 Hey everyone, how's it going? We're back with a bunch of stories today. I think we got five big ones today, including the fact that Nintendo might be actually upgrading the Nintendo Switch, or at least the Nintendo Switch's capabilities without actually telling us. In fact, we actually have direct proof and evidence of this in an upcoming game from Nintendo themselves that yeah, we might already be getting a DLSS feature on Switch, that's an upscaling feature that helps with performance. Holy crap, I'm not kidding. Like this is being added to Nintendo's current hardware. This is big, big news guys and we'll get into why in a little bit along with a bunch of other stuff including the fact that Platinum Games just put Konami on blast. We usually don't see other companies commenting on what other companies are doing, but Platinum Games seems to be really laughing at Konami at the moment. We'll get into this and much more after I tell you that we are giving away Nintendo Switch OLED, an Xbox Series X, or a PlayStation 5, that's right. We're giving away one current gen console of choice to a lucky winner in the month of February. To enter all you have to do is head to that gleam.io link down in the description and I wish all of you guys luck. All right, so this first story is, it's sort of a follow up because Kotaku put out an article and it's not just Kotaku, I've seen this everywhere, but they mentioned that Japan consumers seem pissed about the Wii U and 3DS eShop news where they are getting rid of the ability to purchase games. You won't be able to add currency anymore or buy any games. I want to clarify this, they are not taking away your ability to play and download games. They're taking away your ability to purchase, which is still a problem and we'll talk about that in a moment. But first let's talk about how pissed off the Japanese consumer base is according to Kotaku. There's a bunch of quotes that have also been translated by Kotaku that says Nintendo is unhinged. Well, even though you buy downloads, it's just a rental. Okay, then make it possible to use the virtual console on Switch. Inevitably this day has come, hasn't it? I'm able to trust Sony more than Nintendo. Ridiculous, this makes me only want to buy from Steam. At the end, you won't be able to play anymore. That's terrifying. This is thinking little of your customers. This is reckless, that's the issue. This is garbage. Knock it off with this shitty monthly subscription for Switch Online and bring back virtual console. This is happening too quickly. If we can't play previously purchased games, then give us a refund. You can still buy digital games for the Vita. Plus last year, new stuff came out. The way Nintendo's hardware is just thrown out to the wolves is truly awful. And this is why I hate download versions. I'm still playing the 3DS, stop effing with me. And now I see the importance of buying the retail package version. The Switch will likewise be quickly cut down. Remember this, it's come at last. I wasn't waiting for this though. But all the games I bought, what a waste and such a wonderful service for game consoles. Will there be a sudden price drop for the packaged version of the games? It would be good if they kept it going forever. Endings feel so lonely. Now beyond all of this, there's been a lot of backlash here in the United States at least on social media where we have seen a number of people talk about how the shutting down of the ability to purchase these games is a big deal because some of the reactions have been a bit overblown. People act like they're taking away your access to games. No, if you've already bought games, Nintendo has stated, quite publicly, your access to the games you already bought on virtual console, the access to the games you already bought on Wii U and 3DS digitally are still gonna be there. You'll be able to re-download and Nintendo doesn't have any current plans to shut down your ability to re-download games. They're just shutting down your ability to purchase them. But on that side of the purchasing, that's actually having some people go, this is why piracy is considered moral by so many because removing your ability to purchase games matters as well because there are a select number of games on Wii U and 3DS that are only on Wii U and 3DS. And they don't make physical copies for some of these games and the ones that they have made physical copies for don't get released anymore. You can't walk into Walmart and buy a brand new physical copy of Twilight Princess HD. The only way to legally purchase Twilight Princess HD at the moment, besides on a secondhand market and paying extra exorbitant prices for that physical copy is to buy it digitally off the Wii U eShop. So removing access to being able to purchase those games, even though they're not removing access to games you already bought, is sort of promoting piracy in a way, which is ironic for Nintendo, a company that just got someone in jail for messing around with piracy. It's weird. It's strange. It was inevitable, of course. We all sort of knew this day was going to come, but it also, I don't know that right now it hurts faith in buying games digitally because I mean, that's, you know, okay. But it does hurt people's mindset because you saw, you know, even the Japanese consumers bring up steam. I think it's a little bit unfair to mention steam because the whole reason you still have access to games through steam isn't because of steam. It's because PC is a never-ending hardware cycle and Windows has backwards compatibility modes that basically makes every game that's ever released on a PC playable, whether it was back in the 70s and we're talking tech space games, all the way to brand new games coming out in 2022. Steam isn't what enables you to be able to do play all those games. It's the PC platform and Windows. You know, you could argue Linux and others as well, although it's a lot more complicated. Windows in general makes it much simpler to be able to go back and play all these games over the decades. Steam is just the store application that's there and you'd be like, oh, but they don't remove the ability to