The Best One Yet - 🗡️ “Zelda’s Billions” — Nintendo’s Star Wars beat. Vice Media’s bankruptcy. America’s job satisfaction.

Episode Date: May 16, 2023

Nintendo just launched the latest Zelda video game — we crunched the numbers to learn that it will make more money than the last 3 Star Wars movies… combined. Vice Media is filing for bankruptcy because social media success doesn’t equal business success. And a new survey reveals that job satisfaction just hit a 35-year high in America — Because after “The Great Resignation” comes “The Big Stay.” $NTDOY $DIS $BZFDWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You know it comes after Taco Tuesday, Jack. Saviche Wednesday. Okay, don't try to make that a thing. I don't think that's ever happening. I think it's going to become a thing. That is not happening. Jack, I'm two steps ahead of you. I already got Thursday mapped out too.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, May 16th. And today's pod is the best one yet. It is a T-boy, Jack. Good news. Stock markets ended their losing streak yesterday. Stocks rose attached.

Not too shabby. Jack and I'll take it. In the meantime, Jack, first story. What do we got? The latest Zelda video game just launched on Nintendo last week. Yeti Zelda may be the most lucrative character on Earth, Middle Earth. For our second story, a survey shows that more Americans right now are satisfied with their jobs than ever before. Jack, that means you and I got to talk about what we got to talk about, and what is that? The big stay. The big stay. And our third and final story is Vice.

Vice is the latest digital media icon to file for bankruptcy. Its numbers on social media were huge, but its financial numbers were not. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix. The perfect mix for a T-Boy Tuesday, Jack. I love this mix. Goodbye John. Hello, Elijah. Goodbye, Jane. Hello, hello, Luna. Yeties, we just got the list of the most popular baby names in America for 2022.

The first choices for the first names. The Social Security Administration whips up this list every year. It's a really nice tradition. Turns out, Social Security has been keeping track of baby names since 1880. Yeah, back when Ulysses was cool. Back when Agatha was trending. Today, you don't see many Ulysses. You don't see many Agaths.

What are the top five names for baby boys last year? Jack, that would be Liam, Noah, Oliver, James, and Elijah. It's actually the sixth year in a year. row that Liam is the most popular boy's name. Not too shabby, let's go Liam. And the top five names for girls, what were they last year? Jack, that would be Olivia, Emma, Charlotte, Amelia, and Sophia. It's the fourth year in a row that Olivia is the most popular girl's name.

Olivia, there we go. You're going to have some classmates. Maybe you should date Liam. But there's a funny theme that Nick and I noticed with the baby names. Yes, there is, Jack. The biggest influence on baby name popularity seems to be TV. Yet these names that are streaming are names that are trending. Now, this may sound familiar because it's the same thing with pets. Yeah, Jack and I told you six months ago that pet names were also influenced by TV names. That's why the fastest growing boy name right now is Dutton.

Dutton, as in John Dutton, the rancher dad on Yellowstone. And the newest name to hit the top 40 for boy names? It's Maverick. Maverick, as in Top Gun, Maverick, Tom Cruise. How about Eloise, Violet, Pone. All of those are in the top 50, and all of those are characters on Bridger 10. Nick and I are shocks that Wams Gam wasn't... I mean, Jack, is Zava two European or what?

Zava is two European, Nick. Yet he's for T-Boy Tuesday. We want to know from you. What TV-inspired baby names should we be seeing? What TV-inspired baby names were popping when you were born? Actually, Jack, Molly and I haven't picked out first names yet. We could be crowdsourcing a first baby name right now. Boy or a girl.

Yeties, what TV-inspired baby name should Nick name his kid, who we're not sure if it's a boy or a girl? Honestly, roll with anything. HBO Max, can you sponsor this name? The Yeties, the way Nick and I see it, you could come up with a kid name yourself. Or you could just let the writers over at Netflix do it for you. That's why the best baby name is... Yes, Jack? Dada-dong. Let me introduce you to my nephew.

Skip intro. Hit us up at T-Boy Pod. Jack and I will hit our three stories. 15 years before this song Two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm They had an idea to cause a cultural storm It's the best one yet But they need to practice

50% that's a fat tip T-boy City on your at list If you know you know Because we're ready to go We can't wait no more So just start the show Start the show For our first story

Nintendo's most important game ever May not be Super Mario It may actually be Zelda How big is Zelda's video game business How big is Jack? It's bigger than Star Wars. Yeah, we're going to explain that one. In the meantime, though, when Americans think of Nintendo, Jack, we tend to think about the Italian plumber, don't we?

