built in a
<v Speaker 1>lot of other risk in there, and it's like, okay,
<v Speaker 1>well at this point you might have to just say
<v Speaker 1>this is the risk that we're now covering with that
<v Speaker 1>four hundred and fifty dollars thing, and if anything else happens,
<v Speaker 1>we kind of just have to hope things go well
<v Speaker 1>everywhere else.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I think people saw that Doug Bowser quote of
<v Speaker 2>like the tariff news is fresh, and so people were saying,
<v Speaker 2>oh see, they didn't bake in tariffs at all. No, no, no,
<v Speaker 2>that's that's what you were getting at the BombCast, like
<v Speaker 2>they build in all of these things when setting a price,
<v Speaker 2>because you're not going to have Nintendo Nintendo America specifically
<v Speaker 2>a company all about as you put it, the law firm.
<v Speaker 2>They're not going to look at everything that's going on
<v Speaker 2>in the world and say, well, Trump surprised in Now, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>we're just none's going to happen least tariff talk. We
<v Speaker 2>all need to bake that intore. They're not gonna they're
<v Speaker 2>not gonna ignore what's happening in the world. They baked
<v Speaker 2>in a set amount and it's just way higher than
<v Speaker 2>we were expecting.
<v Speaker 1>Yep. Let's see here. Uh, let's kind of just go
<v Speaker 1>along with all these stories here because they're all related.
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo switched to US price is unlikely to rise if
<v Speaker 1>Trump tariffs remain at ten percent, according to analysts. This
<v Speaker 1>is from Chris Scullion at VGC. The US price and
<v Speaker 1>the Nintendo switch to is likely to remain at four
<v Speaker 1>hundred and fifty dollars if President Trump's global tariff's remain
<v Speaker 1>at ten percent, an analyst said. Last week, Trump introduced
<v Speaker 1>a blanket ten percent tariff on all imports, with countries
<v Speaker 1>like China, Vietnam, and Japan, which Trump calls among the
<v Speaker 1>worst defenders, getting larger tariffs of fifty four percent, forty
<v Speaker 1>six percent and twenty four percent, respectively. Since most of
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo's imports in the US come from Vietnam and Cambodia,
<v Speaker 1>Trump's decision to apply a forty six percent on tariff
<v Speaker 1>on Vietnam could potentially have an effect on the price
<v Speaker 1>of Nintendo hardware, most notably the upcoming Switch to As
<v Speaker 1>a result, last week, Nintendo said it was delaying Switch
<v Speaker 1>To pre orders blah blah blah. However, while Trump has
<v Speaker 1>since increased China's tariffs up to one hundred and twenty
<v Speaker 1>five percent, and honestly, I feel like maybe it's gone
<v Speaker 1>up since we started the show, who knows, he has
<v Speaker 1>decided to pause all other tariff hikes for ninety days,
<v Speaker 1>meaning his ten percent tariff applies to all other countries affected,
<v Speaker 1>including Vietnam. According to a new report at Bloomberg, Trump's
<v Speaker 1>decision to pause the hikes means it's likely that Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>will keep the US Switch To price at four hundred
<v Speaker 1>and fifty dollars at least until the forty six percent
<v Speaker 1>tariffs kick back in. Does that sound right to you,
<v Speaker 1>because I mean, I think they obviously can't feel good
<v Speaker 1>about it, but I do think this takes away their
<v Speaker 1>card of fully like, people will go, well, no, there,
<v Speaker 1>you know there are I heard there are no more tariffs,
<v Speaker 1>and of course there's a ten percent tariff, so there
<v Speaker 1>it is going to be more expensive for them. And
<v Speaker 1>then there is the sort of damocles and I never
<v Speaker 1>used that phrase, right, but the sort of damocles of
<v Speaker 1>the ninety day, a time bomb of these tariffs returning,
<v Speaker 1>hanging over them still. And you know, if you are
<v Speaker 1>a betting man, if you are someone who's like looking
<v Speaker 1>at this, it's like it's I think it's fifty to
<v Speaker 1>fifty that by ninety days from now, so much can happen,
<v Speaker 1>so many other scandals could start, so many other distractions
<v Speaker 1>could happen, that that ninety day thing happens, and no
<v Speaker 1>one even notices because he doesn't bring it up, and
<v Speaker 1>he just lets it ride, and he's like, actually, we're
<v Speaker 1>not going to do that. I forget about it. Or
<v Speaker 1>ninety days from now, something else is happening, and to
<v Speaker 1>distract from that, he does say, hey, we're back, and
<v Speaker 1>the tariffs are back exactly what I said they were.
<v Speaker 1>You have no ideas these companies, but I do think
<v Speaker 1>that this is right, that they will have a harder
<v Speaker 1>time raising the price in this moment, because they were
<v Speaker 1>already like asking a lot from consumers. Who is like,
<v Speaker 1>we know all the reasons why Nintendo R like did
<v Speaker 1>the prices that they did. We can lay them off.
<v Speaker 1>I'll lay them all out in front of people. And yet,
<v Speaker 1>if a mother is going to the store to buy
<v Speaker 1>a switch to for her kid and she sees that price,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not going to be the guy that pops out
<v Speaker 1>from behind the counter and saying this is why it's
<v Speaker 1>so high, Like, how'ses that help her? That doesn't help her,
<v Speaker 1>She doesn't give a shit. That's that's Nintendo's problem, not
<v Speaker 1>her problem. So and Nintendo has to deal with that
<v Speaker 1>as well. So I think in this moment they are
<v Speaker 1>probably going to have to just ride with these prices
<v Speaker 1>and get these switch twos into people's hands and hope
<v Speaker 1>that they can make it up selling games, which they
<v Speaker 1>very likely will be able to.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's a very good point because you know, in
<v Speaker 2>our little bubble here where we're talking to the audience
<v Speaker 2>and we're trying to like convey everything, I explain everything
<v Speaker 2>I can, like, yeah, hold up a steam deck and say, hey,
<v Speaker 2>you know it's it's around this, you know, you all
<v Speaker 2>paid four hundred dollars for this. You're getting a better
<v Speaker 2>device here. A little bit more isn't like a crazy
<v Speaker 2>thing to do. But you're right, you can't do that.
<v Speaker 2>To the mom who walks into Walmart sees four point
<v Speaker 2>fifty and says, can we pay like three hundred or
<v Speaker 2>less for the last one? Why is it so much more?
<v Speaker 2>They four fifty is probably the maximum that they wanted
<v Speaker 2>to do.
<v Speaker 1>I agree.
<v Speaker 2>I wouldn't be surprise as if it's Nintendo being Nintendo,
<v Speaker 2>they would have won four hundred because it's a more
<v Speaker 2>attractive price. But they're like, we don't do loss leaders, buddy,
<v Speaker 2>So they did the four fifty. And to me, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. I don't know what I'm introl following
<v Speaker 2>any of this, to be frank, because it's so confusing people.
<v Speaker 2>That's what I thought you were gonna say.
<v Speaker 1>Sum tariffs now on China? So five yep, one tariffs.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, obviously, you just can't sell things from China
<v Speaker 1>in the United States anymore, not without laundering them somehow
<v Speaker 1>finding some other way around it. That it's just going
<v Speaker 1>to be straight up impossible. So okay, So what is
<v Speaker 1>the answer if you're Nintendo. Well, again, there are no
<v Speaker 1>good answers, but there are some maneuvers they can make.
