Video Gamers Podcast - Nintendo Direct & Switch 2 Reactions - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

Gaming hosts Ryan, John and Josh are bringing you a can't miss episode! The Nintendo Direct gave us a lot more info on the Switch 2, it's launch lineup of video games and everything about the Switch 2 and we're here to chat our initial reactions, the Switch 2 info you might have missed, the games and what's to come and more. From the price of the gaming console to the crazy price of it's video games, we're breaking down everything you need to know, what has us excited, and what has us heated! It's a gaming packed reaction episode you don't want to miss! Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Ol’ Jake, Disratory and Gaius Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1    Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Intro Hello fellow gamers and welcome to the Video Gamers Podcast. Nintendo has been an icon of gaming since the early 80s. With a focus on innovation and iconic figures, it's impossible to argue the impact Nintendo has had over the years. With the recent unveiling of the Switch 2 and the Nintendo Direct, we wanted to give our thoughts on some of the upgrades, changes, and controversy surrounding the recent reveals. But first, some introductions are in order. I am your host Josh, and joining me, he's got the form factor of the GameCube, the innovation

of the Wii U, and he's as awesome as Goldeneye is. It's Ryan. So, which one are we going with? Your version of Goldeneye or my version? No, Ryan. We're going with your version. Oh, okay. You had a lot to say about Golden Eye recently.

And you know. Best game of the 90s, worst game of the 90s. There you go. Ryan, that was a really nice intro. Take the win. Right? Was it? Was it nice?

OK. And joining us, Nintendo might have Mario Kart 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and soon 9, but we've got new host number 4, it's John! Hey everybody! Good morning or evening or afternoon or whenever you're listening to this. It's always time somewhere. Preach.

Oh man. OK, guys, listen, we all watched the Nintendo Direct yesterday morning. You know, we we wanted to do this very special kind of bonus episode to talk about it, because the world is a buzz. It's not every day we get the announcement for a new Nintendo console. There were some very high hopes and concerns leading up to the Nintendo Direct. We all watched it. We all have our thoughts on it. And we went, man, we got to just talk about this a little bit because there's a lot of noise out there on the internet. Go figure. And, you know, one thing we love to do is just kind of cut through

the noise and talk about what's going on. You know, hey, take the rage baiting aside, take the fanboyism aside, and let's just kind of get to what's actually, you know, being being released. Some of the games that are released, some of the pricing and technical aspects and stuff like that. So. I I will say that one thing that I love is our community, because our community is filled with almost a thousand gamers that are all very genuine, honest people. They're not afraid to say what they think. It is an awesome place for people to have an opinion and not get just slandered for

that opinion and things like that as well. So I love that because it kind of gives us a glimpse into what gamers as a whole are thinking, apart from the kind of cesspool that social media can be. Yeah. And I think what we're seeing is a lot of the same thoughts from people, a lot of the same concerns, but there also is a lot of hype for this. So my first question for you guys,

are you hyped for the Switch 2? Hmm. Was I hyped? I am hyped. Was I hyped or am I still hyped? That's the real question. Okay. It's, I don't know.

I honestly, like it's, there is a lot there and a lot to break down and take a look at. Um, is there a lot that excited me from that? I don't know if I would, uh, if I would say so. So I'm somewhat indifferent, but, uh, I have some strong feelings on both sides. Okay. I'm, I'm somewhat hyped, but I don't get hyped for new consoles in the same way that I used to when there were like big obvious technical advancements, you know, it took me a while to get a ps5 for instance, and I'm notoriously a console gamer, but the

The advancements from console to console especially graphically which was like the big driver for me for a long time They just they're not that huge anymore. The leaps aren't that huge anymore. And, you know, having a C button didn't blow me away. But there's a C button. Bro. Okay. They spent half the direct talking about the C button,

John, how dare you? Yeah. The subtle tech upgrades were cracking me up because so quick little side story. I worked a long day yesterday. I was in the truck about eight hours. I ran up, did a job out of town, ran around in the forest, practicing my Skyrim technique, and then came home.

It was late at night and I threw on the Nintendo Direct to watch with my son and I, you know, naturally just pass out on the couch. And he kept waking me up like every 30 seconds. Dad, there's a C button. Dad, the sticks are bigger on the controller. Dad, and it's like all these little subtle small things, but I'm like, stop, just leave me alone. All right, so I do want to preface this by saying, look,

we have always been honest about our opinions. Anybody that has listened to this podcast for any length of time knows that we always approach things as just lifelong gamers. We are not experts. We are not beholden to anybody. We have always said our honest opinions are what we're going to give to people. We have always backed that up by saying, listen, it is a okay for people to have different opinions, man. Just because I don't like Stardew Valley does not mean, you know, that I'm crazy. It just means it's not the game for me.

