 So while we're sitting here making content and covering news, and yes, there was actually some Mario 10 day news today about some new LEGO sets. We're gonna save that stuff and bundle it with news tomorrow because I'm fairly certain we're about to get some new Mario 10 news tomorrow, maybe some thousand year door and Luigi's Mansion 2 HD stuff if we're so fortunate. But what I'm actually one of talking about today is Tears of the Kingdom. And look, we haven't talked about Tears of the Kingdom in a long time. And some of this might come down to a question. I keep seeing pop up, whether it's on live streams, social media channels, other people's channels, this question that as I'm quoting one person on Twitter who just reminded me of this question, even though I've seen it thousands of times in the last few months, why has Nintendo abandoned Tears of the Kingdom? Now I find the question on its surface to already be a flawed question because I know that Nintendo has abandoned Tears of the Kingdom. Now look, you can look at this question in many different ways. Is it because they said they're not gonna bring Ultra Hand and other abilities forward to new Zelda's? Is it because they said the next big Zelda 3D adventure they're working on isn't going to be a sequel to Tears of the Kingdom, but rather a completely new direction for the series? Is it because Nintendo said the game is content complete and they're not gonna be making DLC and bare minimum, you think there should be a master mode and without them adding new content, man, oh man, it sure feels like they just sort of sent Tears of the Kingdom out and now they've moved on. And I'm here to tell you that there actually is a very logical explanation for this. And I think it's born out of this strange phenomena of modern gaming that we're just not accustomed to. Tears of the Kingdom is a complete video game. I know that's a strange concept and I gotta admit, just sitting here right now, it feels weird even saying this out loud, but Tears of the Kingdom is a complete game. It doesn't have all this DLC coming with all these major patches of content. It doesn't have any new modes coming like a master mode. It doesn't have multiplayer stuff to keep us going forever and ever. And it doesn't have a ton of marketing even happening for it to this day, although there's a couple events here and there where they bring some of the statues around that's cool, but for the most part, Nintendo sent out a game that's a complete experience. And I feel like even with Nintendo games, this is strange. I mean, even when we look at the most successful Mario Party game on Switch, it had an online mode added to it years later. There doesn't seem to be anything being done with Tears of the Kingdom. They patched out some duplication glitches and did a few performance updates, but for the most part, they just completed a video game and put it out on the market and it's gone on to sell 20 million units, which is insane. That's a lot of sales, but I feel like we're so used to games getting constant updates, constant new content, even Elden Ring has new content coming, right? So we're so used to games getting new content and new updates and new this and new that that in the world that we live in here in 2024, it kind of feels strange that one of the largest releases of last year isn't even really talked about today, not by Nintendo and even among gamers, it's really only talked about in select communities. Tears of the Kingdom isn't getting these sort of legs at Breath of the Wild then and it's interesting because Breath of the Wild had DLC, right? It had bonus content, multiple different releases of content. It culminated in a game of the year victory and yeah, it seemingly had much longer legs than Tears of the Kingdom. Now, obviously we don't know what long haul sales will be and Tears of the Kingdom could get a re-released 4K edition that ends up coming to Switch 2 and that could end up extending sales even more, but it's not just about the sales. I think people feel weird and this question keeps coming up because a lot of us forgot what a complete video game really is. And now we're to the point that we think a game being complete at release is a negative and I find this mentality just personally to be very interesting because, look, I grew up where games came out and that was that. Now, yes, on PC we had expansion packs, but if you wanted to do new stuff in, say, let's say, Ocarina of Time, right? You had new ideas, you would have to release a whole new game in Majora's Mask. You couldn't just shoehorn it in with DLC or updates. Now on PC, they would do expansion packs that would almost be entirely new games and that are themselves because there was so much content in there, sometimes more content than in the original game's release. I find it fascinating that today, the way video games work and not just the free-to-play games in our multiplayer games, but even our single-player experiences, that all of them come out and there's always something else. I mean, even if you look at Mario Odyssey, which is probably the least updated Nintendo game in terms of, hey, we gave you a bunch of stuff after the game came out. It was a very content-complete game at launch. They still added that Luigi mode a little bit later, right? That little Luigi mode with the balloons and finding them in the city. That