<v Speaker 1>That leads us to this next story. Nintendo stockpiling switch
<v Speaker 1>tos in the US even though it could still be
<v Speaker 1>selling them at a loss with the current terarriffts. So
<v Speaker 1>this is Ethan got at Kotaku. The switch To is
<v Speaker 1>shaping up to be one of the messiest console launches
<v Speaker 1>ever in the United States, at least from Nintendo's point
<v Speaker 1>of view. The company's new four hundred and fifty dollars
<v Speaker 1>console is set to come out on June fifth, but
<v Speaker 1>it's also being forced to navigate a chaotic circus around
<v Speaker 1>tariffs that could torpedo the rollout at any moment. Bloomberg
<v Speaker 1>Now reports that the Mario maker has been diverting switch
<v Speaker 1>To shipments to stockpile them in the US before tariffs
<v Speaker 1>potentially skyrocket again. But even in the current environment, some
<v Speaker 1>analyst believe Nintendo would be selling the console at a
<v Speaker 1>potential loss, and that seems unavoidable at this point. Vietnam,
<v Speaker 1>where the majority of Switch twos are manufactured, was set
<v Speaker 1>to be hit with a forty six percent tariff earlier
<v Speaker 1>this week, but President Trump backed off at the last
<v Speaker 1>minute as the stock and bond markets went into free fall.
<v Speaker 1>You know what, they still aren't looking very good. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>the stock market bounces back, but the bond market's still
<v Speaker 1>looking very scary. Those reciprocal tariffs, you know, reciprocal including
<v Speaker 1>forty nine percent on Cambodia and twenty four percent on Japan,
<v Speaker 1>were paused for ninety days and replaced in the meantime
<v Speaker 1>with a flat ten percent tax. Blah blah blah. It
<v Speaker 1>now appears that Nintendo has been moving extra switch to
<v Speaker 1>shipments to the US in recent months to try and
<v Speaker 1>get ahead of the current upcoming tariffs. There's a analyst
<v Speaker 1>that the Bloomberg talked to that says it seems like
<v Speaker 1>now what Nintendo's doing is taking every switch made in
<v Speaker 1>Vietnam and sending them to the United States. If they're
<v Speaker 1>made in China, Cambodia, those are going to the rest
<v Speaker 1>of the world. But everyone made in Vietnam is going
<v Speaker 1>to the United States because in this moment today, for now,
<v Speaker 1>that's a ten percent tariff, and they're like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>he's got a ninety day pause on it. That of course,
<v Speaker 1>we know that could go away. He could get annoyed
<v Speaker 1>in the next couple of days and say screw the
<v Speaker 1>ninety day pause. They know, they understand that, but they're
<v Speaker 1>going to just hope, you know, against hope that that stays.
<v Speaker 1>Try to get as many switch tos from Vietnam into
<v Speaker 1>the United States in that ninety day period, and then
<v Speaker 1>if something changes, they will have to adapt at that point.
<v Speaker 1>But in the meantime, this is the strategy. And you
<v Speaker 1>know they don't they don't want to be spending their
<v Speaker 1>energy on this, but the kind of have to in
<v Speaker 1>this moment. I the United States is a market you
<v Speaker 1>can't ignore for video games, especially if you are a
<v Speaker 1>console manufacturer. That's like, you know, the console market kind
<v Speaker 1>of lives and dies by the United States market.
<v Speaker 2>Obviously we're the council specifically, we're by far the biggest, right.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, and you know, they're obviously other very important markets,
<v Speaker 1>but you kind of can't make this work unless you
<v Speaker 1>have the United States. And you know, the Japanese nintended
<v Speaker 1>leadership absolutely understands that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, not when you're planning to do international launches and
<v Speaker 2>our things, yes, worldwide launches.
<v Speaker 1>So they're trying to figure it out and you know,
<v Speaker 1>should we I'm not getting my hopes up that this
<v Speaker 1>means that, you know, nothing's going to change in terms
<v Speaker 1>of the price other than you know, all the things
<v Speaker 1>we just talked about about how it's going to be
<v Speaker 1>difficult for them from a public relations standpoint. But I
<v Speaker 1>think they're just going to have to accept any losses
<v Speaker 1>on this console for now, and and if those forty
<v Speaker 1>six nine percent terifs return, then I'm expecting a price
<v Speaker 1>increase at that point. Yeah, what other choice do they have?
<v Speaker 2>Sean not much really, because like we said at the
<v Speaker 2>top of the show, you can only lose so much
<v Speaker 2>before in the console space it no longer makes sense.
<v Speaker 2>People do like to bring up that the other console
<v Speaker 2>manufacturers do sell the consoles at a loss. Eventually, may
<v Speaker 2>they break even or make a little bit of money
<v Speaker 2>on the mess manufacturing costs go down, But you start
<v Speaker 2>by selling the console at a little bit of a
<v Speaker 2>loss or maybe a big loss. Not a console per se,
<v Speaker 2>but that's what Gabe seemed to be implying with the
<v Speaker 2>Steam Deck, the entry level one, and then you get
<v Speaker 2>people in your ecosystem and get them buying games, and
<v Speaker 2>you make a profit on those things. But if you're
<v Speaker 2>taking a huge loss on the console. The problem is
<v Speaker 2>attach rate and in this first year to switch to
<v Speaker 2>what will the attached rate be, especially when games are
<v Speaker 2>as high as eighty dollars for brand new switch to
<v Speaker 2>games or switch to versions of games intended.
<v Speaker 1>I'll probably buy three games, four games. I'm gonna get
<v Speaker 1>exactly more than that. We know that we are the
<v Speaker 1>exception and in that the attach rate is determined by families,
<v Speaker 1>more casual players, and they're gonna get maybe one to
<v Speaker 1>eighty dollars game.
<v Speaker 2>Maybe that's exactly what tends to happen with these games.
<v Speaker 2>Like you see Mark Kart eight Deluxe sold. It's some
<v Speaker 2>astronomical number at this point, isn't it like fifty million
<v Speaker 2>or something like.
<v Speaker 1>Approaching sixty million? I actually lost track, so yeah, it's.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, and maybe they're counting bundles. Actually forget how Nino
<v Speaker 2>does that. Okay, but either way, that's a lot of
<v Speaker 2>copies of that game. But then you start to see
<v Speaker 2>the sales numbers drop off as you go down the
<v Speaker 2>list of bestsel games. And that's what happens is because
<v Speaker 2>everyone gets Mario Kart, but then I don't really need
<v Speaker 2>anything else that's their game and then they buy another one,
<v Speaker 2>you know, like a few months down the road. If
<v Speaker 2>someone catches their eye. They're not like us picking up
<v Speaker 2>basically every first part in Nintendo game. So you can't
<v Speaker 2>rely on that. They can't rely on that, they can't
<v Speaker 2>build that into the strategy right now. So I guess
<v Speaker 2>this is a weird point that we're at where maybe
<v Speaker 2>Nintendo does just have to suck it up right.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, it's a wizard of blah in chat says I
<v Speaker 1>just imagine cargo ships having to keep making U turns
<v Speaker 1>in the seed depending on the tariffs. WHOA, It's like,
<v Speaker 1>you're not that far off.
<v Speaker 2>It's like so weird.
<v Speaker 1>It's so so weird to like, because of this job,
<v Speaker 1>like start paying attention to like how shipping ports work.
