 So what happens when you combine video cameras, technology, new angles, and a little bit of Nintendo Prime together? An absolute shit show. That's what happens. This is like the fifth time this video has been attempted to be recorded today. And we went from three stories to four. Now we got six big stories to talk about today. So I'm not here. I'm not going to waste any more of your time. No more bullshitting around. Let's get right into the news. The very first one is about Xenobate Chronicles 3 Expansion Pass, yay! Because one of my favorite things to talk about is always about content for a game that hasn't even come out yet. But nothing against DLC and expansion passes. Of course, they can be really, really good. But hey, this DLC expansion pass costs $29.99 and it comes in four waves. And guess what? Wave 1 lands the same day the game comes out, July 29th. I'm actually really looking forward to Xenobate Chronicles 3. That being said, Wave 1 is going to include helpful items and color variations for current outfits. That's it. That's the entire Wave 1 of that DLC. Wave 2 of the DLC will include Challenge, Battle Mode, Against Difficult Enemies, A New Hero Character and Accompanying Quest, and New Character Outfits, DLC Wave 3, which should be here around sometime before April 30th anyways, DLC Wave 2 is supposed to land before the end of the year. And it's also going to include a Challenge, Battle Mode, Against Difficult Enemies, A New Hero Character and Accompanying Quest, with New Character Outfits. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Now, obviously, the value in this $29.99 really comes with DLC Wave 4, which is supposed to come by the end of 2023, and it's going to include a new original story scenario. So, yeah, look, I don't really like that they're launching content. Day 1? I never liked DLC that's like, oh, you got Day 1 DLC, Day 1 Expansion Pass content. That means they cut content from Xenoblade Chronicles 3 just to repackage and resell it to you Day 1. I absolutely abhor this practice. Nintendo hasn't actually participated in this practice very often, sucks, but you know what, it is technically, as they say, cosmetics in a game that you could swap out equipment and colors, and cosmetics are kind of part of the whole stick of personalization, but hey, whatever, look, my general rule with DLC and my general rule with Expansion Pass type stuff is I'm not going to pre-buy it until I already know what's in it. Right now, we don't even know what's in it. We have ideas like, what the heck is the Challenge, Battle Mode, Against Difficult Enemies? We don't even know what that is, right? Obviously, we have no idea what that new story content is going to be next year. So to me, this isn't even worth spending money on yet. Still going to be picking up Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Day 1. I'm just saying, I'm not so sure that we all need to rush, rush, rush into things. That being said, let's get into our next story. First by reminding you that, hey, we are on our road to 80,000 subscribers, so, you know, a like and a subscription would be great. Hit that subscribe button. I would greatly appreciate it. Now our next story deals with something that I'm actually proud that Nintendo did. It is different. It is good. It is an update to Nintendo Switch Online's future. And it is something that, let's just say they have answered criticism I've had for a while. Granted, this is just a baby step, but it's something because Nintendo has finally let us know future plans for Nintendo Switch Online. Now we sort of understood what the plans were without them telling us after they unveiled the N64 and Sega Genesis where we were getting an N64 game per month and we understood those plans because they were announced yet unreleased N64 games and Nintendo had consistently released one every single month until we ran out and then we didn't know what was going to happen and then they announced Puzzle League and were like, cool, we got Puzzle League and they wanted to advertise Puzzle League and then they responded to their advertisement of Puzzle League, which is Pokemon Puzzle League which is out right now and they said the following, more Nintendo N64 games will be added to the Nintendo Switch Online Plus Expansion Pack, stay tuned. This is the first time that Nintendo has actually announced more games for an already existing platform on Switch coming in the future. They've never actually done this before with the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. They just stopped releasing them and then randomly started releasing more. Genesis, they just do random drops of Genesis games. They actually don't give us a warning like this pretty much ever. So they actually let us know what's coming in the future, sort of. N64 games are coming anyways, more