 Hey everyone we're gonna have to talk about something that's really weird and Shady and I just don't like it. All right. We are or I am a you know influencer as they say I am a content creator and I Like getting content before the public can because then I can take a look at it I could potentially review it if I decided to review something or at least feature something if I think it's really really cool And yes, I actually do get stuff once in a while in fact in 2020 I seem to be getting stuff a little bit more often. I usually don't get anything but indie games early But just in the last month. I got you know roller coaster tycoon Three for the switch sent to me. This is a loot box thing the actual game was just a code I haven't really done any content around this yet, but maybe I will I actually I actually do really enjoy the game I at least want to live-stream it and then just yesterday. I got this giant box of goodness here For Bakudan champions. I didn't even know this was coming. I don't even know how they have my shipping address Maybe the maybe it's the same company that's a As roller coaster tycoon, maybe that's why it happened way forward spin mastered Warner Brothers I don't really know much about my Bakudan So I apologize for that But it's just gonna go to see if there's anything in the information on your book who who made that Anyways, you'll see You'll see that you know they sent the game and they sent a whole bunch of Bakudan related things I don't really know much about Bakudan My kids will really enjoy this stuff. I don't know a whole bunch of stuff I'm sure it's like a hundred plus bucks worth of stuff in here. I have no idea. I am not a Bakudan fan But the point is that I get review stuff. I'm not trying to flex or anything I I do these are the biggest review things I've gotten so far I don't get stuff from Nintendo anymore when I worked at Zelda Informer I used to get Nintendo games like the Zelda games, but I as Nintendo Prime. I haven't gotten anything from Nintendo or Really any major company beyond indie studios until these two arrivals in the last month now Here's my thing about These things when you get them they often have embargoes they have NDA's so there are certain days You can say certain things and right now as the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 I've both had their embargoes lifted and we're getting reviews today PlayStation 5 yesterday Xbox Series X slash s What's interesting is obviously the getting the personal opinions on these platforms and Nintendo Switch had the same thing going on back in 2017 when people would get it early and you know got to say things about it now according to a youtuber named last gamer He was one person that was in contact with Nintendo. He's a bigger YouTube channel me hundred thousand plus subscribers He got he gets consoles early all the time. He was in contact with Nintendo about getting the switch early He claims that Nintendo Was gonna put stipulations on him and apparently these stipulations must exist with all the other reviewers out there All the other unboxers or whatever because the stipulations included Hey, you know, we'll give you one if you're going to say friendly things about it In fact, not only do you have to say nice things about the switch here are bullet pointless things We want you to talk about how nice the box and packaging is how cute The game cartridges are and small and compact like basically a bullet point of things they want you to say making you essentially a marketing arm for the company and This is a little shady because it doesn't get true opinions out there In fact, here is the clip from his last video talking about this and then when I read the embargo I have to talk favorably about the switch I have to talk about how the box looks awesome and compact There was so much there that there's no room for my opinion and I did not like this when I questioned Nintendo They said don't worry. We're not sending a switch now. So I went down another avenue My contact in Japan in the meantime I saw a lot of unboxing videos on YouTube and it made me cringe because all I could see was Nintendo's words It's Now pretty much every youtuber who got a switch uploaded their video on the 23rd of February right now Look how small this is. That's great packaging. It's really good packaging. I want to Sweet beautiful switch Look how cute this little tiny cartridge is because everything's so small. It is certainly the games are small Don't you like to packaging is as sleek as your console? But the switch is never going back in there. It feels pretty solid It's nice substantial feels. Yes, how this sort of stands up to some abuse. I mean it feels robust, right? Yeah, I mean, this is so I Just I can't say enough how beautiful this is it's so sleek, right? It's so sleek. It's like It's a little it's like the size of an SD card look how small that is Everything is small with this machine as you can see I'm not okay with that Nintendo was using the will give you a switch early stipulation to get positive feedback instead of honest feedback put on to consumers and When he tried to give honest feedback Nintendo took down his videos He went through the process of context he had in Japan and Australia to get the console about a week early And Nintendo basically took out all of his videos even though he got the console through fairly legit means so I To me it's it's frustrating thinking back to the launch of switch and as much as I love the platform to see that Nintendo was not being honest when they sent these things out to some fairly major influencers and But the influencers were okay agreeing to these you know Stipulations that you need to talk positively about something in order to get it See, I got the Bakuden game and the roller coaster tycoon game without any stipulations put on what I can say They talk about certain things like you know if I was gonna make a review I was gonna do preview content, you know, you can only stream X amount of footage Oh X amount hours of footage or you could only show the game up to a certain point or talk about a game up to A certain point but they never tell you what you have to say, you know, they'll they'll mention some marketing points But you don't have to say any of it. You can say whatever you want I have never been offered anything from Nintendo included where I couldn't give honest opinions But it appears a switch Nintendo was like yeah, we'll send it out early to you if if you'll tell the company line And I I think this is a very crappy practice one that I think we're well aware happens by the way We know influencers are constantly getting products that They are being told to talk glowingly of but there's a difference between say oh a sponsorship and You know being honest like if Nintendo wants to contact me and they be like look Nate We know you're a huge Zelda fan. We know you have a huge Zelda following You know we want to send you a copy of Breath of the Wild to collector's edition or whatever the case might be and we want you to talk glowingly about the game Which I probably would anyways But we want you to talk glowingly about the game and mention this and that I will I'd respond to the Nintendo I would say that's fine, but that that would be a sponsored video that would not be an honest opinion I would need a note to the fans