You know, you know, Ryan recently said he thinks Goldeneye is a terrible, terrible game. And you know what? We don't hold that against Ryan just because every intro from now on is going to be terrible. Does not mean that we hold a grudge. OK, so. Uh huh. So, you know, this is to say that, you know, just because we have thoughts on something does not mean that we are trying to say that you should have the same thoughts on something. The fact that people like different things is what makes the world interesting. So, you know, if you are super excited for the Nintendo Switch 2, we are very happy for

you. If you are very upset over the Nintendo Switch 2, we're sorry for you at that point too, but we, you know, like I said, people are entitled to their opinions is the takeaway here. So, but we're going to give our honest opinions on this. One thing that I wanted to do is kind of just get some information out of the way for people that maybe have not seen the Nintendo Direct or seen the kind of ask the, like the specs for the switch to and things like that So we have a list of games that we got that we can dive into a little bit more here in a little bit But some of the release games or the new games that were announced for the switch to The number one was Mario Kart world. This is the big premier game that they announced

We talked about man. Are we just gonna get another Mario Kart? I will say, I think the game looks neat. We can talk about that. Nintendo Switch 2 welcome tour. This was kind of equivalent to Astro's play room. I think I got the name right on that one because I don't have a PS5, but you know, when the, when the PS5 came out, they gave you Astro's play room or playground or whatever it was to play room, play room to kind of show off some of the, the aspects of what the PS five could do. The switch to welcome tours the same, but it comes with a price tag survival kids. I don't remember this one at all. To be honest with you, the big one that they showed off at the very end of the show was

donkey Kong bonanza. This is a new three D uh, donkey Kong world. We got dragon drive, which I'm pretty sure is the game that they used to show off the mouse capabilities for the Joy-Cons. Hyrule Warriors, Age of Imprisonment. This is basically Dynasty Warriors, but with the Zelda skin on it, I even said, but we already have Dynasty Warriors when they announced this one, not realizing that it actually is the mimicking Dynasty Warriors.

We got Kirby Air Riders, which I just called Kirby Fox instead of Star Fox. And then my personal favorite was the Duskbloods, which is made from software. This looks like Elden Ring basically, or a new IP of the Dark Souls universe. Let's just call it. So that was the list of new games. Now we are getting some games like, John, you hit the nail on the head. We're getting Elden Ring.

Yep. I mean, you called that one, buddy. And I kind of thought you were crazy. Yeah, I was happy to see it, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So we are getting some games like Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy. There are a lot of IPs that are making the leap to the Switch 2,

presumably because it can handle these games now. So we can dive into the games a little bit more. Now. The cost. This is the big one. Well, what's it cost? My golly. It's Nintendo has always underpriced their consoles because they overpriced their games, guys. So it's going to be cheap. Of course. You know, a lot of people were thinking $299 right like nope $450 US

dollars guys $450 what's the PS5 cost does anybody know oh are they right now like 400 bucks yeah $400 game stop with spider-man 2 for 399 399 so the Nintendo switch 2 is more expensive than a brand new ps5 That was a shock to people yeah John I did see that head nod John and I want to point out that the ps5 has been out for a long time now So yes So to be fair the you know that console has been out for a long time now. Exactly. Yes. So to be fair, that console has been out for a while now, so it does make sense that the price has gone down on the PS5.

Here is the kick in the old berries, boys. The games for the Switch 2. This is the one that is causing a lot of controversy on the internet and I think it's rightfully so I'm just gonna come out But the consoles more and it's priced kind of higher and appropriately so so the games will stay the same naturally games are absolutely Gonna be cheaper on the well. Oh wait wait this just in guys. I'm getting an announcement that Nintendo has become a greedy corporation the digital copies the digital copies not the copy copies, not the copy that you own, the one that just sits on your Nintendo Switch. Seventy nine ninety nine for a digital copy of a game.

Unreal. Do you remember when Ubisoft came out and said, hey, we think we're going to charge seventy dollars for Skull and Bones because it's the first quadruple a title and gamers lost their minds. And we went, what? No. Yeah, $79.99 for digital copy. Let's just take a guess what the physical copy might cost, guys.

Anybody know? Oh gosh, I mean, packaging and all that extra stuff, man. It's gotta not affect it that much, right? Yeah, just $10 more. $89.99. $90. So we're just gonna call it $90 for a Nintendo game. That's...

Anybody got any thoughts on that? Yeah, my major issue with this is that Nintendo has always catered, I think, to the younger side of the audience. And I just... man, that's a hit to the shorts right there. Yeah. For sure. I mean, not... there's all ends of the spectrum of people who play video games, and sometimes getting a new game, it's a really big privilege, it's a treat, and if you got your kid and you're sometimes getting a new game it's you know a really big privilege it's a treat and if you got your kid and you're trying to pay you know rent or your mortgage and then these games are 90 dollars you know and your kid wants mario or kirby or something and you know

i sorry kiddo i just don't have it like that's that just seems so like you said john it's always catered towards the younger audience in these these party fun kind of group kid games. And there's gonna be a lot of parents that have to tell their kids no, just so that some suits up there can make more money. Like, it's wild. Yeah, I have two brief thoughts on this. So number one, things are worth

what people are willing to pay for it. So I'm assuming that they have done some studies to come up at that price point. But I also have this feeling about Nintendo where they like really hit big with the system And then they really miss with the system. So you had Nintendo 64 big hit GameCube Ah, you had we big big hit Wii U switch Obviously a big hit switch to I remains to be seen but man that that's not a good foot first look for me