<v Speaker 1>But apparently what's happened is there are massive ships with
<v Speaker 1>cargo on them, you know, these massive cargo containers, and
<v Speaker 1>there's hundreds of those, and they each have like forty
<v Speaker 1>tons of goods in there that are sitting in ports
<v Speaker 1>just waiting like for the green light to unload, and
<v Speaker 1>that's causing backups, that's causing other issues. So it's like
<v Speaker 1>even Nintendo trying to get as many switch to is
<v Speaker 1>here as possible are going to encounter just logistical problems.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, there's also apparently like different fees that
<v Speaker 1>are also going up simultaneously unrelated to all this stuff.
<v Speaker 1>For when you bring ships to the United States and
<v Speaker 1>you go to a port, you have to pay fees,
<v Speaker 1>and apparently those fees were going up. So what started
<v Speaker 1>doing this Like instead of like hitting Seattle of Oakland
<v Speaker 1>and then La, they're just all going to LA. And
<v Speaker 1>so that's also causing a backup at the LA port,
<v Speaker 1>which is the biggest port in the United States other
<v Speaker 1>than maybe at least on the West Coast. And so
<v Speaker 1>that's also causing logistical issues. So there's other reasons why
<v Speaker 1>we might not have enough switch to s, why they
<v Speaker 1>might have costs associated with that. It is a complete
<v Speaker 1>mess across the board. Yeah, and then you know, of course,
<v Speaker 1>you know, the the tariffs are directly related to that.
<v Speaker 1>Those companies just keeping those cargo ships there unloaded. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's I don't know, you know, Nintendo's might have to
<v Speaker 1>just grin and bear it here for a little bit.
<v Speaker 1>They might have to just say, okay, I guess this
<v Speaker 1>is you know, we'll grimace and try to pretend to
<v Speaker 1>smile and talk about how all this stuff is worth
<v Speaker 1>it because Mario Kart eight or Maricott World is so
<v Speaker 1>special and has so much stuff, so of course it's
<v Speaker 1>worth this price. And that's how they talk to us.
<v Speaker 1>So it's not going to be satisfying when they actually
<v Speaker 1>come back with the their answer for what is happening
<v Speaker 1>with pre orders, the price, anything else. But whatever, I'm
<v Speaker 1>still that sucker, Sean. I'm still that sucker who needs
<v Speaker 1>to do so bad that I am. I'm willing to
<v Speaker 1>do it. But I don't blame anyone who is feeling
<v Speaker 1>like I need to just sit this out because either
<v Speaker 1>I don't care enough about the games, that price is
<v Speaker 1>too high. All this news is depressing, even that's under
<v Speaker 1>you know, not Nintendo's fault. Okay, I could get while
<v Speaker 1>you're like I don't want to deal with this and
<v Speaker 1>then switch to makes me think about it. So I
<v Speaker 1>just want to sit it out.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I try. I try to think of the perspective
<v Speaker 2>of you know, like two years ago, before I had
<v Speaker 2>this job, what would I have done in this situation. Oh,
<v Speaker 2>you know, when I was buying every game, buying every console.
<v Speaker 2>You know, I had to be responsible for all that,
<v Speaker 2>and the thing that I would give up is everything else,
<v Speaker 2>because that's where I am. I want to play Mario
<v Speaker 2>kartt World. I want to play METROI Prime for in
<v Speaker 2>the best quality that I can. I want to play
<v Speaker 2>Bonanza I. I'll give up everything else to play the
<v Speaker 2>one thing that I want. And I think maybe that's
<v Speaker 2>just what people have to do at this point, as
<v Speaker 2>much as that absolutely sucks, because y'all, we're still in
<v Speaker 2>Nintendo jail enough that I'm still buying all this myself.
<v Speaker 2>By the way, that's still gonna happen. I'm just lucky
<v Speaker 2>enough to get the Artis stuff for free.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like even like debating, like I shouln't even ask
<v Speaker 1>for a switch too. I mean, I will, but I
<v Speaker 1>have not yet. It's just.
<v Speaker 2>I'm not expecting I'm gonna be doing everyone else. You know,
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna sell my switch one. I'm maybe some games
<v Speaker 2>that I'm not playing. I'm gonna do what makes sense
<v Speaker 2>for me so I can get that hardware and play
<v Speaker 2>the thing that I want to play. Because the world
<v Speaker 2>is crumbling around us and I just need a I
<v Speaker 2>just need a little more escapism.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I'm gonna calarner that ship. Give me four payments.
<v Speaker 1>I don't care what's the interest rate, don't tell me.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, I'm putting that in the PayPal you know. Yay,
<v Speaker 2>go well, I ain't doing the paying for I'll take
<v Speaker 2>the eight percent APR or whatever. Man, that's what I
<v Speaker 2>got to do at this point. Jesus Christ.
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's sean, let's take break, let's come back.
<v Speaker 1>There's a little bit more Nintendo News and we'll get
<v Speaker 1>into some other stuff after that. Let's take a quick break.
<v Speaker 1>We'll be right back after this. All right. I think
<v Speaker 1>if I hit this button, everybody the intro should not
<v Speaker 1>play again. Let's let's find out together. Uh we go,
<v Speaker 1>all right, let's do it. Here we are back in
<v Speaker 1>the show. Switch to Edition titles contained both the game
<v Speaker 1>and upgrade on the cart. Nintendo clarifies this is from
<v Speaker 1>Chris Scullion and VGC. Yeah right, this is like a
<v Speaker 1>little bit of okay, this is the opposite of what
<v Speaker 1>we heard last week. It just seemed like so much
<v Speaker 1>was uncertain. Nintendo did a bad job I think with
<v Speaker 1>the switch to news. Put all the price stuff aside,
<v Speaker 1>all that, you know, messaging over in a box just
<v Speaker 1>telling us how things work. They were bad at it.
<v Speaker 1>They just straight up caused so much confusion, and there
<v Speaker 1>was a lot of like dark clouds around things that
<v Speaker 1>didn't need dark clouds.
<v Speaker 2>I think for some things, yes, for other things. It
<v Speaker 2>was also people misinterpreting things and then that snow, you know,
<v Speaker 2>like no shade. So I won't say names, but like
<v Speaker 2>I saw someone very prominent quote the like ninety dollars physical. Dang,
<v Speaker 2>It's like, well that that was just someone's assumption as
<v Speaker 2>far as I knows.
<v Speaker 1>You know, but you know, they were letting the press
<v Speaker 1>do their dirty work a little bit. Nintend Yeah, where
<v Speaker 1>they're like that.
<v Speaker 2>That's how we get into these kerfuffles is by them
<v Speaker 2>not making things clear, which is very fair. Po.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so here we are again Chris Sculli and VGC.
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo has clarified the situation regarding physical switch to Edition cards.
<v Speaker 1>Confusion arose last week when a Nintendo customer service representative
<v Speaker 1>told one user that the switch to Edition games would
<v Speaker 1>include the base Switch one game as well as the
<v Speaker 1>upgrade in the form of a download code. Nintendo has
<v Speaker 1>now stated that that is not the case, and that
<v Speaker 1>the switch to Edition games will contain both the game
<v Speaker 1>and the upgrade on the cartridge itself, and a statement
<v Speaker 1>to vuk's a Nintendo spokesperson said physical versions of Switch
<v Speaker 1>To Edition games will include the original Nintendo Switch game
<v Speaker 1>and it's upgrade pack all on the same card, i e.