of them. How many? I don't know. There aren't actually some out there I would like to see actually. I don't know. We got Pokemon Stadium, Diddy Kong Racing, Snowboard Kids, Harvest Moon 64 and Glover. Like I would like to see all those come over. You guys let me know what some of your favorite N64 games you would like to see come back because, you know, we've got Bandra Kazooie already on the platform. So I think that kind of opens things up a little bit. I know Nintendo is really bad at getting permissions from third parties, but hey, the door is open, the N64 library exists, it's kind of a small library, but there's a lot of gems. So let me know. I mean, Shadowgate 64 would be kind of cool if they can get permission for that. I like Shadowgate. I wouldn't replay it, but I mean, I play the hell out of it back in the day on N64. Now remember earlier when I told you that we're on a road to 80,000 subscribers? Well, when we get to 80,000 subscribers, I'm actually going to be giving away a replica Breath of the Wild Master Sword with an actual steel blade and a Hylian Shield replica and a Deku Shield replica. Oh, replica. Oh my gosh, replica, replica, replica. Three winners. So yeah, we're not starting to give away to hit 80,000, but thank you so much for your guys' support. It's my way of saying thanks to all of you guys out there for just hitting that subscribe button. So that's absolutely free to do. Now our next story deals with the NPD report. So the NPD report, it's kind of good that we waited to talk about this because there's actually been a correction to the NPD report. So let's just get into some of the nitty gritty details. So the PlayStation 5 was the leader in dollar sales last month. The Nintendo Switch actually was the leader in unit sales. So more Switches sold, but PlayStation 5's obviously cost more, so they made more money. PlayStation 5 actually leads year to date. So calendar year to date in terms of dollar sales. Nintendo Switch leads in terms of unit sales. So Switch is still the number one selling platform, but obviously PlayStation is making more money overall just in terms of gross revenue. Now beyond all of that, I really want to focus in on game sales. There was a story originally about Elden Ring, by the way, being one of the top 10 best selling games of all time in the U.S. The NPD has since retracted this information. Now this all comes from Matt Piscatella, who works at the NPD, but they've retracted that information and basically said, sorry, maybe we shouldn't have said that because that's a little too much, a little too forward, because they don't have enough data to definitively say stuff like that. But what they can say is Elden Ring has been the number one seller for four of its first five months since release. So that's absolutely incredible. Now let's get into the top 20 game sales for June of 2022. Now these are listed by dollar sales, not unit sales. And it's notable any Nintendo exclusive game, digital sales are not included. So you see a Nintendo game, it could potentially be higher if digital sales were in. So number one, we have Elden Ring. Number two, we have LEGO, Star Wars, the Skywalker Saga. Number three, Mario Striker's Battle League debuts at number three. MLB The Show 22 is at number four, Overwatch at number five, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at number six, Nintendo Switch Sports at number seven, Kirby in the Forgotten Land at eight, Final Fantasy VII Remake at nine, Minecraft at ten, Call of Duty Vanguard at eleven, F1 22 at twelve, we have Monster Hunter Rise really getting a boost probably from the Sunbreak DLC at number 13, Demon Slayer, Kametsu No Yaba, the Hinakami Chronicles. I probably butchered that, I think I got the last word right anyways. That came in at number 14, Super Smash Bros Ultimate was at number 15, Fire Emblem Warriors 3 Hobes debuts at number 16, Sonic Origins at number 17, Pokemon Legends Arceus at number 18, The Quarry, which I haven't played that one yet but it looks really good, came in at number 19 and then Marvel's Spider-Man, Miles Morales at number 20. Next up, let's get into individual platforms and we're going to start with the Nintendo Switch Top 10. So we have, remember these are just physical sales. Mario Striker's Battle League at number one, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at number two, Nintendo Switch Sports at number three, Kirby in the Forgotten Land at four, Super Smash Bros Ultimate at five, Fire Emblem Warriors 3 Hobes at six, Pokemon Legends Arceus at seven, Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga at eight, Animal Crossing New Horizons at nine and then Demon Slayer, Kametsu No Yaba, the Hinakami Chronicles at number 10 by Sega. And let's go over to the other platforms quick as well. Now these ones will include digital sales. So