Yeah, this is the I think there's another controversy that people are losing their minds over rightfully so in my opinion We'll talk about that here in a second, too But there is the mindset that hey video game development, and we've talked to a lot of developers lately, right? I mean we talked to a lot of developers lately, right? I mean, we talked to Bungie, right? I mean, one of the most well-known AAA studios and they said, guys, making video games is really, really hard. I mean, they employ hundreds and hundreds of people to make a game to risk millions and millions of dollars on its success. And if it's not successful, then we do see that unfortunately a studio is affected and

there's a lot of layoffs and stuff like that. So I want to just point out that we understand that making video a studio is affected and there's a lot of layoffs and stuff like that. So I wanna just point out that we understand that making video games is not easy and it costs a lot of money. The caveat to this is nobody, nobody is charging $90 for a video game, dude. Like we just recently got the jump up to $70 for games, which was a $10 increase over the premium $60 price

tag and a lot of gamers went ouch, man, like, dude, 70 bucks for a game. But if it's a if it's a really, really well done AAA title, I guess I can understand $70 for it. But dude, to go from $70 to $90, like, like, Ryan, you said it. I can't help but feel like this is greedy Nintendo, mega corporation, just caring about the bottom line at this point, dude. Yeah. Like, I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. But what other like what else can you say about a $90 price tag for for a video game, man? I think, man, I would hope as a, as a primarily a Japanese owned company that there's, it's not just the corporate greed.

You know, I have to, I don't know, my heart really, really wants that to not be the case. But here's what I could see, is that we've talked a lot about obsolescence in the console space where it's like, basically everything seems to be inching towards cloud and computer at this point. And it's harder and harder to justify having a console when PCs just outperform it or when you don't need a console at all.

I could see Nintendo positioning itself as sort of the boutique like cool thing to have where you're kind of like the rebel you know it's kind of like a status symbol to have a switch now because like oh you're still playing on this cool little console and everybody else is moving on or whatever and being the boutique brand is expensive you know you have a lot of challenges that you don't have when you're, you know, Nintendo obviously is a big company, but if you're doubling down on the console, when everybody else is gravitating away from it, the economy of scale goes down and

it becomes more expensive to operate. I mean, I'm hoping that's the case either way for the consumer, it's a loss, but I don't know. I don't know, guys. I don't like it. My 10 year old John playing Nintendo is hurting right now. I think gamers in general are hurting, man. Like legitimately, we're gonna talk about a little bit of the outrage here in a second, but let's talk about one more thing, guys,

that this is fine. I feel like I'm I feel like I'm the meme where I'm sitting in this room that's burning down around me going, this is fine. Fine guys. I thought this was absolutely a rage bait thing that somebody made up. Have you seen the the the it's from Nintendo's website where it shows what they call a game key card that you purchase thinking it's a physical copy of the game that you are going to put into your Nintendo Switch 2

and you put this in and it basically says cool you can download the game now have you seen this dude this is a family-friendly show man so I'm not going to say what I think what is actually Have you seen this? Yeah, dude. This is a family friendly show, man. So I'm not going to say what I think what is actually going through my head. What the heck are you doing, Nintendo? This is the thing, not the price, not the price of the console, not the price of the games. This is the thing that more gamers are outraged than anything else that I have seen where you go to buy a game. They sell you a cartridge.

It is a physical thing that you put into the slot in your Nintendo switch too. And then it goes, cool. You need to download the game if you want to play it now. This is basically a hard wear steam key. You don't own the game. It just gives you access to download the game, guys. And this is what you are paying $80 for at this point. And you know what that's going to stop?

The resale market. Exactly. That's exactly right. So not only is this is not a convenience thing to say, hey, because I looked into this because I went, there's no way Nintendo is being this sharky guys. It's absolutely not true. Nope. Nope. They're being that sharky. They are.

They are explaining it by saying that not all games will be this way. So this is not a universal thing. They are explaining it by saying that some of these games, let's take Elden Ring, for instance, because you can now play Elden Ring on the switch to. Elden Ring is too massive of a game for us to fit on our tiny little minuscule Switch 2 cartridges, so we have to make it to where you can just download it. Now, I get that thinking. That makes sense. Why not just give me two cartridges, man? They're so small anyway, just put two of them in there. We've seen this time and time again,

back in the PlayStation days. Final Fantasy VII was like four CD-ROMs, man. Yeah, four of those. Metal Gear Solid was two. You're telling me we can't load something twice in today's day and age with our technology, man? Like, this is scummy, scummy, scummy, in my opinion, dude. And they explained it away by saying it's only for the larger games.

We're putting a little notice on the front of the box so you don't accidentally buy the game key version of something. No, dude. You know, when grandma is going to the to target to buy a game for for their grandkid for Christmas, grandma is not going to be aware of the tiny little white box at the bottom of the case that says, hey, this is a game key purchase, you know, or something like that. So this is just not a good look for Nintendo, man.