We think of Super Mario, who's based in Brooklyn and has a brother named Luigi. He paved a path to a profitable prosperity thanks to plumbing. That's what Marriott did. That's right. But when you think of Nintendo, you might think of Zelda, too. Right, because Zelda is the Ryan Gosling to Super Mario's Rachel McAdams. Nick and I jumped in T-boy style. The Mario Brothers have under 200,000 followers on Reddit.

Jack, how many followers does Zelda have on Reddit? 10 times that many. Zelda has 2 million super fans commenting about Zelda on Reddit. By the way, Robin Williams named his daughter Zelda after the video game. Because starting in 1986 with Legends of Zelda, Zelda has become the number two most important game for Nintendo. Now, yet he's, maybe you've played Zelda, maybe you haven't. If you haven't, the plot. is, you've seen the plot before. This is not an original plot, right, Jack?

There's a princess named Zelda who must be saved from a nasty evil creature named Gannendorf. Yeah, this has happened one or two times in past storytelling. And who's going to save Princess Zelda? Who, Jack? You are, the person playing the video game through the first person avatar, a mute character named Link. But here's the news on Zelda. On Friday, Zelda's newest video game just dropped and the numbers were serious. Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom, which is what the latest game is called, scored a 96 on the Gamer Review website. This is a big deal because this is the highest rated game ever and it just dropped.

It looks like Zelda is going to be a huge smashing financial success. But here's why Jack and I had to pause the pod and make this a story. Jack and I were wondering, what does success mean in the video game industry? What is a huge financial smashing success for video games? Like how much money do video games? make because there is no clear number that's associated with video games. There is no clear price point. Unless you play video games or invest in video game companies, it's hard to measure success of a video game. Honestly, video games can feel like the metric system, like kilometers, leaders. Like,

you honestly do not really know what those are. So Nick and I decided we're going to compare the video game business to a business that you actually understand. Jack and I decided we're going to compare video game sales to box office movie sales. Once we convert video game sales, to box office sales, it becomes clear. Once video game sales are converted from kilograms to pounds, from meters to inches, that's, that's when you're going to understand them. And that's when you're going to understand that the force is strong with Zelda. We ran the numbers and Jack, let's hit the takeaway.

So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Nintendo? Zelda will make more money than the last three Star Wars episodes did combined. Yeties, the previous Zelda, Breath of the World. Wild sold 30 million copies. The new Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom, is expected to sell at least double that many. Okay, ipso facto Jack, let's say that this new Zelda video game sells 60 million copies at $70 per download. That is so much money.

That's $4.2 billion in revenues for Nintendo. Also known as so much money. That is so much money that it's more than the last three Star Wars episodes, episode 7, 8, and 9 combined. And he's what Jack and I were saying here is that Link, Zelda, and Gannon are making more than three times the money a Luke, Darth, and Obi-1. Now, we should point out, Star Wars is better at franchising than Zelda is. Star Wars knows how to stick lightsabers in a million kids' hands, and they got a theme park, and they got a lot of toys. They got two theme parks.

But Nintendo gets to keep 100% of its video game sales. Lucasfilm only keeps half of their box office sales. So, besties, when it comes to awareness, Star Wars is bigger than Zes. But when it comes to money, Zelda is bigger than Star Wars. There is big money in video games. For our second story, a shocking thing is going on at work across America. Job satisfaction is at its highest level in decades. Which is why we're about to enter the big stay.

The big stay. But before we jump in T-boy style, Jack, can we talk about the bare minimum Monday? Yetis, have you heard of Bear Minimum Mondays? Bare Minimum Mondays is like the next thing after quiet quitting. Bare minimum Mondays is what it sounds like. It is when you do the bare minimum on the Monday. You schedule one meeting, two meeting tops, and you show up just so people see you and then you leave. I'm going to have to cancel that 2 p.m. because I have a 9 a.m.

