 Hey everyone, welcome back to Nintendo Prime and I've got two incredible stories for you. One of them, you're gonna need to grab your rumor hats and your tin foil stuff and nurse salt and back it on up and be skeptical and hypersponsibly. The other one's even more interesting because Microsoft has made yet another major acquisition seemingly out of left field in an obvious ploy by a certain company to save their reputation. However, it might be the best move they could have made in Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard. Holy crap, this is a real thing. So before we get into that, I gotta remind you, we do have a couple of good movies going on right now. $100 cash for brand new subscribers, a chance to win. You wanna win that, subscribe to the channel. If you don't wanna subscribe to the channel for that reason, subscribe because you're enjoying this video. Drop likes all that jazz. We have other giveaways as well. Three copies of Pokemon Legends Arkies down in the pinned comment or in the description. All right, let's get right into it. Without further delay, first up we have some rumors and these rumors come from LeakyPandy on Twitter. Again, sometimes he gets things right. Sometimes he gets things wrong. But this is kind of building on top of rumors we have heard for a little while now about Mario Kart 9, Mario Kart 10, Mario Kart Crossroads, it's had a few different names. And he says this Mario Kart 10 slash Crossroads new movie. He's been very consistent in saying it's Mario Kart 10. This could be because of a certain X in the logo being a rumor. No, it'll be like a Roman numeral, like maybe X is part of the title. So it makes you think 10, but also it could just be Crossroads. And here's the details that he drops. It says Mario and adjacent Nintendo IP will be present as usual. Cross over IP are known such as Advanced Wars, Animal Crossing, Arms, Balloon Fight. Very interesting choice there, F-Zero, which I suppose makes some sense. Kid Icarus, Splatoon, and Zelda. Now we've already had Splatoon, Zelda, and Animal Crossing in Mario Kart 8. So this is obviously adding Arms, Balloon Fight, F-Zero, and Kid Icarus to that mix. Advanced Wars as well, which I find interesting, although maybe they wanna promote the Advanced Wars one plus two reboot game again. I have no idea, but that is what they're doing. Now by the way, he does know about something that's going to happen supposedly in addition to those IPs. And that is the only non-Nintendo IP I'm aware of is Rabbids, which with Mario plus Rabbids sparks a hope coming out. Obviously with the prior game doing really well as well. Yeah, okay, maybe I can see the Rabbids sneaking in. I don't know if people would be happy about that. They might prefer just more Nintendo first-party, but hey, you know what? It's a thing that might be happening. Crossover elements include characters, items, and courses. So yeah, obviously drivable characters, certain items that might be specific to those games, and obviously courses built around them, which we did see in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. All right, this is new info. This is in regards to the gameplay. There won't be any coins. You guys know traditionally you collect up to 10 coins. It makes your cart move a little bit faster. So no coins. There's only gonna be one item slot instead of two, like in Mario Kart 8. There's gonna be two different item box types, big and small. Small boxes, so smaller question blocks, will hand out smaller items, like single shells, a single mushroom, et cetera. Big box hands out the more powerful items, which are like three shells, a star, three mushrooms, maybe a golden mushroom, et cetera. Passing through a box while holding a small item upgrade can upgrade into the big version. So I think this is if you have a small item and you pass over another small item box or a big item box, it becomes a big item. So if you wanna hold onto that item, whatever. So now what do I think of these gameplay changes? For starters, the gameplay changes to me, it's just something different. They're always messing around and tweaking with the gameplay in different ways. I never thought the addition of the coins made that big of a difference in Mario Kart. I've seen people with zero coins get first place consistently, whereas people with 10 coins get coins consistently. With how chaotic it can be at times in Mario Kart, I don't know that the coins being there or not matter. I do think they added a little bit of strategy to the game, but not enough that I think will sort of miss them if they are gone. As for only having one item slot, again, Mario Kart's had just one item slot in the past. I think what this mostly serves as is to make the games a little bit less chaotic. Right now, sometimes the items are so insane that, well, that is the point of the game and the rubber banding and no matter where you are, you always have a shot at first or at least the top five finish. I do think that the items got a little bit crazy in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which I mean, the game's the most popular Mario Kart of all time, so clearly people don't mind that. But yeah, maybe find a way to tone back the items, makes sense by just giving us one slot. That alone is gonna tone things back. And then obviously giving you some strategy behind, do you want a single item or a bigger item? Obviously a lot of people are gonna be going for the bigger blocks over the small ones, but maybe it doesn't make much of a difference if you're in first. Maybe you're gonna be stuck no matter what. So I'm very interested to see how the big and small works because if you are in first place and you get one of the big things, does that mean you can get a star now in first place? Because usually you can't get a star in first place. Can you get three shells in first place? Normally you can only get a single shell or a single banana. And what are the new items that are gonna be based on the other IPs? So there's a lot of stuff in here that I find really, really interesting. Obviously the crossover games is the big part of the game. Hence we're calling it Mario Kart X or Mario Kart Cross or whatever. Yeah, I'm really interested to see how this works. By the way, I think it's been