I don't know any way to spin it. I have really been struggling with the, I want to just rip Nintendo to shreds right now. But also there are a couple cool things about the Switch 2 that we're gonna talk about. But I can't explain this away, man. So I try to always, for anybody who doesn't know this, I come from a business background.

I came to this podcast with a business background. And so when I hear stuff like this that just pops as being unusual, I try to see it from the business's standpoint. And I would have to imagine that, Ryan, I didn't even think about that, about the resale market. I would have to imagine that this came about probably because there is some sort of noticeable impact to their profit and loss statement because of the resale market and

they're trying to curb that. Now if that is the case, that gives me a bit more forgiveness in the way that I view Nintendo for making a decision like that. But I think that you have to be transparent about the reasons why. If you just communicate something like that without telling the people why, your natural gut reaction as was mine is like, ugh, why people why, you know, your natural gut reaction as was mine is like, ugh, why, ew, yuck, you know? So I don't know, I guess we'll see.

There's a lot of misses there. There were a lot of misses in the reveal. And I'm sure we'll get more details on it in a little bit deeper explanation as kind of things unfold. But yeah, first take, seeing this stuff, it is a mix for not happy Ryan and Josh, I think. I don't think John's too happy. And John is probably the biggest

Switch fan out of the three of us. And I love my Switch. Yeah, I love my Switch. I mean, my wife, she was very excited. I mean, as soon as you know, she she was like, Okay, tell me about the Switch two when she got up, you know, and I was like, Oh, baby, I don't know, man. I don't know., she was like, okay, tell me about the Switch 2 when she got up, you know? And I was like, oh baby, I don't know, man. I don't know. And she was like, what do you mean? And she's like, am I getting a new Mario?

And I was like, nope. And she's like, what? You're getting several new Mario adjacent titles. Yeah, yeah, you know? And then it's funny because I'm pretty sure that I railed on the fact that I was like, dude, if they give us Donkey Kong Came out today too cuz this one's coming out today

dude, oh Okay, I'm gonna save it. I'm gonna save it cuz I need to step on my soapbox here, but it's not quite time yet Okay, let's talk about a couple of the guys guys guys. You're being you know this all sounds negative right I get it You don't like Nintendo. They got to make money. You know, it's Nintendo. Never bet against Nintendo. That was a big thing. I've always seen, you know, never bet against Nintendo because you're going to be wrong. And maybe we're wrong, but let's talk about some of the things that the switch to gives us. Okay. Gives us a bigger screen, bigger joy cons, all that stuff. Um, I think think for me they spent entirely too long talking about this mythical C button oh my goodness guys we've got a C button

what's it gonna do what's it gonna do guys feel like Metroid Prime it opens doors yeah you do it better open my garage door I know right a car for me remote start turn on all the lights in my house Something like that. Okay, my controllers already have too many buttons. Yeah So the mythical see button I'm going to say just stands for chat That's the only reason that I think that it could stand for the you know, why it's the letter C Nintendo spent half of this Nintendo direct talking about the C button and the fact that it lets you chat with friends online.

Yeah. You guys are both Android guys, not to call you out, but you both love Android or maybe your guys are calling me out. I don't know. Right. But you guys have always made the love Android. I hate Apple. OK, there you go.

Right. But Nintendo has become Apple as much as I love Apple. OK, there you go. Right. But Nintendo has become Apple. As much as I love Apple for the convenience of it, Nintendo is doing what Apple has done and said, hey, guys, we're taking technology that has existed for a decade now and we're implementing it into our hardware and we're calling it great. Guys, we have had video chat capability for 10 plus years now and you're telling me that the main selling point for the Nintendo Switch 2 is that you can video chat with people?

Like hello? Discord? Like Skype? Zoom? Rumble? Teamspeak? Like AOL Messenger? I like come on man.

Yeah, yes, but like first of all, I agree with you, but you are absolutely correct. They are taking a page from Apple. It's not necessarily that they did it first, it's that they are making it presumably a more intuitive interface. They want everybody to be able to do everything right from their little switch. I agree. That makes sense. That's what I always say is like with Apple, it's yesterday's technology

for tomorrow's prices. And it kind of seems like that's playing out here with the way this is. I was cracking up watching that. I mean, and they did, they spent forever talking about it and the people just kept like, oh, but look, they're chatting. No, no, no. Are you are you seeing they're seeing they're chatting. I'm like, yeah, I got it the first five, 10 minutes. Like, what do you mean? I get it. Cool. Oh no, but but there's a camera with it too. You know, you can chat with the camera. Oh wait, optional camera that you have to purchase separately, Ryan. Yeah. 49, 989. I didn't look up the price of the camera. Wait a minute. It's $50 for the camera, John? Oh my gosh. Do you know how long we've had camera technology? I can buy a webcam from Amazon for $9, dude. Oh my gosh. But it's not the Nintendo certified. It's not, you know, you need the manufacturer's