<v Speaker 1>They are exclusively Nintendo Switch To game cards with no
<v Speaker 1>download code. Alternatively, some publishers may release nintend To Switch
<v Speaker 1>to Edition games as download codes in physical packaging with
<v Speaker 1>no game card. That's still the quote there, So they're
<v Speaker 1>like leaving room open for a third party to do
<v Speaker 1>what third party is going to do. But for the
<v Speaker 1>Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, Nintendo Switch to Edition,
<v Speaker 1>you're gonna get a Switch to game box, and inside
<v Speaker 1>there is going to be a Switch to game card
<v Speaker 1>and nothing else. It's not going to be the switch.
<v Speaker 1>It's not going to just be a switch one game
<v Speaker 1>card and then a code so you can get the
<v Speaker 1>DLC for that or you know, the upgrades through a code.
<v Speaker 1>It's just going to be one game card, which I
<v Speaker 1>think is what most people were really hoping for here,
<v Speaker 1>because they just want their game card to be sort
<v Speaker 1>of a long term thing that just works for forever.
<v Speaker 2>Right it's a it's a piece of mind thing. At
<v Speaker 2>this point, I think everyone's starting to realize that physical games,
<v Speaker 2>as great as they are are, this stuff happens to
<v Speaker 2>them like you can't count them forever. We are in
<v Speaker 2>the age now where a Blu Ray that has everything
<v Speaker 2>all on the disc is going to last probably for
<v Speaker 2>the rest of your lifetime. But some of those older ones,
<v Speaker 2>you know, stuff happens. I think what's interesting here is that, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I definitely didn't see it's coming. I definitely expected it
<v Speaker 2>to be just a switch one cart and then the
<v Speaker 2>download code for the expansion pass or sorry, the upgrade
<v Speaker 2>wherever they're hell. They're calling that the switch to version,
<v Speaker 2>switch to edition, and people thought that was Some people
<v Speaker 2>were going, that's wild, that's weird. Why are they do that?
<v Speaker 2>Game companies, I've been doing that for a decade. That's
<v Speaker 2>been a very normal thing for a lot of video games,
<v Speaker 2>where there's like a cross gen version, if there's a
<v Speaker 2>definitive edition. I remember even I think Destiny was it
<v Speaker 2>the Taking King, the first expansion or whoever it was,
<v Speaker 2>even that it was. The disc itself was just like
<v Speaker 2>a patch Destiny one, and I got a DLC voucher. Yep,
<v Speaker 2>that's and I even I was expecting that because it
<v Speaker 2>I'm so used to seeing that at this point. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>Nintendo even has been doing that with like at least
<v Speaker 2>here in the US. It's actually different internationally, but here
<v Speaker 2>in the US, they will just include like the Zelda
<v Speaker 2>Expansion pass in with a you know, a little thing
<v Speaker 2>that the card that has breathel wildline. So if they
<v Speaker 2>sell a bundle to you, they just they pop that
<v Speaker 2>in because they can keep manufacturing the Switch one version
<v Speaker 2>of the game. That's the baseline. That's what they put
<v Speaker 2>in the Switch one box, and then they would be
<v Speaker 2>able to put it in the switch to box and
<v Speaker 2>then just print off a bunch of codes exactly. But
<v Speaker 2>this is even better to say, this is cool. I
<v Speaker 2>like that for the sake of preservation, for the sake
<v Speaker 2>of especially this way you can trade or sell that
<v Speaker 2>all in one version of the game. You don't have
<v Speaker 2>to worry about like I was talking about would say
<v Speaker 2>Destiny or something where I've already used the code. So
<v Speaker 2>the value of the game has plummeted because I just
<v Speaker 2>have like basically a one point zero version of the
<v Speaker 2>game and then nothing else in the box so that's
<v Speaker 2>cool to see it. It makes the game retain value.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, I do want to. I wanted to point this out.
<v Speaker 1>Kanehiwind reminded me here that separate from the upgrade stuff,
<v Speaker 1>Apparently the Legends of the Breath of the Wild switch
<v Speaker 1>To edition does not include expansion pass content, so like
<v Speaker 1>the DLC, Nintendo, And yeah, this is not a game
<v Speaker 1>with your edition, although just about any other publisher on
<v Speaker 1>Earth would have just included that stuff.
<v Speaker 2>But hey, Nintendo, I think Sony's also does stuff like this. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>so yeah, it sound like you get a director's cut,
<v Speaker 2>which is the all in one edition, but I think
<v Speaker 2>other ones do do the DLC separately. I could be
<v Speaker 2>wrong about that one, but I'm pretty sure I've seen.
<v Speaker 1>That when you so the cards themselves are read, is
<v Speaker 1>that right? Switch to? When you see a red like
<v Speaker 1>game card, cartridge, CD, DVD? What do you have a
<v Speaker 1>game that comes to mind? Because I do Doom on
<v Speaker 1>Super Nintendo. Do on Super Nintendo is definitely like right there.
<v Speaker 1>I think maxim of Carnage, that's the one. Yes, that's
<v Speaker 1>because those are the two on Yes, but then they
<v Speaker 1>just like blair in my brain whenever I think of
<v Speaker 1>a red video game. Okay red loss is saying Pokemon red. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>there's popul tree and mechanized saying maximum carnage. Yep.
<v Speaker 2>It stood out so much in that sea of great
<v Speaker 2>carsh just sticking out your Super Nintendo to see what's.
<v Speaker 1>That red one? All right? How about blue one for blue?
<v Speaker 2>Well for okay blue, I do think Pokemon blue and
<v Speaker 2>Pokemon games also Tony Hawk yep, yeah, Scare two. I
<v Speaker 2>think specifically I thought it was.
<v Speaker 1>One, but it could be it's one of one or
<v Speaker 1>one or two. I can't remember which one, but I
<v Speaker 1>thought it was.
<v Speaker 2>That's another one where yeah, I didn't have it I
<v Speaker 2>in sixty four, but when I would go to the
<v Speaker 2>N sixty four section of a used game store, I'm like,
<v Speaker 2>what's the blue car the yeah.
<v Speaker 1>And then yellow would be Donkey Kong sixty four for me.
<v Speaker 2>That's yeah, yeah, And that's another one where Pokemon yellow
<v Speaker 2>is so obvious. But yeah, DK sixty four, Yeah, definitely
<v Speaker 2>all right.
<v Speaker 1>Uh. Micro s D Express cards sell out in Japan
<v Speaker 1>a month and a half before the Nintendo Switch to launch.
<v Speaker 1>This is from Alberto Garrido at Game Reactor, or less
<v Speaker 1>than two months away from the launch. Of Nintendo Switch
<v Speaker 1>to the next generation console that will bring a host
<v Speaker 1>of new features while maintaining the hybrid format that made
<v Speaker 1>its predecessor so successful. Forecast, despite discontent over the price
<v Speaker 1>hike compared to the previous generation, remained positive and it
<v Speaker 1>is expected to be the most successful console launch in history.