purchase the games from the store because they're infinitely playable on hardware pretty much forever. So steam, I think it's a little too much credit here, but what I will note is I think it's interesting that this backlash exists because before we had digital shops, you were just limited by how long were they going to print physical copies. So people have been using this to say, this is why I support buying physically. Well, it's a problem with physical too. Brand new physical Wii U games have not been in print for five years. You have not been able to walk into a Walmart for five years and buy a brand new recently printed Wii U copy of a game. Same, well, 3DS doesn't mean as bad, but now 3DS is getting to the point where new copies of those games aren't being made either. So I find this a little strange that we get angry, I suppose, at Nintendo for removing access to buy games digitally when nobody mentions that, hey, why aren't we mad that we get to give access to physical copies are removed as well? And they've always been removed and everyone just accepts that they're always gonna be removed because they moved on to the next device. But because it's digital, suddenly we have a problem even though we could still download the games we've already bought, they're just removing our ability to purchase games just like we lost our ability to purchase physical games. Again, nobody really complained when we couldn't buy physical games anymore, but now we're gonna complain when we can't buy the digital versions. I think some of this obviously stems from the fact that there are some games on digital shops that never existed physically in the first place. And to that I say, isn't that on the people releasing the games? Why didn't they create physical versions? Why didn't they team up with limited run games and get physical versions out? I'm not saying that it's cheap or easy. What I'm saying is they chose to make it digital only. Can we really expect Nintendo to just keep selling those games for all time when they don't do it physically? I just think it's kind of a weird situation that we're holding digital games to a higher standard than we hold physical games do and using what's happening with digital games as a way to promote buying physical games when physical games are actually worse than digital because they're available to purchase for less time than digital is. It's a really frustrating thing for me to watch because I understand the frustration and the reactions but also Nintendo's not removing your access to games at least not yet. And you had what, a decade to buy these games? Like a decade to buy these games. You haven't bought them by now were you ever really going to buy them anyways? And on top of that, we haven't been able to buy physical in a long time and nobody bitched about that. I don't know. I think the whole situation is just much to do about nothing. I don't think it's really that big of a deal. As long as you can still access the games you've already bought and redownload them which Nintendo has confirmed you're able to do. And they gave us a year warning. So if there were games you were waiting on buying on Wii U and 3DS digitally, they're giving you a year to still go and buy those games. So they're even warning you with plenty of time to save up to get the games that maybe you had always wanted to get but never did. There is that old saying, you know that some games get lost to time because of this but I don't know. This is, I don't really understand how this is worse than physical. As long as the games are available to redownload isn't it better than physical? Physical items can get damaged. You can damage a disc. You can damage a cartridge and it's unusable. You destroy your Wii U or 3DS in April of 2023. You can just go buy another used system and just redownload all your games but if your physical game gets destroyed you can't replace your physical game. So at least now until Nintendo removes your ability to redownload the games, it's not worse. It's better still. It's the thought that they might remove your ability to download them that makes people get angry. So I don't know. Anyways, let's move on to the next story because we can talk about this all day. So next up we get to talk about Nintendo Switch Sports because two things are happening with this. One of them is a really, really good thing and has to do with Nintendo potentially upgrading their hardware in a really awesome way. The other has to do with a really bad thing because of course we can't just have good news. We also have to have bad. Let's start with the bad news and this is if you go to sign up for the public play test, it is a public play test. You have to go register for it but totally free, anyone can do it. And at the bottom it notes in the fine print by registering to participate in the online play test you agree to not share information about the online play test publicly. Keep in mind this is a public play test that anyone can sign up for including the sharing of screenshots or video footage from the game on social media. Talk about some backwards thinking on a game that's public. This is a public play test, not a private play test. Yes, you have to sign up for it but it's not like they pick and choose who gets to play. You sign up and you just get to play. There's no limits on how many people can sign up. It's a completely public play test. But they're telling you you can't share video footage, screenshots. That to me shows we do not have confidence this game is going to show well. Be confident in your products, Nintendo. If this game is not as good as people want it to be maybe don't release it yet. Just saying. All I know is I might be tempting fate with the public play test, streaming it or capturing footage and just daring Nintendo to come after my channel. Because to be frank, it's a public play test. Why are we keeping information away from the public that can already play it? Doesn't make sense to me. On the positive side. And this is more positive for the future of Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Switch Sports has been discovered both on the website and