Nintendo camera, dude, to look right. And the whole thing too isn't't isn't part of the the fun of the switch is getting all those joy cons out and getting your friends actually in the room and playing with them. You know that's one of the cool parts about about Nintendo. Yeah, this. Listen, I feel like this camera thing is geared for kids under six and people over like 65 like legitimately. And you know what? Maybe maybe Nintendo is onto something, dude. for kids under six and people over like 65, like legitimately. And you know what? Maybe maybe Nintendo's onto something, dude. I will say that the making it very, very simple for grandma and grandpa

to play Mario Kart with, you know, their grandchildren makes a lot of sense. You just push this one button, grandma. You push C and then you can see me. Great. That makes a lot of sense. I do see that benefit. But is your market really like kids under six and people over 65? Because one side of that market is not spending $600 to get set up with a Nintendo Switch in a game. You know, I mean, it just, that doesn't make sense to me either. So, oh my goodness. All right. You know, if you didn't see the original presentation, the joy cons can be used as

mice. The battery life on this because you know, hey, let's be honest, a lot of people are gonna be not playing this dock the battery life has gone down. It's saying it's two and a half to six and a half hours optimally, whereas the switch one was four and a half to nine hours optimally. That kind of makes sense when you have higher processing power and graphics and stuff like that. It takes more power to do that.

The big the big thing for me, technically specs wise, is that they did say, hey, guys, you can play Nintendo Switch two games in 4K up to 120 frames a second in the docked mode. And I went, okay. And they said it's HDR compatible. They showed off some Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom, you know, graphics where it looks better.

And I went, cool, Metroid Prime 4. Yeah, marginally. And see, John, you're right, marginally. And here's the issue. And we literally just talked about this on this other, at our Twig episode. This processor that we don't have information on, the only thing they said is this is a custom processor made by Nvidia.

We just talked about DLSS and frame generation and all that. There is no way in heck that the Nintendo Switch 2 is natively rendering 4K at 120 frames a second. It is impossible. I will eat my shoes if you are telling me that this is native 4K at 120 frames a second. Say I'm saving that. I'm saving that for you can save it because I'm telling you right now. I have a 4K monitor. I have a 4080 super as my GPU.

This card cost me a thousand dollars to purchase dude, and I can run 4K natively at about 80 frames a second on the high end games, dude. Yeah. You know, and there's no way that the Nintendo Switch 2 at $450 price point is running this stuff natively. Now, you know, I know we just talked about it. People are gonna say, well, it doesn't matter because if they're upscaling it, why do you care?

But it's that you're not being completely upfront with people. You're saying it can display this, but you're using a lot of tricks to make it this way. And I think that is trying to oversell the hardware a little bit, which is another scummy thing. So we've had one scummy thing after another scummy thing, after another scummy thing.

I didn't even know about the $50 price point on this stupid optional camera so that you can use the number one built-in Feature for the switch to which is the C button guys you want to use the C button that comes with the $50 price tag Oh, and by the way, you also need to be part of the Nintendo online or whatever. They're calling it nowadays So you need a monthly subscription on top of this? Yeah money money, baby money moves subscription on top of this yeah money money, baby money moves With that camera too, I was just thinking about it cuz like my kid You know they love watching streamers and people and they always superimpose their face on the games

It naturally can do that and I think it's pretty simple and easy I wonder if that's part of it too to get these kids to like Feel like they're streaming because they have their image on their game and stuff like that. Nailed it. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Nailed it.

Yeah. This is really tough guys. Again, like I've got a lot of, I've got a lot probably more corporate empathy than maybe everybody else does. To me, this doesn't seem scummy. It just seems irresponsibly rolled out or irresponsibly communicated. I have never been, you know, like I'm a console gamer. I don't necessarily need the biggest

brightest tech But I love Nintendo, but I love Nintendo and I love my switch more for what it means than what it is Specifically, I love that my wife and I can play pick up games of Mario Party when we are getting ready to go to sleep and we can knock out a couple of mini games and just have a good time. I love that in the Wii generation

and some of the Switch generation, although they didn't pull it off as well, where the sort of purpose of the game was to, like Ryan said, get everybody in the same room and have family game night. I love those sorts of things. But they really seem to be missed and the portable aspect. Of course, the switch. I love it. I love portable gaming. But you know, they seem to really be diluting those brand strengths with trying to highlight this other stuff You know like if you're gonna be doubling down on community include the camera Yeah, you're gonna be taking a $50 sink or whatever it costs to make this like you're but but it Takes the way the rub of like oh like another nickel Yeah, that I got to spend on this thing like that's what I bought this for oh

I got a I got a already buy another thing and then like Reducing your battery life. Oh, man. I was already challenged with the battery life on this wish it was like the main thing I used it for was traveling and Traveling you know traveling or playing it under my sheets if I found a good game like Little Nightmares or something Yeah, and then you know I don't know if you, Josh, I don't want to steal your thunder. Were you planning on talking more about the new from software game, the Dustbloods? Yeah, let's, you know what, that's a good segue, dude, because it is, I will say, you know, if people can't pick up what, you know, we're putting down, this does not seem like

the the, oh my goodness, this is amazing way to go. Nintendo type release that Nintendo was probably hoping for. And, you know, it's not just us being grouchy old men. Again, I kind of pointed it out. Our community kind of is voicing a lot of the same opinion. We're seeing a lot of the same opinion online, which I always take with a grain of salt with, you know, what you see on social media. But the general consensus is not good. Now, to be fair, there is some good.