<v Speaker 1>There was a revision like, it's not going to be
<v Speaker 1>quite as good, but still going to be the most
<v Speaker 1>successful launch in history. And it seems that some of
<v Speaker 1>its add ons also include that this will be this
<v Speaker 1>will be the case, and it seems that's okay, I'm
<v Speaker 1>sorry I missed that up. And it seems that some
<v Speaker 1>of its add ons also indicate that this will be
<v Speaker 1>the case, such as the storage expansion in the form
<v Speaker 1>of micro SD express cards. It turns out that these
<v Speaker 1>micro SD memory cards, different from the ones that could
<v Speaker 1>be used in the Switch one, have already sold out
<v Speaker 1>in Japan. As reported by Japanese portal GDM. The express
<v Speaker 1>cards are out of stock not only in shops in
<v Speaker 1>Akihap but also across the country, and this has coused
<v Speaker 1>a stir that has even appeared in the Japanese mainstream media. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I for sure I would imagine that, like
<v Speaker 1>they probably weren't already a ton of micro SD express
<v Speaker 1>cards in retail shops, especially in any country, even Japan,
<v Speaker 1>although you know Aki Haber, you expect to have quite
<v Speaker 1>a few. But people are gonna run on these things.
<v Speaker 1>You're gonna need them. I'm not two hundred fifty six
<v Speaker 1>two hundred fifty six gigabytes, which is what's built in,
<v Speaker 1>I believe is not enough for me for sure. I
<v Speaker 1>like to have a handful of games. I'll probably just
<v Speaker 1>install Zelda's I'm at least one of them, but probably both,
<v Speaker 1>just to try them up, both of them right at launch.
<v Speaker 1>And those are gonna be pretty beefy right right out
<v Speaker 1>of the game. I guess they're not huge, but you
<v Speaker 1>know that's gonna run out pretty quick. So I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>want one, but I'm probably not gonna get a one terabyte.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, what are you thinking, I'm buying physical bit that right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's the you know what the switch to. You
<v Speaker 1>still don't have to install the games all dude. Actually,
<v Speaker 1>I love that. I love that.
<v Speaker 2>I took a long time to give Big Mike Krusty
<v Speaker 2>from my switch one.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and the game cards are they're going to read faster,
<v Speaker 1>like I think they're almost certainly using similar and improved
<v Speaker 1>storage technology, So that's that's a good sign if.
<v Speaker 2>I was, if I was getting codes for work, obviously
<v Speaker 2>it would be nice to have a higher source capacity,
<v Speaker 2>and a lot of people are going to go digital
<v Speaker 2>only with that, and this is kind of you could say,
<v Speaker 2>the digital tax, you know, on top of the fact
<v Speaker 2>that digital is still as expensive as physical, which is hilarious.
<v Speaker 2>It should not be that way. But yeah, having to
<v Speaker 2>buy the stores to go with it, because as we've
<v Speaker 2>gone over, you know, this is really fast stores, so
<v Speaker 2>the price is going to be at premium until manufacturing
<v Speaker 2>can go down. But yeah, if I'm buying my own games,
<v Speaker 2>I'm just gonna buy the physical copy and yeah, just
<v Speaker 2>toss them in my carrying case if I'm on the go.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Third Now, granted, third party games are going to be
<v Speaker 2>huge and everything, right, not that like yeah, yeah, game
<v Speaker 2>key cards, so which is primarily third party games. I
<v Speaker 2>don't think I've seen a single Nintendo One exit either. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>so it's gonna be your stuff like Street Fighter of six,
<v Speaker 2>which is like a gigantic download naturally, and that's what
<v Speaker 2>I'll use. The storage for you know though, those few
<v Speaker 2>like Triple A games that I might want to play
<v Speaker 2>on the switch to see. But also there will be exceptions.
<v Speaker 2>I saw a Cyberpunk. They're actually going out of their way.
<v Speaker 2>They did this with Witch or three as well. I
<v Speaker 2>believe they're going out of their way. Get the sixty
<v Speaker 2>four gigabyte finally, Jeff, you're getting your sixty four gigabyte cards.
<v Speaker 2>It's real now, Yeah, you can say it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think that. Uh the okay, so Zelda is
<v Speaker 1>eighteen gigabytes and The Tiers of Kingdom was eighteen gigabytes.
<v Speaker 1>Bertha Wild's thirteen point five gigabytes. You ever get the
<v Speaker 1>sense that Nintendo specifically designs their games working backward from
<v Speaker 1>only using the thirty two gigabyte card. They're like, we
<v Speaker 1>got to figure out a way to get this stuff
<v Speaker 1>down as little as possible. No idea is to require
<v Speaker 1>bigger storage.
<v Speaker 2>Textures in Itintendo games aren't that big?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, they, I mean they hard.
<v Speaker 2>Goes a long way in both gained the game to
<v Speaker 2>run as well as stores because yeah, some some of
<v Speaker 2>those are WEU games, you know, going back a little
<v Speaker 2>bit HD, but boy were they tiny, you know.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, let's see. Yeah, according to CDPR, the sixty four
<v Speaker 1>gigabytes is the max, but that might just be for
<v Speaker 1>third parties. I bet it's the max that they would
<v Speaker 1>maybe this generation we get one hundred and twenty eight,
<v Speaker 1>but I don't think so. That would be so expensive.
<v Speaker 1>They're just gonna sixty four gigabytes would be the max.
<v Speaker 1>And then if anyone has a game bigger than that,
<v Speaker 1>it's just gonna be a game key card.
<v Speaker 2>It would need to be roughly as fast as those
<v Speaker 2>a SD cards. And there's not a chance in hell
<v Speaker 2>they're gonna have one twenty eight ones that are easily
<v Speaker 2>accessible to people.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, and that it would definitely significantly increase the cost.
<v Speaker 1>That's why we didn't get sixty four gigabyte cards on
<v Speaker 1>the Switch one, even though they were there as an option.
<v Speaker 2>So technically real, you still have improven that. I'm still
<v Speaker 2>looking for the evidence.
<v Speaker 1>Uh, Zelda win Wakers switch to GameCube release doesn't rule
<v Speaker 1>out h D port. We heard about this yesterday. Don't
<v Speaker 1>think we talked about this the show, though, the stern
<v Speaker 1>Liam Dulan at Nintendo Life last week, Nintendo confirmed the
<v Speaker 1>legend of Zelda the wind Waker would be sailing onto
<v Speaker 1>the Switch to as part of the GameCube library at launch,
<v Speaker 1>and still sean when I read that that was just
<v Speaker 1>last week. I'm still really still that can't be right.
<v Speaker 1>It's still just last week. If you're worried this might
<v Speaker 1>rule out the WEUHD version of the game making a
<v Speaker 1>return one day, it seems there's still hope. Tim Getty's
<v Speaker 1>of kind of Funny Games spoke to Nintendo of America's
<v Speaker 1>Senior Vice president of Product Development, Nate Bildorf, and was
<v Speaker 1>informed all options are still on the table. Here's what
<v Speaker 1>he had to say via VGC. I also sat down
<v Speaker 1>with Nate and got to ask a whole bunch of questions,
<v Speaker 1>and in typical Nintendo fashion, we didn't get too many answers.
<v Speaker 1>But I did ask if Nintendo or I did ask
<v Speaker 1>if having the wind Waker on Nintendo Switch Online precludes
<v Speaker 1>if the it from the switch to getting the actual
<v Speaker 1>WEU port at some point, and he was very quick
<v Speaker 1>to say no, all options are on the table. And
<v Speaker 1>I guess there are other examples of games coming to
<v Speaker 1>like getting remasters after hitting Nintendo Switch Online, but I'm like, looking,
<v Speaker 1>if they mentioned that here in the story, that's what Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>Getty's also acknowledges how there are already examples of games
<v Speaker 1>available on Switch Online that you can obtain in other ways. Obviously,
<v Speaker 1>nothing's confirmed one way or another, but there are many
<v Speaker 1>examples of games that are on Nintendo Switch Online and
<v Speaker 1>you can get them in a different way, whether it's
<v Speaker 1>a remake or the same port version or whatever it is.