was an update added later. Here's where the kingdom is the first game Nintendo's released in a while where there isn't that expected update. In fact, they came right out and told us the game was content-complete. There is no DLC. There is no planned additions coming. This is it. We're moving on to the next game. And I think it feels strange for a couple of reasons. Not only because they added content to Breath of the Wild after release and they've done the Xenoblade and pretty much every IP they have. I think it's also feel strange, not just because of that, but because of the landscape we're in. Nintendo wants to quickly, as soon as they could, and they're already probably doing it, work on the next Zelda game. So it actually launches during the heart of the Nintendo Switch 2 generation. And I think they know that. They don't want it to be a Skyward Sword thing where they wait all the way to the end of the generation before getting an exclusive Zelda game out for the new platform. They want to get it out in the heart of the sales. And that is awesome and could be a massive boon for the system. But in order to do that, they had to decide, hey, whatever we wanted to put into this game, we're just gonna have to put into it before it comes out. And it's a very strange concept in today's world where at least you know, 100% complete game at launch. I think that what that feeling is coming from is something that, those that feel it anyways, cause I certainly don't feel this way, but those that do, maybe examine within yourself why you think it's strange and why you think Nintendo has abandoned a 20 plus million seller just because the game was content complete when it came out and there is no other plans for it. Is that really an abandoning of a game? Or is that, hey, instead of, you know, piece-mealing and DLCing and coming up with ideas later that we could shoehorn in, we actually released the game in the intended permanent state the game was supposed to be in. If they had never updated the game, let's say they never got rid of the easy duplication glitches. No, they just left it alone as it is on those launch cartridges. It would still be a content complete game with very few bugs and issues. It's such a interesting thing to think about. And as I think more and more and more deeply about this, I gotta even admit a little bit to me that even though to me I never thought about this until people started mentioning it, thinking back, it is a little weird. It is a little weird, but why do I have that weird feeling? Isn't this what we want? Don't we want content complete games? Or because of the era of the internet and social media that we're in, if things aren't constantly updated with new features, does it mean that the company doesn't care about it anymore? Is that our perception as consumers? I find it just to be interesting. Obviously, if there was planned DLC and everything else, we won't be talking about this when there's a 4K edition or something like that on Switch 2. We'll obviously go, oh, they must clearly care about it because they just gave us an upgraded version or if they release a payable patch or some sort of patch for Switch 2. All of us would go, they did not stop caring about the game. But I also think that it's a single player experience and we've been a bit spoiled with single player experiences where they seem to go on forever. Look at Elden Ring getting massive DLC, single player experience. We get spoiled by the single player experiences that seemingly never end. And because of that, it becomes to be our expectation for all of them when honestly, some games are best left as just a whole complete experience. When I got to the end of Tears of the Kingdom and I'm not gonna drop any spoilers here even though we're a well-placed spoiler territory with Tears of the Kingdom. But when I completed the game and the story and all of that, I didn't feel like there needed to be more. It really felt like we hit the end of whatever they were currently doing. And I think that is a magical place to be. And I think that makes it a very self-contained amazing experience that when you look at the broader spectrum is a little weird that that's just how it ends. There isn't anything new. There is no more modes coming or content or all that. It's strange. So every time I see this question pop up now, hey, why the heck did Nintendo abandon Tears of the Kingdom? That's not the right question. Nintendo didn't abandon the game. Why do we feel like a complete game, or a content complete game at launch is abandoned just because it doesn't get content piecemeal to it later? That is the question I have for you guys because I'm struggling with this as someone who grew up with content complete games. But I'm also struggling with it because I understand a little why it feels weird because no other game releases that way. And is that a bad thing? Is a content complete game a bad way to release a video game? Should we have wanted them to cut some things from the game to piecemeal to us later to make us feel like they still care? I find it just a fascinating conversation. Let me know what you think about this down in the comments below. I think that, well, I guess I did this whole video telling you what I think. So I got nothing else to add for now. Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll catch you in the next video.