It basically turns a five-day work week into your own personal four and a half day work week. Because besties to ease the Sunday scary, some are advocating for a bare minimum Mondays to like ease into the work week. Yeah, I mean, mass layoffs are depressing. They're scary. And recession worries, they're stressful to everyone. Plus, you hear that slack noise? Ah, that is a scary noise. You hear that noise. That's a scary noise. Plus, we still have the inflation situation. Like, if your latte costs double digits, you're kind of annoyed that your boss isn't paying you more. So some people are responding to all that with bare minimum Mondays. Bare minimum Mondays, you clock in at 10 o'clock and then you clock out at 3 p.m. for Pilates. With a two-hour luncheon machine. Must be nice.

Their minimum Monday is a sign that people don't want to be at work as much. So on the surface, Yetis, Jack and I are looking at this and we're like, hey, it doesn't seem like people are that happy in their jobs right now. But then we got this report. We got data that shows the exact opposite of that. Get this. According to the conference board, job satisfaction is at a 35 year high. A record 62% of us Americans were either satisfied or very satisfied with the jobs we have right now. A record 62% of us are smiling while we're going through those spreadsheets.

Our record 62% of us have never been more pumped about our profession. Jack, the record, 62% of us are high-fiving over fax machines. Now, what is it? Is it free kombucha, perks like that in the canteen? I don't know. Is that what it is, Jack? Is it the new pet bereavement policy that HR offered? Is it the new Cevice Wednesdays that everyone's so excited about?

No, what is excited? Other people are excited about Cevice Wednesdays. No, it's none of those HR perks. Yeties. core reason for job satisfaction, it came down to one word. Flexibility. Flexibility. An interesting nugget from the report that Nick and I noticed, employees that are 100% back in the office, they're not as happy as those that have a flexible situation. But here's the key. Employees who are 100% remote are also less happy than those with flexibility in the office. The workers that are most satisfied with their jobs are the ones who get to come in

some days and work from home other days. The most satisfied workers are the ones with flexibility. But Yeti's, this survey was taken six months ago in November. Before the mass layoffs happened to us. So Jack and I are looking at it and we're thinking, what comes next? And it's not Civeche Wednesday. Although we all want it to be.

So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the workforce? The next era of work is the big stay. The big stay. Yeti's, the big stay is the idea. that unlike all that job hopping that happened during the pandemic, right now, you are staying put. After years of upheaval, change, and turnover in the workplace, people are going to stay in the role that they have right now. And here's why we think we're going to see the big stay, because over the last couple of years, first, we had the great resignation. Those who hated

their jobs took the pandemic as the opportunity to finally leave and try out something new. And then over the last year, we've seen major layoffs. So people are in jobs they like more and have extra reason to be grateful for that job right now. Exactly. Now, Yetis, let's add in that new data, that job satisfaction is at a record high. And what does that mean, Jack? It means you're probably going to stay in the job you have right now. And that is why we think the next big trend in work is going to be the big stay. From the great resignation to the big stay.

For our third and final story, Vice Media just declared bankruptcy. Of all the new media failures this year, Vice is the biggest one. Okay, Jack, how about we play a little, a little, I know you like trivia, but how about we play a little word association game? You ready? I'll try it out. Here we go. When I say edgy, what are you thinking?

Vice. Yeah. Seriously. Vice is always described as the edgy startup media company that was a unicorn worth $5.7 billion. Yet he's, Vice is the media company that would interview a skateboarder in a Filipino prison. Vice is the media company that would do an expose about Russian bear fighting. Vice is the media company that would go undercounter. cover in a Chuck Echee Cheese ball pit. And thanks to that edgy reputation, in 2017 at VICE's height,

they had a rules-breaking journalism division, their own in-house ad agency, and their own video studios. They also owned Refinery 29. But then VICE's growth slowed, and then VICE's growth flattened, and then VICE started to shrink. So nobody wanted to invest, nobody wanted to lend, and then VICE couldn't IPO either. So today, VICE has gone from a $6 billion. valuation to $800 million in debt. So yesterday, Vice declared bankruptcy. Vice will continue operating and publishing while a judge figures out whether it should be sold or whether it should be shut down.

It's a serious and sad moment. And it's also rock bottom for the brightest digital media star of an era. And it's part of a trend that we've been seeing with a lot of really bright digital media stars this year. Since the internet, we have seen digital media companies try to disrupt established media companies. For example, Jack, we just. We just saw this with BuzzFeed.