for PlayStation platforms, which includes PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, we have Elden Ring at number one, MLB The Show 22 at two, Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga at three, Marvel's Spider-Man, Miles Morales at four, Horizon 2 Forbidden West at five, the Quarry at six, Overwatch at seven, Ratchet and Clink Rift Apart at eight, Call of Duty Vanguard at nine and Gran Turismo 7 at 10. And then getting to the Xbox platforms, which includes Xbox One and the Xbox Series. We got Elden Ring at one, Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga at two, Overwatch at three, F1 22 at four, Call of Duty Vanguard at five, Far Cry 6 at number six, Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War at seven, Call of Duty Modern Warfare at eight, Call of Duty Black Ops 3 at nine, and Forza Horizon 5 at 10. Now I obviously think all these sales were really, really incredible and I'm extremely proud of the direction that the industry seems to be going in in some ways. Although we have a story coming up later where the industry, an industry leader anyways, is really, really trying to encourage a shit show. Now next up we got some news on Mario plus Rabbids Sparks of Hope. I'm always excited when we have news about this game and we actually get to learn about those little tiny sparks that combine with lumas and what the hell is going on. And we found all this stuff on the official Marvel's Rabbids Sparks of Hope Twitter. They literally just tweeted this stuff a little bit ago. So join forces with sparks and use their power to gain the upper hand in combat. So here's a first look at three of them. We got Toxic Quake, Exosphere, and Aquinox. It says use Toxic Quake waves of ooze infused venom and make big splashes with Oxonox water waves or partner with Exosphere to be resistant to physical damage. Next up we got Reflector, Vamp Dash, and Glitter. So when Reflector powers up, the enemies better beware. Need more health, steal it with Vamp Dash powers, and don't forget Glitter, nobody can resist its moves. Next up, we'll have Etha Ring, Pyrogedon, and Starburst. Enemies could always try to hide, but these three sparks will not let them go. Use Pyrogedon's Flaming Meteors to deal damage all around. Boost your hero with Starburst powers. Starburst, like the candy, or sneak up on enemies with Ether Ring. So obviously, these are just a look at some of these little side kick abilities that we get in the game. You reach certain power up levels and you get to use their abilities. We've seen some of this in the footage already. I'm really, really excited for Mario Plus Rabbids, Sparks of Hope. And it's always great when we get some big official news. I don't know, guys, I'm really excited about this, just like I'm really excited about our next story because folks, we got more Pokemon leaks. So let's get into some that happened late yesterday and then a little bit more that happened today. Apparently, there will be no more leaks until Monday, supposedly, but I'm getting all the self-central leaks. So Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Leaks Part 4, again, spoiler warnings and everything. The Jigglypuff is an ancient form. The Crystalization gimmick seems to power up types, so it's like gaining an additional stab. For example, you can power up Pikachu to get a fighter type boost, but it won't get additional weaknesses. There are lots of mistranslations going around regarding the gimmick, and the reality is that nobody knows for sure, which is exactly the way it works. So take it with a grain of salt. When the Pokemon returns to its Pokeball, the Crystalization ends. Gems can be done in any order. However, there is no scaling. And that's really unfortunate that Gems don't scale. You must clear three routes slash quests to see the ending. There are not past, present, and future. Oh, those are not past, present, and future. It says we don't know what they are exactly. You can re-battle gym leaders. Hypno is back, but doesn't have a new form. Bidoof, B-Drill are not in the game. Apparently, you can play soccer with Pokemon or something like that. Little soccer thing is not true. It was a joke. Please ignore it. OK, well, there you go. No soccer. Lechonk's evolution has a gender difference. That's interesting. Mimikyu and Magikarp are in, but not Applin. No difficulty options. The Elite Four is back. There are classes, exams, and interviews in the game. Also, apparently, there's a hammer Pokemon, or at least one that uses a hammer. I find that to be really interesting. And those are the leaks from yesterday. Then we get to the leaks for today. And these are the only leaks that I've seen out here. Let me get to the leaks for today, the Part 5. And it says Taurus has a new regional form. Overworld shinies are probably back, quote unquote. Trainer