 Look, I think it's fair to say that we should be expecting some rather big announcements from Nintendo pretty soon, whether it is a Nintendo Direct or a Mini or a partner showcase, or maybe it's just the Nintendo Switch 2, whether it's this month, next month, whenever. The point is that Nintendo has had a fairly slow start to 2024, and that's actually pretty normal. In fact, outside of usually having a big game to be hyped about heading into 2024, Nintendo usually around this time is when they start to give us the goods. And look, with how successful this company is and the platform and everything, it makes a lot of sense that we're going to hear something soon, and we have a lot of indications that Nintendo is planning to give us some big news. But one thing I want to make clear as we talk about Nintendo Direct and Switch 2 and all the debate and drama, and to be fair it's really not that much drama, around when these things are going to happen or if they're going to happen and what's going to be included and what these things are going to be and is Nintendo even going to release a new device in 2024, at least we're not Xbox. And that's because there's some big news going on with Xbox. I want to bring into this because I feel like it adds perspective to these conversations and how they're really fun and important and we should be talking about it and I'm going to provide you some evidence, a quote unquote evidence, it's not proof, it's just evidence that Nintendo is going to be doing something. But what I want to talk about first up is Xbox and we got like this tweet from Jez Corden who is somebody who massively covers Xbox saying, hey, if you're a DM and me, sorry, I can't reply to everyone right now, there's too much. Xbox has no plans to quit hardware. Satya, who is like one of the head people at Xbox said at the quarterly meetings called Xbox console users are record high, yes, heard some games are going multi-platform, response in my opinion is part to the Steam Deck and PlayStation. Okay, cool. What's he even talking about? Well, if we head on over here, we see even more. The next Halo title might get released on all platforms, suggests a new job listing. Oh, we're not done. What about this post here? Tim is here that call a duty might not be coming to Game Pass. Yada, yada, yada, all of this stuff. Third party, third party, third party. We're not done. We have special Nick. That's right. The same guy who said he heard about it in Nintendo Direct this week, but he's really too into with Xbox said, Hey, you know, there's this report from Xbox era that Starfield could be coming to PlayStation five and he said sadly, Starfield isn't where the plans and reckon you'll be able to see Hellblade two as well. And then Andy Robinson comes out here. You guys know Andy Robinson, video game chronicle. I don't find the surprising Xbox is going to put more games on PlayStation five, given its strategy. It's always felt like this is something of an inevitability in the future. Blah, blah, blah. What's going on? Yeah, it looks like Xbox is not entirely just flipping a switch and going third party, but transitioning to being a third party company. And that is causing a lot of drama and risks within the Xbox gamer community. Where's the value in owning an Xbox Series S or X anymore? Is it literally just game pass? And does game pass matter as much when it's also on PC? So you could just go play these games on PC. So is that even a value to own an Xbox system? Will there be future Xbox systems beyond this year? So much drama going on. And it's honestly one of the biggest pieces of news in a long time. Since Xbox really came into the market. Get to remember, this is the big three, right? PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo. And one of them might just be dipping out of that direct competition and just going to third party. We've already heard how this might affect Nintendo with games like High-Fi Rush, you know, other things, other like CFE's could end up coming to switch or switch to and hey, what about that rare replay? We all want that to come to Nintendo, right? So there's just a lot to consider and think about and obviously how many of Xbox's games will end up on Nintendo Switch too. So I feel like this just puts in perspective that whatever we talk about today, there's a lot bigger stuff happening in this industry. And honestly, whatever complaints you might have about us talking about Nintendo Directs and Switch 2s, it really pales in comparison to what other communities are going through right now. As someone who plays on Xbox, man, this is kind of weird. But as someone who also enjoys games on PlayStation and Nintendo, it's like, oh, hey, we're going to get Xbox games. That seems pretty cool. And nothing's actually been announced or confirmed. It's just such a widespread story at this point. I'd be shocking if they weren't going third party. That being said, let's get into a few things because there's a lot of reasons that we should expect something to happen soon with Nintendo. And look, chief among them obviously is the timing, right? Right about this time of year, this week or next week is really when Nintendo does Nintendo Directs. Now, there is, you know, if you want to pay attention to the number one leaker in Nintendo right now, we could go ahead and look over at Pioro here, who was asked directly, saying, hey, question still stands. Do you know anything about a direct and Pioro said on February 2nd? Nope. And this does have people