And John, you talked about one thing. And I think the absolute best thing out of all of this is that Nintendo, they came out and they confirmed that if you were at your friend's house and you all have you all brought your Nintendo Switch 2s with you and your buddy has Mario Kart and you are locally on the same network that all of you can play Mario Kart because your one friend has it, the other three people do not need to have the game and you can all play together.

Yeah. Okay, now that does mean that all of you need a $450 console, you know, that you have to bring with you, but at least they're not saying that everybody needs the game. This is a great feature for people that like to link up and play games together. You do

have to be local. This is not online. So I think to me that was the greatest like takeaway from anything or the positive I'll say is that at least they went cool. They're at least not being greedy here. You know, let's talk about some of the games because you know the duskbloods to me. This is the new from soft game. I think it looks really really cool I love new from soft IPs or Dark Souls IPs I will say that on the switch to it looks a little janky exactly exactly That's the wrong kind of game to be like it's cool that they got an exclusive But like if you're going to be playing an Elden ring or any any other souls born type game man But like if you're going to be playing an Elden Ring or any any other souls born type game, man

You want it to look as crisp and sharp as humanly possible like for me as somebody who's not a PC gamer Those from soft games are the biggest reason to go PC that I can think of you want them to be bright and sharp and like Have you know? Adam it's well, here's the other kicker is I went. Oh, cool. This game, this looks like it's for me, right? They finally gave me a game that makes me interested. It's not coming out till 2026, guys. So this release title that they showed off is not even coming out this year. And 2026 means it might be at the end of 2026, okay?

So we might be waiting almost two years for this game that they showed off at their Nintendo Direct Mario Kart, I'll be honest. It looks fantastic. I think it looks great. I love the art style. The graphics look good It's up to I think they said 24 racers. It's open world open world looks connect cool I mean, there's a lot to be excited about but at the end of the day, it's still Mario Kart You know and this was the big game that they showed off. I joked about Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong is historic. It's iconic, but you know what, man? Donkey Kong's like number three on the tier of like Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong. And so you're trying to sell me a console with your third rated

franchise. Yeah. You know, like like especially with bumping up game prices, doing all the other things they're doing. And then this is the stuff that they drop, you know, guys, if you're, if you're going to be raising those game prices, you'd be better be coming with a banger. Yeah. Yeah. Anger of the opening title. If you told me, like, listen, you know, a lot of people are thinking the GTA six is going to be the first hundred dollar game, right? So, you know, there's some fee there's some a little bit of pushback on that But will I pay a hundred dollars for GTA 6 because I know I'm gonna play that game for 150 hours Like yes, it's not an easy pill to swallow

But if you're getting quite possibly the greatest game ever made, you know Then then a hundred bucks for that seems like it's it's fair, right? I'm not saying that's not a lot of money, but at least it's fair for what you're getting out of it Like Donkey Kong for for $90, man It's like I don't know if you told me this is the next 3d Mario game that looks like it's next-gen and all that It's a little bit of an easier pill for me to swallow at that point, but you're giving me freaking Donkey Kong, man It's not even your best franchise And how many games did you ever you know you went out and you're

like yeah I'll give it a shot and because it's you know 50 60 bucks or whatever and then you ended up liking or something I know me personally this is gonna I'm gonna have to really really be hyped or really want to play a game that I played in the series we already to to shell out 80 90 bucks for a game so you know I'm not gonna give them a shot anymore like I used to. I think that and I think it's going to affect things. A lot of a lot of game sales for, you know, maybe smaller titles or new IP. John, I'm going to call you out on something because you said that you can view this

from and from a business mindset. A lot of this makes sense. Maybe it wasn't presented fairly and stuff like that. I I'm just calling it scummy because from a consumer aspect, I can't help but think this is scummy, this is scummy, this is scummy. The biggest proof of scummy, in my opinion, is the Nintendo Switch 2 welcome tour that they showed off to say, hey, there's all these new features in the Nintendo Switch 2.

The magnets for the Joy-Cons, the C button, all of these things, the little microphone, USB-C port guys, all these things. Cool, that's really neat. Grandma and grandpa, here you go, play this game, learn all about your Switch 2. That should be included in the console. Oh, of course, yeah.