through data mining of the game files that it uses AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution. What is AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution? Well, it's essentially AMD's answer to Nvidia's DLSS. And you might go, but Nate, it uses a Tegra, an Nvidia, you know, GPU, how can I use AMD? Just like FreeSync, AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution can be used by everybody. It doesn't have to just be AMD products. So it might work best with AMD products, but it works on everything. And what it does is it upscales games and increases performance in a very similar way to DLSS. Now, DLSS 2.0 and higher is fundamentally better at doing this than AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution. You know what's so great about AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution? It does it in a completely different way. And as such, you don't need new hardware to use it. That's right, AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution is backwards compatible with tons of hardware dating back a decade. That means AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution can be fundamentally used on Nintendo Switch games moving forward to increase frame rates and make better looking games at lower resolutions. Taking, like as an example, a 540p image and upscaling it to 1080p and having it look almost as good as 1080p. Now, not as good as DLSS would do, but still a lot better than not using it at all, let alone the increase in frame rates you can get because of this. Again, Nintendo is using this fundamentally, factually using this on Nintendo Switch sports. So Nintendo themselves is using this, which now opens the door to this being used on all future. So this is what I was talking about when saying Nintendo is fundamentally upgrading the capabilities of Switch by using new modern technology on old technology. This is actually a very brilliant and smart idea by Nintendo, and I applaud them for it. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to how this affects not only Nintendo's sports, maybe Kirby and the Forgotten Land, maybe it'll affect Breath of the Wild 2, Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I would presume they're gonna use this everywhere because there's not really a reason not to because it literally buys you some extra performance that it basically just gets a little bit extra out of what's already there. This next story is one from yesterday that I didn't talk about, but I wanted to bring up. Sonic is confirmed to now have a third movie coming, and this is before the second movie comes out, as well as a spin-off with Knuckles, and this will be obviously a live action, just like the movies. Here's what Sega Corporation's CEO, Herkara Isotomi, had to say about the news. He says, we are delighted to announce that the third Sonic theatrical film and the first live action Sonic series for Paramount Plus are being actively developed. We've got a remarkable partnership with Paramount, and we are excited to continue expanding the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise with them. 2022 is shaping up to be a significant year for the franchise, with the second film being released this April, as well as Sonic Frontiers, the highly anticipated video game title coming this holiday. Sonic has been beloved by fans across the world for over 30 years, and we look forward to continuing to bring memorable moments and experiences to them for many years to come. Sonic is basically becoming as relevant as it's maybe ever been, and this is nothing but good news. The movies have obviously been pretty solid, the first one anyways, we presume the second one's gonna be solid as well, the third one probably too, hopefully the Knuckles spin-off show does really well, and obviously Sonic Frontiers needs to complete it. Like, okay, the general media around movies and shows might be going really well for Sonic. I wanna see Sonic Frontiers hit a home run. If it does, Sonic is back, baby, back to being as relevant as it's ever been, and I'm all for that. We have some good news by the way today about Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC. Now you guys might know I did a video where I was being a bit critical of the visuals and calling it a problem, and unless there's some sort of massive update by the time it comes out, it's definitely a lower visual quality than the rest of Mario Kart 8. However, this is really, really cool. So yeah, we all know you could buy it for $24.99, you get 48 tracks over time, or obviously get it as part of the expansion pass, but what happens if you don't buy it? What if you don't have the expansion pass and you don't buy the DLC? Is there a way you could still enjoy the content? Well, if all you wanna do is play online, don't buy the DLC. Nintendo has confirmed on their official website for the Mario Kart 8 DLC that all players playing online will get to use the new track. So you're doing those online tournaments, you're playing the ranked matches online. Yeah, all the new tracks are just gonna be available publicly for online play. So if all you cared about was online play in the first place, you don't have to buy these tracks. Basically, you're only buying these tracks to play them locally, which isn't fundamentally important when you can no longer do Mario Kart 8 online when they shut down those online servers someday, but for now, you don't really have to buy it. There's not really a pressure to get it if all you're gonna do is play online. So yeah, I just find that to actually be really neat. And yeah, I don't know. I just wanted to bring that up because I think this is actually credit to Nintendo. A lot of games will lock online content away and segregate audiences. Nintendo's not doing it. They're just saying, look, this content's just gonna be available to play online for free. Nobody's gotta pay for it. But if you wanna use it locally with friends, then yes, you gotta pay for it. So I think that's a really good move. So it was already a pretty good deal money-wise. Now it's even better since online is free. Next up, we have MLB The Show is