doubting that our direct is even going to come at all. But there's other insiders saying otherwise. As an example, if we head on over here to Necro Philippe, he says, you know, it's not about a direct. I saw Pioro said he didn't know about the presentation. This does not prevent it from existing and happening this month, which is what will happen. So he's saying we're getting a direct. The timing is unknown. I don't know why he's got some bold letters there. You guys can take your bets on that. But he does say my bet is February 14th. So I find that to be interesting. Just kind of glance at what he also said here. Unfortunately, I don't have anything concrete about a direct. Just breathe and enjoy your carnival holiday. And he's out in Brazil, so they were celebrating some holidays. And look, that's just one insider saying that there's going to be some stuff, but then we also have people like Nate, the hate coming out. Nate, the hates had some really interesting things said. So he's got a podcast coming out this week, right? His Nintendo podcast, which is going to be a predictions for all of 2024. And they were said, Hey, I hope you're doing well. What's the next podcast? You can say next week. And then this guy says before or after the direct. And he says it'll be before any February direct, which suggests he knows there's a February direct coming. So he said it'll be a predictions episode. Then he mentioned it's going to be mostly focused on switch to et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, rather than a direct predictions episode. But we're not done there because you know what, I said this stuff. It's really interesting. So special Nick, as we know, said he heard. I've reported on this last week that he heard a direct was coming this week. Nate, the hate being asked about it. Hey, a new Nintendo direct February 7th. And he said not to my knowledge, which again, kind of fits in with what Necro Libre said. Nobody seems to know the timing of this direct. Pioro hasn't heard anything about a direct. Nate, the hate acting like he's heard about a direct, but he doesn't know anything really to directly. And if you want to say, oh, there's no hope them for a direct this week. Well, Nate, he does note that his, you know, thing would come out either Tuesday or Wednesday morning. Both of those times would likely be before a Nintendo direct would even happen. Let's say the direct happens on Wednesday a little bit later in the morning or the afternoon or a direct happens on Thursday. His podcast would be up before then. So it's kind of interesting just to think about and obviously next week could be a direct as well. So we have to keep that in mind as well. When it comes to Nintendo directs next week is just as likely as this week. Now, here is some fascinating news about why we should expect some sort of big announcement. So first, the Zelda, the Zelda, the Zelda. There's just a lot of Zelda stuff happening. Sure, we have a chic amiibo restock and we have a wolf link amiibo restock. And traditionally in the past amiibo restocks have been somewhat related to some sort of related announcement. And this even proved true last year, even though the related announcement was something Smash Bros related and we were hoping it was something else. Is there another Smash Bros announcement coming specific with Zelda spirits or something? I don't know, maybe. But what I do think is interesting is when you combine that with the fact that we have an announced Zelda concert from Nintendo happening in the morning coming up here on this Friday. So we have that happening. Viz Media, by the way, announcing a box set for Twilight Princess manga as well. You'll be able to pre-order soon. It comes with a nice double-sided poster releasing that later this fall. Throw all that together and you kind of have this super mix of Zelda that makes you feel like Nintendo may have something Zelda related to announce soon. Now, they don't need to do it in a direct way. That's why I'm saying, hey, Nintendo's got some sort of big announcements. And then, you know, kind of the fly on the wall. Nintendo switched to obviously there's been a lot of rumors and speculation about a March reveal and this was getting all the way back to the Gamescom stuff. When Nintendo supposedly had behind closed doors demos for certain developers, which Nintendo never really directly refuted that they had the demos. They refuted that the actual hardware was at Gamescom, which is not what was said. It was said to be a PC running target specs, which is not the actual hardware. So really fascinating how Nintendo denied something that wasn't even being reported. It's whatever. You know, Nintendo's got to kind of like wave a flag. They're trying to do something when they're really not doing much of anything when it comes to denying stuff. Nintendo has a long history of doing things exactly like that. The point is, obviously, you guys know that on Friday, I sort of stirred the pot a little bit myself with my own source saying that I heard that, you know, some upper GameStop management had heard about a Nintendo Switch 2 and to, you know, start thinking about pre-orders and all of that. Again, I don't work at GameStop. I don't really know how it works. I worked at GameStop way back in the day, but I was never a I was basically just your everyday employee, right? I just worked register and stock shelves and all that stuff and got yelled at about not pushing used games enough and whatever. I wasn't a manager, so I