BuzzFeed had to shut down their news division. Because BuzzFeed was dependent on Facebook. And a few years ago, we saw this with Quibi, which raised a whole lot of money and then shut down the entire thing. Because they depended on app downloads, and we didn't download their app. So Jack and I are looking at the situation here, and we're noticing a similarity between BuzzFeed and Vice. Both BuzzFeed and Vice got huge amounts of likes, views, and follows on social media

and got venture capital investors very excited. Investors were thrilled. they loved that these companies were getting the likes. But here's the problem. Their social media numbers were huge, but their financial numbers weren't. That is a problem. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Vice Media? Social media success does not equal business success.

Yet is the operative word of social media is swipe. But here's the thing. Swipes, they aren't dollars. That's why likes usually don't translate to money. So when we look at the digital media companies that are struggling right now, tends to be the ones that depended on social media. But successful digital media companies that have survived and even thrived, they did not depend on social media.

That's the key. Instead, they found a way into your existing habits, like your email newsletters, your podcast, your YouTube views. They stayed lean while they earned your daily habits. So the operative word of social media, it is swipe. People swipe and then they move on. That's why social media success does not equal business success. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday?

Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom, is already off to piping hot sales after debuting on Friday last week. Yet his one video game will make more money than the last three Star Wars combined. For our second story, more Americans are satisfied with their jobs right now than at any point in the last 35 years. Yeah, the great resignation, it's being replaced by the Big Stay. And our third and final story is Vice Media. They just declared bankruptcy. It's a a huge come down from a once mighty valuation. Social media success does not equal business success. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Yvonne and Darya from lovely Santa Clara, California. You know when you sometimes say you have a gut feeling to do something?

Gut feeling. Like this takeaway, it's a really good takeaway. It's a gut feeling. Well, a gut feeling is a real biological thing. Yeah, get this, Yeties. The neurons in your brain, they tell your body how to behave. The neurons in your brain can tell your arm to move. for example. So you've got a hundred billion neurons in your head, but it turns out you have 500 million neurons in your stomach. So there's a lot more neurons in your brain, but there's still a lot of neurons in your gut. Like if you're feeling something in your gut, yeah, that's the neurons speaking. You're not always going to feel something in your gut. No, not always. Not always. Good points. You're usually going to feel stuff in your brain. But sometimes you're going to get a gut feeling

because you have a gut feeling. Yeties, whether you are a Liam, a Noah, and a little or an Emma, you look fantastic today. Hit us up at T-BoyPod today to tell us what TV-inspired baby names you should be hearing. We want to know what TV baby names are we missing in the top 10 because we know there are some out there, Logan. There are some out there. The year you were born. Was it Chuck, as in Chuck Norris? Was it Hasselhoff as in David Hasselhoff?

Or was it to Pank? If you know. You know. Hit us up at T-boy Pod and Nick and I will see you tomorrow. Can't wait. Before we go, happy birthday to Yeti Cat Smith down in lovely Los Angeles. And happy 17th birthday to Carson Hall and Cincinnati. And Matt the Wongatron Wong, happy birthday in Toronto, Canada.

Happy birthday to Jesper over in Seville, Spain. And Mark Parker, enjoy that birthday in Yorba, Linda, California. Happy 10th birthday to Shaila Dorsey in Landrum, South Carolina. And a congratulations to Kayana and Ken Say, who are graduating from Park Vista Community High School. And congratulations to Dr. Quay Vaugh from Denton, Texas, who's graduating from North Texas U. And Jack, stick this up on the fridge. Luke Sona Gonzalez was just named the Teacher of Excellence with an award in Irvine, California. And we just want to shout out John, Jericho, and Jace, who are listening with their dad on the way to school in St. Louis, Missouri.

Pull over and get these guys a milkshake. They're on the way to school. I don't think that's a good. Yeah, get them too. And to anyone else who celebrated something today, make it a team. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix.

And it's not because of the Csvici. Don't you even try? By the way, Nick, can I just quickly say what a great idea was for you to take a picture with a fake person under our arms? Oh, it was so funny that that worked. Rachel did it perfectly. The comments are hilarious.

People are like, I'm looking at the hands and it looks fake. But it's not clear. It's fake. I forgot. Somebody said after a close, Let's look at Nick's hand placement. Yeah.

I've determined Timmy is fake. My favorite comment still is the whether he's fake or real. There's a little Timmy in all of us.