pretty predictable that Nintendo might make a crossroads, a crossover style Mario Kart game ever since Mario Kart 8 added the DLC that added in the other IPs. And that DLC was really well received. And then when they bundled it all together in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, obviously we saw it become the best selling Mario Kart game of all time. And some of the most popular characters to play in there are the Animal Crossing Splatoon and Link. So I do think that Nintendo realized, you know what? Hey, this was really, really popular. Why would we just ignore that in the next Mario Kart? So maybe they still call it Mario Kart because the brand name is so huge, but it could be where it's called Mario Kart Crossroads or Mario Kart X Crossroads. And in doing that, on the cover, for once you'd see Mario, but you'd also see some main characters from other franchises. And that would be a first. They've never done that in the box art. So hopefully this is what happens. Of course, some people would like this not to happen. There's those of you out there that are, I would say Mario Kart purists, which is nothing wrong with this, by the way, they would just like to see them add more and more Mario characters because, yeah, they've added variations of Mario like four different times when there's a whole bunch of obscure and amazing Mario characters that have never made it into Mario Kart. Honestly, I just want the game to exist. So whether it's Crossroads, whether it's just a standard Mario Kart without crossover characters doesn't really matter. To me, I just want more Mario Kart. That's not a game that I've been playing for like seven or eight years. I love Mario Kart 8 guys, but I'm ready for the new one. I've been ready for quite some time. So this next story, I literally did a double take on right before I hit the record button and said, this is too big. Guys, we'll cover stories in gaming when it happens to be something that affects the whole of gaming or it's just a really massive story. And man, Xbox making another purchase. Remember, they bought Bethesda. Well, really they bought Zendamax Studios that owned Bethesda and other company id software, et cetera. For what is it? $7.5 billion. And that's not even the biggest gaming acquisition. There was recently one that was like 12 to 14 billion. But this is also another big get for Microsoft. This was announced officially on Twitter. I didn't believe it. Phil Spencer tweeted it out. And then I went and read it and holy crap, it's happening guys. Xbox is purchasing Activision Blizzard. And you all know Activision Blizzard has had a lot of controversy lately. We'll get into that. But first let's read the official announcement post. It says, welcoming the incredible teams and legendary franchises of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft gaming. Creators of Call of Duty, Warcraft, Candy Crush, Tony Hawk, Diablo, Overwatch, Spyro, Her Stone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, Starcraft and more join Team Xbox. As a team, we are on a mission to extend the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. We all know that gaming is the most vibrant and dynamic form of entertainment worldwide. And we've experienced the power of social connection and friendship that gaming makes possible. As we pursue that mission, it is incredibly exciting to announce that Microsoft has agreed to acquire Activision Blizzard. Over many decades, the studio and teams that make up Activision Blizzard have earned vast wellsprings of joy and respect from billions of people all over the world. We are incredibly excited to have the chance to work with the amazing, talented, dedicated people across Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, Beenox, Demonware, Digital Legends, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, King, Major League Gaming, Radical Entertainment, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, Toys for Bob, Treyarch and every team across Activision Blizzard. Until this transaction closes, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Gaming will continue to operate independently. Once the deal is complete, the Activision Blizzard business will report to me as CEO of Microsoft Gaming. Upon close, we will offer as many Activision Blizzard games as we can within Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, both new titles and games from Activision Blizzard's incredible catalog. We also announced today that Game Pass now has more than 25 million subscribers. As always, we look forward to continuing to add more value and more great games to Game Pass. The fantastic franchises across Activision Blizzard will accelerate our plans for cloud gaming, allowing more people in more places around the world to participate in the Xbox community using phones, tablets, laptops and other devices you already own. Activision Blizzard games are enjoyed on a variety of platforms and we plan to continue to support those communities moving forward. As a company, Microsoft is committed to our journey for inclusion in every aspect of gaming among both employees and players. We deeply value individual studio cultures. We also believe that creative success and autonomy go hand in hand with treating every person with dignity and respect. We hold all teams, all leaders, to this commitment. We look forward to extending our culture of proactive inclusion to the great teams across Activision Blizzard. Around the world, there is no more exciting venue for fun and connection than video games. And there has never been a better time to play than right now. As we extend our joy and community of gaming to everyone, we look forward to welcoming all of our friends Activision Blizzard to Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer. And then he puts up their Xbox Gaming leadership graphic which shows obviously Phil Spencer at the top and then all of the leadership personalities that work under him. And obviously this acquisition does a couple of things. One, it's addressed right at the end. Microsoft knows Activision Blizzard has a problem. Activision Blizzard has a PR problem. Activision Blizzard has a CEO problem. Activision Blizzard has a massive issue when it comes to things like, well, treating