don't know how all that works. I obviously I've had access to their SKU system when I was younger. But this is a long time ago, and this person that was my source has been really right on a lot of GameStop stuff over the years that we've reported on. So I have no reason to doubt them, but obviously just some upper management may be hearing about something doesn't guarantee a reveal this week, doesn't guarantee a reveal this month. So there's still just stuff floating out there for Switch 2. And a lot of it's just hope, dreams and the fact that Nintendo is also going to have some news pop it off literally in less than 24 hours. Nintendo is going to be making their big financial briefing. We're going to go over their third quarter results, which is important because that's their holiday season. And there's some reports other analysts are expecting a 13% rise in revenue while also predicting a decline in sales kind of interesting. But Nintendo has multiple revenue sources now that even as Switch declines and software sales decline, that doesn't mean that they see an increased revenue from like things like, hey, the Mario movie was on Netflix. That is obviously a money exchange deal. Nintendo probably made some money off of that. You obviously have the theme park revenue as well. So Nintendo has other revenues and including mobile. They were actually predicting a doubling in revenue from mobile apps. So I find that to be fascinating as well. And if that happens, that also helps offset any profit or revenue loss from lack of Switch and, you know, software and hardware sales because they do think those are going to decline. So Nintendo has just done a really good job diversifying where they get all their money from. And yeah, even though it might show a decline in stuff which it should show a decline because it's been showing a decline for three straight years. Yeah, this is pretty much exactly what people expected. So I'm just going to sit here and I said three straight years. I should say two straight years. 2020 was obviously not a decline. Anyways, I just want to point out that I honestly think that there is something big coming from Nintendo. Look, we have obviously the Metroid Prime 4 stuff floating out there. We've seen the hiring posts. We've seen the rumors. We've seen the evidence that like maybe it's been in QA testing since March of 2023. Can't forget about Metroid Prime 4. Kind of seems like that might be revealed pretty soon. Almost like it's inevitable that we're at least going to see it in 2024. Obviously, we don't know when Nintendo's release plans are for games. But seeing it in 2024 seems like a very plausible thing. We just had the Metroid Prime remastered last year. Metroid Dread before that. So they're keeping Metroid in our minds. And then because we had Metroid Prime 1 come, we were kind of thinking we might get Metroid Prime 2 and 3. So I think this is one of those cases where Nintendo has been clearing things out. They've been putting things out on Twitter. I don't know if there's going to be a direct, I don't know when the Switch 2 will be revealed. I don't know how Nintendo's going to handle that reveal. Will they do a teaser first for the bigger event later? Will they just give us a pre-announcement on a massive big event? Will they just literally just drop the damn thing on Twitter one day and say, here's our next generation of Nintendo. And maybe just not make a huge deal. I have no idea. What I do know is something's happening soon. I highly doubt Nintendo's going to head into the spring and summer months with us basically not knowing anything going on to be excited for from the company. It just doesn't seem like Nintendo to do that. And they didn't do that the entire Switch generation. So it'd be very weird if they did that now and said, nope, you're going to have to wait till June before you finally can get excited for Nintendo again. I just don't think they want to be that irrelevant over the next six months. Well, Xbox just had an event. Sony just had an event. Now we might get this news that Xbox is going third party. Meanwhile, Nintendo just going to sit there and twirl all their thumbs. No, Nintendo's obviously going to have their own announcements as well. And so it feels like it's almost upon us whether it's a direct, whether it's Switch 2 or Metroid Prime or Zelda or Mario or Pokemon, right? We have Pokemon Day coming up. So look, I feel like Nintendo's about to, what does it say? Open the curtains and just reveal all of their, maybe not all of their plans for 2024, but a nice roadmap of plans for 2024 that's going to end up making a lot of people excited. And it just feels like it's coming soon. You guys might not agree. Maybe you disagree. That's okay. Lots of opinions here. I want to hear your opinions and all this down in the comments below. And yes, folks, I will catch many of you guys tonight on our live stream. We'll be talking a lot more about this Xbox situation because it's completely wild to think one of the big three might be leaving the dedicated gaming console space. That's just wild to me to even think about in terms of hardware. And yeah, we'll probably end up talking more about what's to come for Nintendo because that's what this channel is about, right? And I was hoping to have some actual news today, but all Nintendo's doing is continuing to market Mario versus Donkey Kong, which makes sense because that's their next big release. Thank you guys so much for tuning in and I'll catch you in the next video.