<v Speaker 1>But essentially, it was never say never. So yeah, I'm
<v Speaker 1>still not cold in my breath.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I feel like this is because it was maybe,
<v Speaker 2>you know, no shaded him, maybe a bit of a
<v Speaker 2>loaded question, because when you ask a Nintendo person specifically,
<v Speaker 2>will this never happen? Or yeah, give me a definitive statement,
<v Speaker 2>especially Nintendo America, they will always say, well, you know,
<v Speaker 2>we can't really comment, you know, nothing's off the table.
<v Speaker 2>They give these types of responses a lot, so I
<v Speaker 2>wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily read too much into this one,
<v Speaker 2>but yeah, it is just thing of yeah, you know,
<v Speaker 2>I think it happened. The news here is that yes,
<v Speaker 2>just because a classic game is released into the service
<v Speaker 2>doesn't mean that it could not be available as part
<v Speaker 2>of a a an enhanced version elsewhere. Zelda is just
<v Speaker 2>the only example that would really make sense for us
<v Speaker 2>to be talking about right now.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. My my read on the kind of what happened
<v Speaker 1>here is GameCube seemed like the kind of thing that
<v Speaker 1>they were going to save is like one special difference
<v Speaker 1>for the switch Pro, and they were going to be like,
<v Speaker 1>if you get a switch Pro that just kind of
<v Speaker 1>like they did with the Was it something only worked
<v Speaker 1>on New three DS, was it Super Nintendo, there was
<v Speaker 1>something games. Yeah, I think they were like going to
<v Speaker 1>do that, and so like when they started planning that out,
<v Speaker 1>that would put the HD ports to the side, something
<v Speaker 1>that again I heard years and years ago, even before
<v Speaker 1>the switch Pro stuff that was basically done and ready
<v Speaker 1>to go, although they have a lot of those that
<v Speaker 1>we still haven't seen, and so I think they've just
<v Speaker 1>been like, we're we want to focused on the service.
<v Speaker 1>This having the service be valuable is important to us,
<v Speaker 1>that this is a way that we you know, they
<v Speaker 1>told investors how important having regular income from these services
<v Speaker 1>is to them to help even out the highs and
<v Speaker 1>lows of transitioning between generations. And when they moved all
<v Speaker 1>that stuff to switch to it was like, Okay, that's
<v Speaker 1>already on the side. We're saving Zelda win Waker for this,
<v Speaker 1>and then Toilet Princess could get the same treatment. You know,
<v Speaker 1>the GameCube version could easily end up on Nso yeah, who.
<v Speaker 2>Knows what they're doing, because you know, like it's become
<v Speaker 2>very obvious recently that some of the stuff that Nathan
<v Speaker 2>Hate our buddy has known for a long time I
<v Speaker 2>was first starting to come out, and he's the one
<v Speaker 2>who has been talking about that fire m Home game
<v Speaker 2>for a long long time now. So may may were
<v Speaker 2>at the point where some of the stuff just doesn't
<v Speaker 2>make sense for them anymore. Who knows, But as far
<v Speaker 2>as we know, that's the kind of project that exists
<v Speaker 2>and they're just kicking it around for some reason.
<v Speaker 1>Yep. Yeah, you know, it's really hard to parse, like
<v Speaker 1>how Nintendo decides to keep these things on the shelf
<v Speaker 1>for years, Like Advanced Wars. When that happened, it was
<v Speaker 1>like there was a war in Ukraine and this game
<v Speaker 1>is about war. We would just feel bad releasing it.
<v Speaker 1>That makes sense, you got, We can make sense of
<v Speaker 1>that fire emblem being done and being done like for
<v Speaker 1>at this point at least two years or around two years,
<v Speaker 1>but it's getting very close to two years.
<v Speaker 2>If it's those other Metroid primes. Whatever they're doing with
<v Speaker 2>all that stuff, it's like who knows at this point.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, I just it's hard to figure out why they
<v Speaker 1>make the decision not to put them out, you know.
<v Speaker 2>And obviously maybe some of this stuff, you know, like
<v Speaker 2>Donkey Kong took us a long time see donke Yong
<v Speaker 2>because it was a switch to roughly launch game. Maybe
<v Speaker 2>that's all that's happening here, is that they have some
<v Speaker 2>strategy for it. Later down the road, I will see
<v Speaker 2>it and go like, ah, got it. That's how it's
<v Speaker 2>a lot said.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think, you know, I think this is a
<v Speaker 1>part of an overall risk mitigation strategy of just like
<v Speaker 1>we want to have games for a rainy day. Not
<v Speaker 1>a lot of other companies can afford to do that.
<v Speaker 1>We can. We like to spread out stuff on a
<v Speaker 1>calendar anyhow, So we're gonna put out something here and here.
<v Speaker 1>We're gonna kind of have a big future calendar, and
<v Speaker 1>we are going to have a bucket that It's like
<v Speaker 1>when there's a gap that like feels bad, we can
<v Speaker 1>pull something out of that and PLoP it in there.
<v Speaker 1>I think right the Zelda specifically make it that that
<v Speaker 1>has felt like they've said it publicly they want to
<v Speaker 1>have one Zelda project per year, and they've had one
<v Speaker 1>every year without fail and without having to go to
<v Speaker 1>the HD ports. So that feels like, Hey, if we
<v Speaker 1>get to a point where it's like we are getting
<v Speaker 1>close to the next Zelda and we were expecting that
<v Speaker 1>this year, we're gonna save it for that time, I
<v Speaker 1>could see that.
<v Speaker 2>Maybe, I hope maybe that's been one where they say
<v Speaker 2>to themselves, we don't need to release this, So it's
<v Speaker 2>if a project slips, yes, then they exactly hit the button. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I think it's exactly.
<v Speaker 1>I think you. I think they have a plan for
<v Speaker 1>all right this year it is that you know, Age
<v Speaker 1>of Imprisonment and right and the upgraded uh versions of
<v Speaker 1>Breath of the Wild and uh, here's the Kingdom. So
<v Speaker 1>it's quite a few. But then next year it's like,
<v Speaker 1>I bet they have something else for Zelda. We'll see
<v Speaker 1>at that point, but like a few years from now,
<v Speaker 1>they're expecting a new big three D mainline Zelda, and
<v Speaker 1>they'll expect that for a certain year and if that
<v Speaker 1>needs extra time, just like it always does, they have
<v Speaker 1>a game like the HD ports to slot in at
<v Speaker 1>that point, that would be Yeah, I think that could
<v Speaker 1>easily be how this all goes down. All right, let's
<v Speaker 1>get over here to ub Soft says players suing over
<v Speaker 1>the Crew shutdown shouldn't have expected to own the game forever.
<v Speaker 1>This is from Jordan Miller at VGC. Bbsoft has again
<v Speaker 1>argued that players buying video games shouldn't expect to own
<v Speaker 1>the game forever. This argument stems from Ubisoft's decision to
<v Speaker 1>shut down The Crew last year. In December twenty twenty three,
<v Speaker 1>the publisher quietly delisted The Crew from digital storefronts and
<v Speaker 1>confirmed that the online only game would no longer be playable.
