 Hey everyone, it feels good to be back. I know it's been a couple of days. I went on a little mini vacation with my children to the Wisconsin Dells. It's a lovely little tourist place, lots of water parks and all that jazz. They had a good time. But we're back today. We're here to talk to you about some stuff that I missed while I was gone, but some things that I feel like are really, really important to talk about. We got a lawsuit that Nintendo has won, settled, whatever, against leakers of all things. That's right. Some leakers got in some massive trouble by Nintendo. The ninjas have come for them. And hey look, Zelda's 35th anniversary is kind of coming and going with a whimper. And I'm not so sure I'm okay with that, but another anniversary is happening that's really crushing it and making Zelda's anniversary look kind of weak and pathetic. I wonder if this year is just a wash and really next year is when we're gonna get the real celebration. But we'll get into that in a moment. Before I get the video going though, before we hit that jump cut and hit our little intro, I gotta remind you, we are giving away two copies of Skyward Sword HD. So if you would like to win one, go ahead down to the description to enter and find out how. Now look, we have a couple of stories here and I guess we'll start with the lawsuit first since I think that's the first thing I have open here. And I got this story off of destructoid.com, a place I used to go to a lot. It was written by Chris Moyes and he basically pointed out that the court has demanded damages from leakers who stole trade secrets from Nintendo. And these leakers, Nintendo did a lot of sleuthing. They figured out exactly who they are, where they work and a whole bunch of stuff. So let's just read the story here. It says, as reported by Polygon, the Pokemon company filed the lawsuit against the two defendants in November of 2019. So let's have them back in November. Like, remember when Sword and Shield came out? That's when this lawsuit started. After images from the then unreleased Pokemon Sword and Shield strategy guide leaked to a discord chat room later spreading throughout the internet. These images included as of yet announced features such as the Gigantamax Pokemon. That's right, we found out about that through these leaks. Court documents note that one individual worked at the company tasked with printing the strategy guide LSC communications while the second was responsible for uploading the illicit images to the internet. The court's judgment has then declared final in case cannot be appealed by either defendant. There's nothing that can be done at this point. It was released in November of 2019. The game was these two defendants, by the way, their names are now public and yeah, they owe $150,000. Now, these two people actually work for the printing and distribution of strategy guides. And it's probably fair to say that they probably don't have $150,000 laying around in the bank to pay these fees. But also, if this had gone to a full trial and they are very clearly guilty that Nintendo Ninjas dug up a ton of evidence, they might have had to pay millions instead. Now, it's notable the Pokemon Company is the main part of this lawsuit. Nintendo is involved as well because Nintendo owns all the IP rights. But still, this is primarily the Pokemon Company pushing this lawsuit. And yeah, they're coming down hard as they probably should. These people were in the wrong. They were leaking information and these weren't like your traditional leakers who know someone who knows someone. These were people with direct access and knowledge from the strategy guide themselves leaking the actual strategy guide. So I'm very curious at what your guys' thoughts are on this. I'm not, honestly, I think these people were, you know, probably, I hate saying this, but probably should lose their job. They are, when you work in the strategy guide realm and you get very early access to games to complete official guides that are licensed by the Pokemon Company, licensed by Nintendo, licensed by other studios, you have a responsibility to keep these secrets to yourself, to keep these trade secrets to yourself, even if you didn't write the guide. If you're just responsible for printing and distribution, you are supposed to keep these secrets within the company. It is a big no-go. We rarely see strategy guide leaks ever. So the fact that this happened, they were busted, Nintendo's Ninjas came in and did all the necessary legwork for this to basically open and shut case, even though, yeah, it took a couple of years because welcome to the court systems. Yeah, I honestly, I don't feel bad for them, but they probably lost their jobs and I don't know how they're gonna pay $150,000. I don't know if it'll be, you know, it'll probably be on some sort of payment plan, I'm sure. I don't know how realistic it is that they're ever gonna pay this, but that is the settlement and it's final, nothing can be done, it is what it is. So yeah, if you work in the strategy guide printing industry, maybe don't leak strategy guides before the game comes out. Sounds like you're gonna be in some deep trouble, not just losing your job. All right, then we gotta get into the Zelda 35th anniversary. See, Nintendo did a clever thing when they announced that Zelda Game and Watch. They slipped in. Hey, this is like all we got for the Zelda 35th anniversary is the Zelda Game and Watch, which is really cool, but it's also not exactly what we were hoping for. We were like, yeah, let's get this. We got one for Mario and this one is a better version of the Game and Watch than the Mario one. There's like three full Zelda games on that, which is really, really cool. I don't know how many people are gonna buy it, specifically to play those games, but it is really cool. They did that plus obviously the Zelda version of Game and Watch itself. That's great, but also that's it. That's all we got. No Twilight Princess, Swimmaker HD, no special Zelda Legos, no Zelda 35th merchandise. I mean, he mentioned it's the 35th anniversary of Zelda and we're doing this Game and Watch, but then he said that's it. There's no other games coming to Switch while he didn't say