I mean, this is just a tour of the hardware of the console so that people can understand what it is. That is 100% should be included in every console that sold. Except Nintendo went, nope, nope, we're gonna give you a tour of this console, but we're gonna make you pay for it, guys. It is not included, you have to pay for it. It is a standalone game that we are charging you for scummy

Nintendo I'm doubling down. I this is corporate empathy, but so I think what they're it's they're in a Undisciplined disjointed way trying to double down on the Apple concept where yeah, you go into an Apple Store You're gonna be paying more for the equivalent PC type features, but they package it all together where they go like you buy this one Mac or, uh, or this, you know, this one product and it comes packaged with all of this stuff and it's done in this intuitive way. And oh, how nice, how elegant elegant and not only that but now you're in you're a proud apple owner you know like you got to be a part of the apple cult nintendo i think has a lot of the same brand loyalty where they could do that but but in my

opinion what they should have done is i think that they were trying to make the console as cheap and approachable as possible and then have all of these other peripherals. But they go like, man, you know, like this is, I have to imagine that the price point is partially justified by whatever their bottom line is. I have to imagine it's an expensive business to be in and it gets more and more expensive all the time. And so they were probably going like, how do we make this initial thing as cheap as possible? And then like all of these other features,

we'll just charge a little more for if people want them. But the thing is, is that those are the things that people buy the Switch for. I would have rather had them tack on another $100 just right out of the gate or make it 499 or, you know, 6599, whatever it is, and just include all of that so that you really felt like you were getting this all included experience than this nickel and dimey thing, man.

It just to me feels ill-advised. It's the, I could see that like honestly, instead of $450, they come out with like, hey, here's a $700 bundle. You get the switch to, you get the camera, you get the crappy little welcome tour game with it. We're gonna give you Mario Kart and we're gonna call it the Nintendo Shareholder Bundle.

You know, to where? Well, speaking of, this is why I am with Josh and I have no sympathy, and this is scummy, because them trying to hit their points and everything do you know what the uh 2024 annual revenue for nintendo corporation was this is 11.5 buh buh buh billion dollars yeah billion yeah with a b all right the revenue doesn't mean anything though i mean uh uber ran at many billions of dollars at a loss for a very long time. Most streaming services run at a loss. So revenue doesn't mean profit. But I, but, and I get, and

Ryan and I are not nearly as, as, you know, business minded as John. So I don't want to step into this ring, but it's like, you know, there's also something to be said for developing market share and stuff like that too. But Nintendo already has the market share dude, like I listen we are gamers I you know, I I understand I 29.34% Net profit margin last year or last year last year. Yeah, 29. Yeah, 29.34 We have always said we don't begrudge developers making money, right? They are in, in this for the business. This is also why we tend to love indie devs because indie devs are very

passionate and while they want to make money, that is not their driving force. Right. That is not the passion behind their games. I think that the majority of gamers right now, even if you're excited, my wife is super excited, dude. But when I broke everything down for her, do you know what her response was as somebody that was probably more hyped for a switch to than just about anybody else I know with maybe the exception of my nephew is, oh, well, I don't, maybe I don't think I want that right now.

Then, you know, I'll just play my switch. Like there's nothing that's drawing me to the switch to I'm not getting Mario. I don't care I want that right now then. You know, I'll just play my Switch. Like there's nothing that's drawing me to the Switch 2. I'm not getting Mario. I don't care about Donkey Kong. I don't want to pay for all this stuff. I don't need video chat. My wife is the kind of person where she won't go on camera if you try to pay her, you know?

So it's like, I'm not doing the video chat. I don't need this. Like it, to me, it just seems like with, after with, after with, maybe some of the technology with the Joy-Cons being used as a mouse, some developer will come up with a way to make that neat, but I'll be honest,

the main thing they showed off is Metroid Prime 4 and you can use the Joy-Con as a mouse to aim? Like, guys, I am aiming at home, it's called a mouse! You know what I mean? Like, I don't want this on my Switch 2! I hope, all I know is, speaking of the Driftcons, if they made them into a mouse, and they didn't fix the stick drift, I'm gonna lose my mind. Oh, they didn't fix the stick drift, dude. Like, they're the same Joy-Cons. Like, there's this thing called Hall Effect joysticks, which I don't know anything about, but people are going like,

they didn't even make these Hall Effect joysticks that don't have stick drift. All right, we can't, because dude, we could talk about this for two hours, dude. Okay. I am ticked, dude. Like, I am ticked at Nintendo right now. Like, I... listen, there are some good things. I think there's some neat innovation with the Switch 2. Maybe it's not the innovation that I was hoping for, but I actually had this discussion yesterday at work with some

of my buddies that knew nothing about it. And so they're like, tell me about what are the upgrades? And I start kind of going, there's not many. And then I started listing off the upgrades and they're like, kind of sounds like there's a lot of upgrades, dude. And I'm like, dang it. Like, okay, yes, they are. And they're saying they're calling it the Switch 2. This is not a brand new console where they called this the Nintendo Blork, you know, that you would be upset, right, if they did this. But it's just the Switch 2. So it's an upgrade to an existing thing.

So wouldn't it make sense that these upgrades are not revolutionary? And I kind of went, dang it, you have a point. Like, OK. But then I went, but the price. But the price. You know, and they went, well, I mean, consoles are expensive. They always have been. And I kind of went, you know, I mean went, well, I mean, consoles are expensive. They always have been.