employees equal, not sexually harassing employees. There has been a massive issue that's been going on at Activision Blizzard for a long time, decades it seems like. And Phil Spencer basically addresses it directly saying we know and we don't have this problem and we don't have this problem because we are on top of this and we're gonna make sure this doesn't happen anymore. And then obviously he shows the incredible team under him which includes a number of female employees. In fact, was there one, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven female employees that work directly on the leadership team? That's a lot of female employees compared to pretty much every other video game company. So clearly Phil Spencer takes this very seriously and obviously this is a massive gift from Microsoft. By the way, I can't imagine the stupid money they paid for this. So basically Bobby Kotek is dipping out. Okay, CEO Bobby Kotek is saying, thanks for the money, I'm out of here. He's not gonna be part of this anymore. It's gonna be Phil Spencer as CEO. By the way, he didn't necessarily say Bobby Kotek's gone but I presume Bobby Kotek's gone as part of the buyout. It's gonna be interesting to see how much, this is about four. If Xenomax was worth 7.5 billion, Activision Blizzard is literally one of the largest video game companies in the world. They have a value that's higher than Nintendo in terms of their market value. Maybe not the nostalgia value or the IP value although Call of Duty is pretty valuable. But yeah, they have a value that's very high. I wouldn't be surprised if this deal is somewhere in the $20 billion range. Like insane money, Microsoft has insane money. They said they weren't done acquiring studios. I don't think by the way this acquisition happens if all the accusations and drama doesn't come out at Activision Blizzard because I felt like Bobby Kotek and the team at Activision Blizzard kind of felt stuck. They're like, look, we're not gonna be able to rebuild this reputation with Bobby. I don't know if there's anyone we could put in charge that's gonna be able to rebuild this reputation. Maybe now is the best time and their investors probably agreed. Now is the best time to get out. Now it's interesting because they're a publicly traded company, but obviously for this acquisition to go down it would require that Microsoft purchase a majority of those shares. And I'm sure the major shareholders are part of this and obviously this kind of purchase, but how big it is has to be approved. So it's technically not finalized. It probably won't be approved to a closer to the end of the year. It usually takes about, you know, anywhere from six to nine months for this to go through the legal process of actually getting approved. And obviously having approved that, you know, they're not a monopoly, which I think is very hard to argue when the Switch and PlayStation do so well. This obviously does not create a monopoly. What it does do though is give Xbox quite the bevy of exclusive games. Cause if you think they're still gonna bring Call of Duty and all that to other platforms that they don't have their stuff on, like PlayStation, yeah, PlayStation gamers, you're not gonna be getting Call of Duty anymore. You're probably not getting Overwatch 2, Diablo 4. You're probably not getting any future Warcraft games, not that you were getting them anyways. And obviously the mobile games are gonna continue to be what they are, Candy Crush and all that with Starcraft. There's so many IPs under here, you know. You might be upset like, oh, what about Crash Bandicoot? Yeah, you're probably not getting future Crash Bandicoot games anymore either. Or future Spyro games either. They're going to be exclusive to Microsoft. So if so many fans are upset, I get it. But also, Activision Blizzard, who's basically had a PR nightmare. And this saves them from that PR nightmare by putting a company in charge that literally has never had controversy like this. And that's very strange, considering that a lot of people look at Microsoft and go, oh man, Xbox is for the dude bros, man, those gears are more dude bros. And yet, when you think about it, internally, Microsoft has had very few, if any, controversies in regards to sexual harassment, treatment of female employees, equal treatment of employees in general. They've had almost no issues. So this is a massive win, I think for both companies. It's a huge win for Microsoft, of course. They get to have just, I mean, it's impossible to deny Game Pass' value now. I mean, it was already becoming impossible. And now look at the future of Xbox. Next year's Call of Duty, or maybe even this year's Call of Duty, is going to be exclusive to Microsoft. That is what the sale goes through by then. Maybe it won't because it was already in development for both platforms, but fine, then the Call of Duty next year is going to be exclusive to Microsoft. This is massive. I love what Microsoft is doing. They are taking money and investing and investing and investing. Game Pass' greatest value in gaming. I stand by that, and it's just got even more valuable. And then on top of all of that, which one thing I am curious about, as someone who's played World of Warcraft, will Game Pass' subscription include a subscription to World of Warcraft? That's one thing I'm very curious about as these games join. Game Pass is, will World of Warcraft subscription be part of Game Pass? So like, you don't have to pay a subscription for you to World of Warcraft anymore. That would be revolutionary to me. Holy crap. But either way, I'm super excited to see what's next. And damn, Bobby Kotick, get the hell out of gaming. I never want to see your face appear anywhere ever again. Thank you. So Phil Spencer, you're a mad lad and I don't know how you're getting Microsoft to spend the kind of money it's spending on gaming, but thank you. Because this is probably one of the few moves that would have made me buy and play Activision Blizzard games again. And I really enjoy their IPs, so I really wanted a good reason to. And I think Microsoft is the perfect company to own them. Anyways, folks, I am Nathaniel Rufflejans from Nintendo Prime. Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll catch you guys in the next video.