there wouldn't be merchandise and other things. There's nothing currently announced or planned. It's very strange. He even didn't really say that Skyward Sword HD and the Skyward Sword Joy-Con and the Skyloft Amiibo. He didn't even say that was part of the Zelda 35th anniversary. They're not even reprinting the 30th anniversary Amiibo. They're really kinda dropping the ball with Zelda 35th, which is surprising considering how they celebrated the 20th, the 25th, and the 30th anniversary. I get that they're not gonna do symphony concerts right now due to the pandemic, but they did so much more than just symphony concerts. It feels really weird that they did this big blowout for Mario who, yeah, it's the mascot for Nintendo and all of that, but they aren't doing the same treatment or at least something besides Game and Watch and Nintendo couldn't find a way to do it during a pandemic? Now I give the pandemic as an excuse, but then we have this news about Sonic. Sonic is just blowing everything out. So the 30th anniversary of Sonic, which by the way, they're celebrating it, like culminating next year with a new, the future of Sonic game, like that Sonic Rangers or whatever is being thrown out there. But here's the thing, they're doing a VTuber thing, so in the future, you'll be able to VTube as Sonic. I don't really care about VTube, but I do think it's kind of interesting that they're supporting that and allowing Sonic to be used in a VTuber setting. They're gonna have obviously the enhanced port of Sonic colors. We have the compilation of classic Sonic games. They're also putting Sonic in Minecraft and like that's really cool and Nintendo's had crossovers of Minecraft before. So why can't we get that Zelda love in Minecraft? I don't, I don't get it. Like Nintendo wouldn't even need to like internally develop that. They could have just taught to Microsoft and got that done. Really weird. There's Sonic content also being added into things like Two Point Hospital and Lost Judgment, like just out of nowhere. We don't even have Nintendo and Zelda content announced for things like Animal Crossing or like something with, I don't know, maybe Mario Golf, I'm just trying to think out loud things like they could throw Zelda content into just for fun and we don't even have that. Obviously we know about the new Sonic movie and obviously the Sonic game next year that everything seems to be culminating towards and they're doing it awful lot. This doesn't include all the merchandise they've announced for the 30th anniversary of Sonic and I get it in a sense, Sonic is the mascot for Sega. We did get a big blow up for Mario's 35th because Mario's the mascot for Nintendo, but Zelda, Zelda's bigger and more popular than it's ever been and Nintendo's doing less. How does that make sense? Let me think about it, the 20th, 25th and 30th anniversary of Zelda were completely blown out but the 35th anniversary's being ignored when Zelda is the most popular it's ever been, more popular than Sonic most definitely. It's very strange that Sega could pull off all this stuff in the midst of a pandemic. We're not even getting into like the show that's gonna happen on Netflix. Like yeah, there's a movie, there's also a show. Like what does the deal at Nintendo? Now look, we have industry insiders still telling us that hey look, Twilight Princess HG, Windbreaker HG, they're still gonna happen but they're saving them for potentially next year. Of course they're moving goalposts because they originally said they were supposed to come this year. Now they're saying they're being saved for next year. In case Breath of the Wild 2 is delayed, I don't know why it would be in case it should be in addition to Breath of the Wild 2 next year. I mean, even if Breath of the Wild 2 lands in 2023 which is a possibility, we can't ignore that because Zelda has a history with 3D Zelda games where they announce a release year and then it doesn't come out to the following or even two or three years later. We saw that with Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild. There's three in a row that they've done that with so that's not good. We have to always take into consideration all of the possibilities of that. Then you would slot into other Princess HG and the Windbreaker HG next year. But why can't we have both? Why can't that be a summer release like we're getting with Skyward Sword this year and then a planned holiday release for Breath of the Wild 2? Now I know some people think it's coming in March and that's fine. I'm not gonna knock you if you're a March believer in the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 but still I don't know why we can't get both next year and if one gets delayed, one gets delayed. This is the strange thing. We don't have a special edition console. We got that, at least with a colored console for Mario. We don't even have that for Switch now. Obviously there's a whole caveat about Switch Pro. We're not even gonna open that can of worms because that's a whole nother. Hey, these same leakers I said Twilight Princess HG when we also said Switch Pro and look, neither are now. Look, I don't know what's happening with any of this stuff. I'm just the messenger. But I do know that I'm a bit disappointed in Nintendo over this 35th anniversary for Fuffle. I was originally trying to give them the pandemic excuse but then Sonic is just killing it and they're doing it in the middle of a pandemic. So Nintendo, a company that's massively bigger than Sega, couldn't have found a way. How do we not know about new merchandise? How do we not know about new colors of Joy-Con at least? Yeah, we got the Skyward Sword ones but again, they're not advertising Skyward Sword and Sheet or Skyward Sword as part of the 35th anniversary. They're basically saying we are going to release this game irregardless of the 35th anniversary. It has nothing to do with it. Breath of the Wild 2? Nothing to do with it. Which is probably true. It is probably true. It has nothing to do with it. But then for the 35th anniversary, shouldn't we have something special? Now we have the Game & Watch and that's great and it's $50 and I gave one away during E3. Probably will eventually get one for