And I kind of went, you know, I mean, OK, you know, stop making sense. So, yes, there are a lot of things that make sense. And, John, I'm glad that you pointed some of those out because some of these things make sense, even from a business aspect, because we cannot separate the business aspect completely because Nintendo is a business. But this is the and I'm just going to use the term because I love it right now.

It's the scummiest thing I have seen Nintendo do in a very, very long time. Nintendo went from being a company that looked like it was making games that gamers loved, right, and not not competing with Nintendo and PlayStation. They were going to do our own thing. We have these legendary IPs. We have these games that people grew up playing. We have the nostalgia. We have the name recognition.

Nintendo games are not buggy unless you're playing Pokemon. But, you know, they're polished. You know what you're getting. It's always been a great relationship. Right. Not anymore, dude. You went the way of the shareholder, Nintendo, and gamers are not stupid. We're not dumb, dude. We grew up overcoming these challenges and these puzzles and things like that.

We're not dumb. We can see it. And it's like, I can see you being scummy and that puts me off more than anything else in this world, man. It's like Ubisoft. We rail against Ubisoft because you're just releasing the same game with more map icons. That's scummy. Quit being scummy.

But Nintendo's like, you're in bed with Ubisoft. Did you go out on a night with the town? You know what I mean? And it's like you guys just like I feel like Nintendo's like the drug addict where it's like, you know, you see this nice, happy picture like four years ago where they're like they look so happy and filled with joy and then they're like look at them now and it's like they've got scabs all over their face and it's like yey buy our $90 games man that's Nintendo to me now dude it's like they're like the meth heads of the consoles man right look at them and

I go like what happened to you Nintendo? Yeah, you all got any of them game keys Josh. Yeah, Josh. Are you okay? This sucks my wife was so excited I was excited and now like nobody's excited for this anymore man But you know what? I think it's not gonna be the people like me and you and gamers that grew up playing these things No, no It's gonna be the little kids that didn't experience that. And then mom and dad are going to buy the game and then grandma and grandpa that are going to buy it to play it with them. Like and that's going to be an amazing memory. Like honestly for that, for that, like I get

that. It's just that comes with such a, I'm not getting what I want. And it comes with your side of math to say, Hey guys, you know, get in here. You've been playing too much schedule one, bro. Yeah, we have been playing a lot of schedule. I, I, I don't know how to summarize it. Those are my thoughts guys is I'm not happy with this at all. I can see the good, but overall, this is a huge width in my opinion from Nintendo. So did you already set in your pre-order? I did, yeah, I'd lock that in. No, I'll be honest, I said, I did say

we will 100% own a Switch 2 and I legitimately, like my wife even said, she's the main one, right? I don't really play the Switch that much. She's the main one that was like, I can wait. I don't want it until the price comes down and they have Mario, that's my feeling. 3D Mario. So Especially if you get scalpers in the mix and all that. It's like, I don't know. I don't even scalpers afford a $500 console. I don't know. You should see them buy out Pokemon

machines. That's true. They're pretty gnarly. The thing is, is that like if PlayStation has any sort of barometer about how these consoles are going to continue to be supported. It's likely that most of these games are still going to be able to get on your Switch anyway. I will 100% get a Switch 2 at some point, but there is nothing about this release that got me excited to buy it right now. Yeah, same. All right. I mean, my blood pressure needs to come down a little bit guys. I'm fresh off that cup of coffee in the morning too. So I mean, listen, we, if again, if you're happy, we're happy for you. I have not seen anybody that's like, I'm getting, actually

I take that back. Mo box who is the biggest switch fan that we know said, Hey, it's releasing on my birthday. This is the best birthday gift ever. Mobox, we love you, buddy. We're super happy for you. And we're happy for anybody that is excited. Again, the rage and the comments and a little bit of the overtop reaction is just our reaction. Again, we love gamers.

We're happy for you. I just view this as a huge whiff for Nintendo. John, who is the biggest Switch fan out of the three of us, I think he said it best. I'm fine just waiting at this point. They did not sell me on the release of this console, which is not good news for Nintendo upfront at least. So, all right, listen,

we're gonna wrap this one up, man. If you want more conversation about the Nintendo Switch 2, the Nintendo Direct, we forgot to talk about something that, you know, hey man, you guys forgot this. Come join our community. It is the best community in gaming. I promise you. We have people that join every single day that then go, guys, you're right, man.

Like, this is the best community. Like, I thought you were just hyping this. So come check it out. You can lurk for a while, but you're going to realize that this is the the oasis of gamers. We have community nights all the time You know, it's it's really truly that amazing the link is in the episode description So come join us and talk about the Nintendo switch to at this point as well because there's a lot of people talking about it Right now that's gonna do it for this episode, everybody. We hope you enjoyed this reaction episode.

We wanted to just get this out there. It's been fun to talk about. And now I'm all hyped up and excited, so I'm going to go to work and be super productive now. So we'll see you until next time. Happy gaming. Ooh, money, money, money, money, money! Tootley dootley!