<v Speaker 1>As of April twenty twenty four, after almost a decade
<v Speaker 1>of support, we will be decommissioning the Crew one on
<v Speaker 1>March thirty first, twenty twenty four. It's set at the time.
<v Speaker 1>We understand this may be disappointing for players still enjoying
<v Speaker 1>the game. Blah blah blah. Two players impacted by the
<v Speaker 1>shutdown launched legal action against Ubisoft, accusing Ubisoft of island
<v Speaker 1>in California consumer protection laws. At the time, the plaintiffs
<v Speaker 1>claimed that UBI Soft misled players by telling them that
<v Speaker 1>they were buying a game when in fact all they
<v Speaker 1>were was renting, or all they were was renting a
<v Speaker 1>limited license to access a game that defendants choose to
<v Speaker 1>maintain as at their own nobly oblige, which I know
<v Speaker 1>that's legal Latin. I don't know. Essentially, I'm brought I'm
<v Speaker 1>bringing the story here because we have heard them make
<v Speaker 1>this argument before. But at a certain point, if your
<v Speaker 1>ub Soft, is it more important to protect your right
<v Speaker 1>to pull a game offline or not be the bad guy?
<v Speaker 1>Like if you make it's got at some point just
<v Speaker 1>be like you don't Why are you the ones out
<v Speaker 1>there making this case. Shouldn't you just be like let's
<v Speaker 1>just settle and fade into the background or something. Why
<v Speaker 1>is it so important to you be soft?
<v Speaker 2>I know it's Thursday, but what the Ubisoft needs to
<v Speaker 2>learn is about shut the fuck up front.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, because it is that moment for that.
<v Speaker 2>Online games get shut down all the time, Online games
<v Speaker 2>that people pay for shut down all the time. It sucks,
<v Speaker 2>it's bad, and yes, you could even say it's anti consumer.
<v Speaker 1>I get that.
<v Speaker 2>What's happening here is you'd be soft is like proud
<v Speaker 2>of it, and they are like, no, we did the
<v Speaker 2>right thing here by doing stuff like removing it from
<v Speaker 2>people's accounts if you owned it digitally, and then saying
<v Speaker 2>you no, it was never gonna be here forever. Dude,
<v Speaker 2>just say, you know what, we did everything we could,
<v Speaker 2>but the crew too. You know, we had that and
<v Speaker 2>the crew wanted to get shut down. That's how it works.
<v Speaker 2>You can't be kind of pompous about it, you know. Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that's the problem.
<v Speaker 1>And I think that that is a bigger problem for them,
<v Speaker 1>is being seen as this this pompous, arrogant corporation that
<v Speaker 1>cares more about just you know, running the game out there,
<v Speaker 1>making some money and then taking away from players. And
<v Speaker 1>you already have an image issue as you'd be soft,
<v Speaker 1>you already have. They don't trust that your games are
<v Speaker 1>going to be good in the first place, and now
<v Speaker 1>they also don't trust that they're going to be there
<v Speaker 1>for a long amount of time. So you know, I
<v Speaker 1>don't know if I'm Ubisoft, I'm just like saying, you
<v Speaker 1>know what, we hear you. Let's we did mess up
<v Speaker 1>in this case. We're not going to undo what we've
<v Speaker 1>done with the crew, but in the future, maybe we'll
<v Speaker 1>try to build our games in such a way that
<v Speaker 1>you will be able to have some access to the
<v Speaker 1>game going forward, and we'll just build our games with
<v Speaker 1>that in mind. I think doing a little bit of
<v Speaker 1>extra work in the process of making a game so
<v Speaker 1>that it can run when you pull the servers is
<v Speaker 1>clearly a better choice long run than trying to win
<v Speaker 1>court cases against the people who buy your games. It
<v Speaker 1>just like Ubisoft does not need to be the ones,
<v Speaker 1>and they're already so hated by everybody, right or at.
<v Speaker 2>The very least, like leave it to the consumers, Sora,
<v Speaker 2>Just yeah, lase a fair. We're not touching this anymore.
<v Speaker 2>We're not supporting it anymore. Servers are shut down, but
<v Speaker 2>we're also not going to remove it from your account.
<v Speaker 2>If people like Big You happen to figure something else out.
<v Speaker 2>We didn't see anything, you know, just just look the
<v Speaker 2>other way, because even saying nothing is better publicity than
<v Speaker 2>doubling down on your decision to shut it down. Just
<v Speaker 2>just say I saw in Chatson pointed out that you
<v Speaker 2>can just say the typical stuff of yeah, this is
<v Speaker 2>how automotive games work. You know, we have licensing in
<v Speaker 2>this game, expires, can't support it forever. That's what happens
<v Speaker 2>in with this genre of game. That's what happened here.
<v Speaker 2>It's unfortunate, but we're moving on from this game. If
<v Speaker 2>you just phrase it that way, just frame it that way,
<v Speaker 2>everything will have been better here, even if the exact
<v Speaker 2>same end result came out of this.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, that's a that's a really good point. I think
<v Speaker 1>you know, ideally, what I would want from all this
<v Speaker 1>obviously for the games to run forever. That's that'd be great.
<v Speaker 1>If you're gonna have an online game, make it run forever. Please.
<v Speaker 1>If you can't do that, then building a mode that
<v Speaker 1>does just work offline, and then you know, I think
<v Speaker 1>the other ideal here would be you build the server
<v Speaker 1>client and you make it open source, and you just
<v Speaker 1>release that to the to the to the crew, to
<v Speaker 1>the crew audience, to the audience and just say hey,
<v Speaker 1>now it's on you guys. And I think there's people like, great,
<v Speaker 1>thanks open source, we can handle it from here.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Back in the day, that's the kind of thing
<v Speaker 2>that would happen too. When you get stuff like ID games,
<v Speaker 2>you know, where they eventually release a source code, Coulers
<v Speaker 2>are like, well, we're not really making money on the
<v Speaker 2>same more so, Yeah, it's who like the server browser
<v Speaker 2>and set up in earthing. Yeah, y'all can handle that.
<v Speaker 2>We're just you know that that's built into the purchase.
<v Speaker 2>I guess that would be really cool. It's just the
<v Speaker 2>word corporation has been said a lot to steps, and
<v Speaker 2>that's just where we're ahead.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Thanks. Other Nintendo Switch Classic controllers are also said
<v Speaker 1>that they are only compatible with the NFL. This is
<v Speaker 1>an update to a story from yesterday where we mentioned
<v Speaker 1>the N sixty or sorry, the game cube controller that
<v Speaker 1>they are going to be selling for the Switch to
<v Speaker 1>for NSO classic games Nintendo Classics. There was a little
<v Speaker 1>bit of fine print that said it's only compatible with
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo Classic games, and we brought this up because as everyone,
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, all the other ones work with other games.
<v Speaker 1>You sort of just sure it doesn't have all the buttons,
<v Speaker 1>but if it does have enough buttons, the controller just
<v Speaker 1>kind of works. And it seems like maybe that this
<v Speaker 1>is going to be the exact same scenario, because apparently
<v Speaker 1>those other Nintendo Classic controllers like for the nes Super Nintendo,
<v Speaker 1>and N sixty four have all had similar fine print,
<v Speaker 1>and I think we all just kind of missed that.
<v Speaker 1>I missed that yesterday for sure.