customization is more limited. All clothing options are school uniforms. A new Pokemon that looks similar to Doug Trio. The main game took like 60 hours for the leaker, though they admit they are not particularly good. Note a previous version of the previous tweet. Omitted the word probably regarding overworld shinies. We have deleted the original tweet, so it's not as premise information. So I give Central Leaks a little credit for that. Next up, a child becomes one of the Elite Four. There's a bonding quest, whatever that is, that Eevee fans will enjoy. There aren't any cameos from old characters in the main story. Also very interesting, the ancient forms are completely different Pokemon with a different Pokedex number and name. They are not just forms. Weird. Both the original Pokemon and fake slash ancient versions are in the game. It sounds like the ancient versions are standalone Pokemon based on the original line. They don't evolve. All fossil Pokemon are not back. There's no bike in this game. Instead you ride Corridon, Miradon. While riding, you move very fast and you can still catch and battle Pokemon. You can also climb, swim and fly with them. There's no fishing in this game. There's a new auction house where you can buy items, not sell. You participate with other NPCs. A correction earlier in the thread, we said that the ancient Pokemon don't evolve. That seems to have been a mis-translation, so ignore that for now. We don't know if the ancient Pokemon evolve or not yet. There's gonna be translation errors in these leaks, but there you go. That's the new batch of Pokemon scrolled in Violet Leaks. And now we get to get to a really crappy story. One that makes me wanna stick a little finger up, you know, like a read between the lines moment. So I know a lot of you are not fans of the current EA CEO, Andrew Wilson. You don't like the way that EA bastardizes games and ruins them with their micro-transactions and their stuff, but they don't do that with everything. They also fund games like It Takes Two and such. So they're not, to say EA is all bad would be a misspeak, but to say that they've made a lot of bad decisions and bad choices in development would be pretty spot on, I would say. Well, the former EA CEO, you guys remember him, John Riccatello? You guys remember that guy? A lot of people didn't really seem to like him too much. Well, he is now the CEO of Unity. You know, the popular engine that a lot of indie developers use. I actually used it in school to learn how to program games and stuff. Well, here's the thing. He said something that makes me ashamed to even have thought to become a video game developer. Let's get into this. The article comes right off of IGN and it says, former EA CEO, devs who don't focus on microtransactions are the biggest bleepin' idiots. That being said, they're also, quote unquote, the most beautiful, impure, brilliant people. What the? So let's get into the story. Former EA CEO, John Riccatello, has spoken up about microtransactions in video games, saying what those who avoid implementing monetization early on in the creative process are some of the most beautiful, impure, brilliant people. They are also some of the biggest bleepin' idiots. Riccatello is now CEO of Unity Technologies and he spoke to pocketgamer.biz about this topic following the announcement of Unity and Iron sources upcoming merger. When asked about the pushback that some developers have given regarding the implementing monetization early in the development of the game, Riccatello did not hold back. Ferrari and some of the other high-end car manufacturers still use clay and carving knives, Riccatello said. It's a very small portion of the gaming industry that works that way. And some of these people are my favorite people in the world to fight with. They're the most beautiful and pure, brilliant people. They are also some of the biggest bleepin' idiots. I've been in the gaming industry longer than most anybody, getting to the gray hair and all that. It used to be the case that developers would throw their games over the wall to the publicist and Salesforce with literally no interaction beforehand. That model is baked into the philosophy of a lot of art forms and medium. And it's one I am deeply respectful of. I know their dedication and care. But this industry divides people between those who still hold to that philosophy and those who massively embrace how to figure out what makes a successful project. And I don't know a successful artist anywhere that doesn't care about what their player thinks. This is where this cycle of feedback comes in and they can choose to ignore it. But to choose to not know it at all is not a great call. I've seen great games fail because they turned their compulsion loop in two minutes when it should have been an hour. Sometimes you