getting an online play test this weekend. I wanted to mention this because it's at the same time as the Mario Kart, or I'm sorry, the Nintendo Switch sports one, but here's the fun part about this one. There's no time frames. This is what I like about this. So it begins at 10 a.m. on the 17th and runs until 10 a.m. on the 23rd. I like this because it doesn't, it lets people play when they have time rather than forcing everyone in the small windows. Here is why they're doing this play test. We want to deliver the best version possible and will be The Show 22. And to do that, we need everyone's help to stress test the servers. Online matchmaking, cross-platform play, online co-op and more in addition to gathering feedback on gameplay. The best news, you don't need to sign up for it. It's completely open to everyone eligible. You can download it for free on the PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store or Nintendo eShop today, February 16th. So, bravo. That's all I can say is bravo. That's the way I wish all online play tests were handled, absolutely free and open, no registering for anything, and boom, just play it like you normally would. How are we really gonna stress test the servers if we're not allowing consumers to use it in the normal ways that they would and forcing them in the windows that might not fit their schedule? So, I like this. We get to obviously see how well this game works super quick. They're not saying you can't show footage of it. Completely public, completely honest. Believe in our product. Love it. That's what I like to see and the Switch is involved. They're not hiding the Switch version. So, that's awesome. Now this last story is a bit of a fun one for me. We talked about an interview that Platinum Games did with Video Game Chronicle the other day. Where they talked about how they're open to being purchased and essentially asking the company to buy them as long as they can maintain their freedom. And obviously we talked about how, yeah, okay, Nintendo or whoever else could get involved in this, it'll be very interesting to see what happens in the next year. But what's funny is there's another part of this interview where the CEO of Platinum Games and then Hideki Kamiya, one of their lead creative directors, both spoke out essentially blasting NFTs and they're just calling NFTs a joke and they don't see how it's remotely positive for consumers. That all it is is about making money for the companies that are supporting it. It's a really interesting take. But there's one line in it I wanted to read to you. And of course it comes from Hideki Kamiya himself. For those that don't know, Hideki Kamiya has no filter. He says whatever he wants, whenever he wants, doesn't care. He's one of the lead directors on things like Bayonetta 3. And so obviously he works with Nintendo and he's out there cussing on social media. Nintendo doesn't seem to care. Just let Hideki Kamiya be who he is because that's the way he's always gonna be. He had this to say, kind of a shot, not kind of. This is a shot at another Japanese company. So in regards to NFTs and their place in the industry and if they belong, Kamiya says, not really. If it smells like money, Konami's going to be there in a heartbeat and he said that excitedly in a smirking way. Hideki Kamiya, peep peep peep peep peep peep peep, shots fired. Holy crap that he just blasted Konami being like, hey, of course Konami's towards NFTs. If it smells like money, Konami's there. Like why he brought up Konami unprompted is hilarious. But yeah, obviously Platinum Games is very anti-NFT at the moment. They did admit a little bit in the interview that if they ever see a point that it really is positive for consumers, they might consider it for right now. They think it's 100% negative and the only people who truly win in the end are the video game companies putting the NFTs out because they get to make a bunch of extra money off of content they're already making anyways. So yeah, it's going to be fascinating to see how NFTs inject themselves into this industry moving forward because I do think they're going to be around for quite some time. Will the video game community reject the idea? Will they accept it, especially as it appears in mobile games where people who play games on phones, this is no offense to them, seem to be more accepted of alternative monetization methods. So I don't know. Anyways, I just wanted to put that in there because I thought it was really funny that Hideki Kamiya literally put Konami on blast. You don't see this very often. Although if someone in the industry was going to put another company on blast, it would be Hideki Kamiya. Because again, he has no filter. Whatever's on his mind, it's coming out of his mouth and you accept it because he's a creative genius. He might not be, he's probably a PR's nightmare of a creative genius, but he is a creative genius. And because of that, he kind of gets the freedom to say and do whatever he wants. I'm sure at this point, like Shigeru Miyamoto, if he was the kind of person to say and do what he wants, he could probably say and do what he wants and Nintendo probably wouldn't do anything about it. But Shigeru Miyamoto doesn't have this style of personality, so Nintendo thankfully doesn't need to worry about the PR nightmare of a Hideki Kamiya. And because Hideki Kamiya doesn't work directly with Nintendo, they can kind of, if there was one thing that would stop Nintendo from buying platinum games, it would be that Hideki Kamiya is never gonna shut up, never gonna care, always gonna be throwing out shots fired and attacking fans. And he just doesn't, he just doesn't give a shit. And I don't know, it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. If you ever follow him on Twitter, high likelihood if you ever try responding to him or disagreeing with him, he's just gonna block you. And it's awesome. It's kind of a running joke, to be honest. People literally follow him asking to get blocked. It's hilarious. Anyways, guys, I'm Nathaniel Robojance from Nintendo Prime. Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll catch you in the next video.