<v Speaker 2>I remember, yeah, I remember that. After its problem to
<v Speaker 2>my attention, I'm like, oh yeah, they did like put
<v Speaker 2>a weird disclaimer on that. That's right, but and that's
<v Speaker 2>Nintendo love to do that.
<v Speaker 1>They're like, if it's not gonna work perfectly, we're just
<v Speaker 1>gonna say it's not gonna work at all. And then
<v Speaker 1>if people discover it, great.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's a nice little thing from discover. So that's
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, maybe it gives me a little bit
<v Speaker 2>of hope because if I'm gonna be spending was it
<v Speaker 2>seventy dollars on this damn thing?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think so.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I would hope that at least works in games
<v Speaker 2>that have button mapping for game cube stuff, so it
<v Speaker 2>doesn't mash, and yeah, I guess like that's the Is
<v Speaker 2>that the one thing you're missing, because yeah, there's the
<v Speaker 2>all you can map it at system.
<v Speaker 1>Clicking sticks in it might not have clickable sticks.
<v Speaker 2>Ah, you're right there, it is, Yeah it is. But
<v Speaker 2>even then, even then again, four games that have the
<v Speaker 2>mapping for it, like Smash, like Metro Primary Mastered, it
<v Speaker 2>would be nice to use that one instead of having
<v Speaker 2>to bust out my Smash GameCube controllers. After plug in
<v Speaker 2>the GameCube controller and then make sure everything's set up
<v Speaker 2>properly as it were a pro controller, which is how
<v Speaker 2>it usually works.
<v Speaker 1>So all right, that's going to do it for the headlines.
<v Speaker 1>Let me get the pull question up here. Actually, Sean,
<v Speaker 1>I don't have that ready, So why why do that?
<v Speaker 1>Why do you tell people where they could find you
<v Speaker 1>online and all that good stuff?
<v Speaker 2>I mean online you can catch me around blue Sky,
<v Speaker 2>Turbo shon dot com, sahawn and otherwise doing stuff here,
<v Speaker 2>doing a lot of stuff here. We've been very busy
<v Speaker 2>putting a lot of stuff out. It's still, like we
<v Speaker 2>said at the top of the show, it is weird
<v Speaker 2>to think that all this switch to stuff was the
<v Speaker 2>last week. We got a bunch of videos out on
<v Speaker 2>if you want to go back and watch that. Obviously
<v Speaker 2>we got good bcr and BombCast talking about Switch to
<v Speaker 2>Dan and Jan talking about their experiences playing well Dan's
<v Speaker 2>experiences are playing the switch too. And then of course
<v Speaker 2>we've got more stuff here in the power Block today.
<v Speaker 2>If you want to stay tuned while the Game Spot
<v Speaker 2>show after this, Jeff, you're gonna be playing Blueprints later
<v Speaker 2>on the day, right, Yeah, Yeah, I think.
<v Speaker 1>Am I doing that? Next? Let me take a look
<v Speaker 1>at my calendar here real quick, I think I'm doing that.
<v Speaker 2>It should be after the game spot Show, that's.
<v Speaker 1>Right, It's after the game spot Show, Game Spot Show
<v Speaker 1>and then blueprints after that, that's right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so like one third Eastern. Yeah, so you're The
<v Speaker 2>plan is for you to start a fresh safe file
<v Speaker 2>so people can just see what the game is like,
<v Speaker 2>and then like towards the end of the stream, hop
<v Speaker 2>into like a your regular safeiles Apple can see a
<v Speaker 2>mess up stuff that they.
<v Speaker 1>Want exactly if you want to stick around and see
<v Speaker 1>some stuff though, I you know, I know what's going
<v Speaker 1>to be a spoiler, and we're just going to avoid
<v Speaker 1>all that stuff. But there's some other stuff, like you
<v Speaker 1>might be interested in it, or some other possibilities toward
<v Speaker 1>the in the gameplay might not know is there and
<v Speaker 1>maybe you weren't convinced. You can stick around if you want,
<v Speaker 1>but we'll see see how that goes because I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>have to do some save managements. I don't think it
<v Speaker 1>has different save files, so I'll have to like back
<v Speaker 1>up my save and then bring that back into the game.
<v Speaker 1>So we'll see how it goes all right, whole question.
<v Speaker 1>Let's see I have it right here from yesterday. If
<v Speaker 1>you can't afford a switch to what do you want
<v Speaker 1>to say to Nintendo, I'll keep playing Switch one, thank you,
<v Speaker 1>or drop the price. Thirty seven percent says they'll keep
<v Speaker 1>playing their Switch one. Sixty three percent say drop the price.
<v Speaker 1>You know, we never really talked about like that Doug
<v Speaker 1>Bowser quote of hey, for people can force switch too,
<v Speaker 1>we still have to switch one very much, echoing Don matric.
<v Speaker 1>It doesn't quite match matrics.
<v Speaker 2>It's a little different because the matric was like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>basically saying like, oh, you live a country with bad internet,
<v Speaker 2>play the three sixty.
<v Speaker 1>Yesnate, Like if someone in the navy at sea and
<v Speaker 1>you love you loved having the Xbox three sixty, now
<v Speaker 1>you want to have an Xbox one, will too bad
<v Speaker 1>you serving our country? Yeah, crazy things to say.
<v Speaker 2>Whereas Doug Botherer is saying like, yeah, well you know
<v Speaker 2>it's expensive. We made it expensive, but we're still going
<v Speaker 2>to support to Switch one and there's still a lot
<v Speaker 2>of good stuff out there. It's a little different, but yeah,
<v Speaker 2>just shades of matters.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's just a dumb thing to say. Clearly a
<v Speaker 1>dumb thing to say.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah again, shut the fuck up, right, It just sometimes
<v Speaker 2>you got.
<v Speaker 1>Just back off lo yep, your normal bullshit of well
<v Speaker 1>we just made it so good it's worth the price
<v Speaker 1>that people would be like, oh my god, they'd roll
<v Speaker 1>their eyes with that, but it would not be the
<v Speaker 1>same sort of.
<v Speaker 2>iPhones out there in the world, and they do the
<v Speaker 2>same thing, So you know what, sometimes that's just the approach.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, absolutely, all right, new poll question. Let's see here.
<v Speaker 1>Do you expect they switch to price increase now? Yes, yes,
<v Speaker 1>but a smaller increase and no. We'll get the results
<v Speaker 1>of that. Talk about it on Game Breaking News here
<v Speaker 1>on the Power Block with Giant Bomb tomorrow. Speaking of
<v Speaker 1>the Power Block, Sean went over it, but yes, they
<v Speaker 1>stay tuned here. We'll go right into the Game spot Show.
<v Speaker 1>After that, I would be playing Blueprints and then s
<v Speaker 1>we'll figure out how we're doing voicemail dump truck Jans
<v Speaker 1>off today.
<v Speaker 2>Everybody, don't worry, fantastic figure it out. Oh yeah, I
<v Speaker 2>saw Mike and chat Mike, can you do dump truck?
<v Speaker 2>Thank you?
<v Speaker 1>All right? Uh, Sean, thanks so much for hanging out
<v Speaker 1>with me today and talk about video games. Man, I
<v Speaker 1>think we got through this one, no problem.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I think this is a fun time. Jeff always
<v Speaker 2>always pleasure of being on.
<v Speaker 1>Likewise, man, all right, thank you all for watching and listening.
<v Speaker 1>You're the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have
<v Speaker 1>a good one, take care of yourself and goodbye.