wouldn't even notice the product difference between a massive success and a tremendous fail. But for this tuning and what it does to the attrition rate, there isn't a developer on the planet that wouldn't want that knowledge. Some developers were upset by Rick and Teller's comments. Last night developer Tim Soar tweeted that he was destroying the unity we all loved. Metal Helsinger developed David Goldfarb called it fairly dramatic shitting of the bed by even by CEO standards. Monetization indicators have been a focus is very important to unity. As it works to say it has democratized creation. That's always a good terminology right there. This mission is part of the reason why unity believes there is a beauty in tools that let people find out that this is how they want to make their livelihood. Looking at iron source, they came with the same idea as unity creates senior vice president and general manager Mark Whitten said. Making feedback and publishing more transparent as opposed to locked in a black box of marketing people. Now creators can look at minute information and monetization and feedback in the same way they would look at load times or where they need to optimize their C sharp code. Micro transactions have been and will continue to be a hot topic for the game industry. And there has been a constant battle between developers and publishers and customers as to what the right way to go about it is. EA in particular has been in the micro transaction hot seat in the past. And one of the most notable incidents was related to the Star Wars Battlefront too. On the surface, I see John's point in saying, hey, we just need better communication based on general marketing teams and our developers on how we want to monetize games. I also think that the fact that he's pointing specifically to remember, remember the specific wording, the specific wording is about micro transactions. Okay, not just, what's it, what's it a successful game and a bad game? Well, a successful game doesn't have to have micro transactions in DLC. I'm sorry. I know this bucks industry trends, but we absolutely do not need micro transactions. We do not need piecemeal games. That's not what we need. And if game developers are thinking about that aspect from the very beginning, then you know what they're thinking about? Profits above quality experiences for the player. Yes, there have been games without micro transactions in DLC that fell on their face. There's also been games, by the way, without micro transactions that have been successful. Hello, we're Nintendo gamers. Mario Odyssey ring the bell. Zero DLC, zero micro transactions, 20 million. You can be successful without focusing on micro transactions and having the leader of one of the largest development engines in the world come out and say, you are an effin idiot if you're not considering this micro transaction BS from day one when you're making your game. Yeah, that's gonna cause ripples. I know developers that make mobile games. They hate it. The only reason they continue to do it is because yeah, they make a lot of money, but developers don't wanna make games that way. So the few developers we have out there that are still making games in the way that's not so reliant on nickel and diamond consumers from the moment they turn the game on. We shouldn't be pushing them and calling them idiots because they're not doing it in the way that generates the billions and billions of dollars of profit that everyone thinks every game needs to make for some reason. There's nothing wrong with making a side profit of a few million, that's good. You're an indie, you release an indie game, you make a million bucks in profit, that's good. You don't need to make all the billions. Make quality games. The other way, I'm not against certain types of micro transactions, I'm not against certain types of DLC, expansion packs. I just, it's frustrating that this guy is pushing this on everybody and this whole public calling people idiots if they don't do it this way. Guess what, you got removed from EA and not even all of EA's games. And EA, there's a lot of crappy things of micro transactions, not even all of EA's games do this. Not every EA published game does this. There's a reason you got booted out. And of course, Unity doesn't care because he must be doing something good for him, I guess. I guess he's probably spearheading this merger and that's probably gonna make Unity billions of dollars in the end. Anyways, that's what we have today. Thank you so much for tuning in. I obviously am interested in your thoughts on all of these stories and what a weird way to end. A little bit of an impassioned rant there. Okay, whatever guys. We'll catch you guys in the next episode of Nintendo Prime. I don't know, this isn't Prime news. This is just a thing, a thing we're doing today. Bye.