myself just because I'm a Zelda nut. I love Zelda but I'm never gonna use a thing. I probably won't even open the box outside of maybe an initial quick look at it to make sure it works. And then it'll go back in the box and sit on a shelf somewhere for me because I don't need to play Link's Awakening or the first Zelda or Zelda II again. Especially in a little tiny form factor like that when I have much better options to play it on a bigger screen. I mean heck, I could play it on the Switch itself. I don't need the Game & Watch. Heck, Link's Awakening has been remade for the Switch so I could argue there's even a better version although obviously I could appreciate people into the original or into DX. I get it but I just, I'm confused at what they're doing with this 35th anniversary. Why they even mentioned it? Like why even make the Game & Watch at this point? Mazda just skipped the anniversary. But again, what if this is like a situation where it's more like they're gonna do it next year? And if they would say, hey we're gonna celebrate it next year, I guess I can understand. You could culminate it with the release of Breath of the Wild 2. You could have the Windmaker and Twilight Princess HD come out. You could have more classic Zelda games come to the platform in some form or in a little arcane of time. Majora's Mask, I don't know if it'd be HD. I don't know if they'd just be straight up 3DS ports, temporary ports. I have no idea. Maybe they add some new virtual console or something I know we've talked about before. They could find a way to blow out Zelda more if they would just take more time. And I think during the pandemic most of us would be understanding if Nintendo said, hey, we're gonna delay the 35th celebration a year. And I think we'd be okay with that, right? Because yeah, it'll be the 36th anniversary in February of next year. But I think we would be understanding. I think most people are understanding about delays during the pandemic. So having to delay the 35th anniversary I think would have been fine. But you see everything Sonic's doing and they're saying that this new Sonic game, the Sonic Rangers or whatever it ends up being called in the end that comes on next year that's the future of Sonic is part of this anniversary celebration. And that's a year away. They could have easily done the same thing with Zelda's Breath of the Wild 2 as part of that celebration. And it's a year away. Yeah, it's a cop out because the game would exist just like the new Sonic game would exist irregardless of it. But you know what? If you couple it all in, like if they would have said, Skyward Story HG, the Joy-Con and the Amiibo and New Merchandise and Game and Watch and Breath of the Wild 2 are all part of the 35th anniversary of Zelda, I think we all would have been pretty happy with that. But they didn't. They separated everything else. So this Game and Watch is it. This is your celebration. I just, it doesn't quite sit right with me. And it feels like Nintendo of all companies could have found a way to do it better. We didn't care when some of Mario's stuff came this year. We didn't care that some of it came this year when it was meant for last year. We were okay with Bowser's Fury being this year. It didn't bother us. Just like we would have been fine if most of Zelda's 35th anniversary happened next year. I think we would have been fine with that as well. Now again, maybe that is the plan. Maybe Nintendo has a grand master Zelda celebratory plan. Maybe everything's gonna be built around Breath of the Wild 2. Maybe there's gonna be a billion merchandise, a whole bunch of amiibo, and a bunch of other crazy things happening around Breath of the Wild 2. And to be fair, the very first Breath of the Wild sold over 20 million, might even hit close to 30 million someday. And yeah, clearly they're gonna try to make a big deal out of a direct sequel. So that stuff might have happened anyways. But you can at least paint it under the guise of, hey, we care that there are those of you out there that care about the 35th anniversary. Now, I always found celebrating the 35th a little bit weird anyways. But since they did it for Mario, why won't they do it for Zelda? I don't think we need to celebrate Zelda every five years. Just to be clear, I don't think we do. I understood the 20th, that's two decades. I understood the 25th, quarter of a century. I guess I could even understand the 30th, that's three decades in. And I can understand when you celebrate the 40th, and the 50th, and the 60th, 70th, and 75th. I can understand all of that. It felt weird that we were celebrating the 35th for Mario. What significance does 35 years have? What's the big deal with that? It's just five more years than 30, but also five years short of 40. You know, it's not a quarter of a century or anything. Like there's no significance to 35th. Other than just saying it's the 35th and we wanna sell stuff. Well, if you were gonna do that for Mario, why not Zelda? And I appreciate what they did. I mean, there's no Zelda 35 coming. Telling me they couldn't find a way to make Zelda 35? They have Mario 35, which result temporarily. We can't have a Zelda. Heck, think about Donkey Kong. What the hell is going on with Donkey Kong? You wanna talk about an OG celebration. Donkey Kong's 40th is this year. And there's that rumored new game that we haven't heard of yet. But no, nothing, I don't know what Nintendo's doing. Maybe you guys do. Maybe I'm just trying to get all my frustrations out in one video, because obviously what matters the most is new games, new games, new games. And yeah, Breath of the Wild 2 looks absolutely fantastic. Potentially might become my new favorite game of all time and thus a perfect 10 out of 10 game to me. Maybe. We'll have to see more. I gotta play it. And I'm happy about that. It's like the number one thing I'm thrilled about coming out of E3. But I can't ignore that. They're kinda doing Zelda a little dirty with a 35th. Anyways, you guys don't have to think about this down in the comments below. I'm glad to be back. I missed you guys. I know it's been a couple days, but I'm back. I'm happy. Everything's good to go and I'll catch you guys in the next video.