in the title and to you guys on camera This is a sponsored by Nintendo video to showcase Breath of the Wild 2 This is not an honest opinion on the game This is a sponsored video where I am showing you what Nintendo is allowing me to show you see that is fine If Nintendo wants to contact me and and and pay me to basically commercialize their stuff Okay That's okay. That's a sponsor. That's what sponsors are for you know When you watch like a line detective video is like well check out our sponsor or when you see like the mr. Bees check out our sponsor honey like of course he's gonna say nothing But good things because that's what a sponsorship is for you are paid a paycheck to say nice things That's fine What I don't like is if you're gonna be like hey, we'll send you this system early So you can review it and and check it out and do this But in this video in this video in this video you need to say these things and you can only talk positively Tell us right now if you're gonna talk negatively If you are we're not gonna send you the system and the thing is for an honest review You can't honestly tell Nintendo if you're gonna say anything negative because you have to have it in your hand You have to be able to review it You know the joy con issues and the floppiness in the dock and like you know How the people that were breaking the locks in their joy cons like all that stuff is honest reviews that you know Didn't really exist at that time It was a lot of unboxings and glowing praise for the compact size and the cute cartridges And how great it feels in the hands, which maybe it doesn't feel great in the hands But it's not like you could say that or Nintendo won't send you a switch now obviously once you got to launch day You know the the cover can come off and you could say whatever you want But you know if you've already put out a bunch of positive videos without being able to be honest Yeah, you know the damage has already been done They were already pre-ordered and made purchasing decisions based off of your Suggestions now. Yes, some people might put hashtag sponsor Some people might put hashtag ad but most people didn't you know, I just eat and others I I'm not harping on these people. I enjoy their content But we all know that they accept things that they are expected to talk glowingly of and the thing is They might have talked glowingly of it anyways And it might be an honest to goodness opinion, but you can't trust it Because we now know that Nintendo sent out switches without or with stipulations that you needed to be positive I know this happens. We all know this happens I wasn't aware it was happening with Nintendo because as I said, I've gotten Nintendo review copies before in the past Maybe that's why I don't get them now But yeah, like there was no stipulation that you had to be positive about the game Even if it's highly likely a channel like me Nintendo prime would probably talk positively about hey a Nintendo game You want to send me age or calamity early? Hi chance. I'm going to talk really good about it But I'm not going to know this, you know let things certain things go. I will explore the frame rate I will explore a lot of different things I honestly am a little Miffed I suppose is how to do a little miffed at why things are this way Uh and I know that for these companies, they're just trying to get all the positive press they can social media These influencers myself included are this new avenue of advertising. That's different than tv We we realize when we watch commercials on tv. It's an ad we know when we see, you know Mountain dew on a billboard in the NBA game. We know that's an ad But when people watch these influencers, sometimes it's not like so sure what what is an ad and what isn't What is sponsored content and what's the truth because even if you do, you know Even if your video on youtube is listed as a sponsored video There's an option you're supposed to select when you have a sponsor or a paid promotion in your video Even when you have that listed on your video The viewer might not know if the paid promotion is the product you're talking about Is it something you mentioned like, you know, hey, you can get our merchandise And you know like what part of it is the paid promotion at It's not always super obvious and not everyone notices that little warning in the corner It says paid promotion again I'm not faulting the content creators so much because hey, we're all trying to make a living If this is what you have to accept to to get a product early I get it But honestly if nintendo had offered me a switch early But they said the stipulation is you have to talk lowingly you have to talk about our bullet points You can't talk about the things that you don't like about the system That's not good That's not something that I think I would accept or maybe I would accept it And then just not conform to it and then nintendo would never talk to me again I don't know Um, uh, nintendo after making it clear to the nintendo this guy did that. He's not going to do that They stopped talking to him. So All right This is just not okay And I would never accept anything like this It has like that bakuden game that just showed up out of nowhere Yeah in in the little letter they said, oh, you know, we're going to give you details on how Do you can handle coverage, you know later in an email? Well, the game's already out So they can't tell me how to cover the game anymore I wasn't even planning to cover the game. Maybe that's why they sent it to me. They're like, hey We have this extra press kit. We never sent out. Let's send it to those nintendo prime guy Maybe he'll mention in a video got mentioned in this video. Maybe we'll do some gameplay But I don't know anything about bakuden, but I Like isn't an anime No, I think about I don't I don't I literally have never heard of bakuden Beyond an ad or like a toy at walmart or something. So I don't know anything My children probably know I should probably ask them. Um, and I guess it has good reviews I I don't I don't actually know it the game came out what three days ago. It's a full $60 game So i'm hoping that it's not like garbage, but I again, I don't know I haven't played it. Maybe maybe we'll try it out on the live stream later. I just I get increasingly frustrated when this happens I wanted to make you guys aware of this happen and as much as I love nintendo I I want you guys to know that nintendo participated in this practice This isn't to make nintendo look bad or or say they're a crappy company because so many companies Do this. I don't think it's necessarily You know makes the company overall a piece of crap, but whatever marketing people were in control at the time I don't think Anyone should be that way. You should always be so confident in the product You're putting out there that if you're going to send review copies that you think you're going to get praised anyways If you're not confident enough in the switch at launch that you think people are going to praise it Then don't send out review units. I guess which also is a bad look, but hey, you know I I believe in In companies not telling you what to say about a product that is a key thing with your audience unless it's an ad All right, I end with a normal chance from the nintendo prime. Thanks for tuning in and I'll catch you in the next video