 Today we got to talk about another Nintendo Direct rumor and more than that though we have some news on Super Mario Wonder sales data for December, which is actually really really exciting and good news for Nintendo. Oh, Microsoft might be bringing even more games over to Nintendo than we thought, right? We were all talking about the Hi-Fi Rush rumors and stuff like that, well now we have a report that shows that even more could be on its way and we get to talk about the origin of the Pikmin franchise because Miyamoto is out there giving an interview. Also by the way, Miyamoto did talk about retirement and why he's never gonna retire basically, so we're gonna talk about that as well. So much to dive into today, I don't know what we're waiting for right now, let's get that energy going and dive into our first story. It looks like Microsoft might be bringing even more games back from their back catalog to other platforms including PlayStation and Nintendo, at least this is according to a brand new report out of Windows Central, let's get to what they had to say. They say there's no smoke without fire. I will say it has been suggested to me from very trusted, proven sources that Microsoft has been exploring, bringing some of its back catalog to other platforms. Although some of the details remain vague, Microsoft has yet to comment and clarify its position on this stuff. And what they mean by vague is they don't know what IPs or what franchises are coming back as a Nintendo fan. We always think about all those old school retro rare games, maybe like coming over to Nintendo, whether it's NSO or something like that, but that does like open up the door for things like, oh, the Master Chief Collection, things like, I saw that there's a lot of possibilities here. One thing is very clear is there's an ongoing conversation online that Microsoft is tarnishing their brand from, you know, big people who are big into the Xbox ecosystem by bringing their games to other platforms. Meanwhile, people on other platforms was like, I don't know what you're talking about. This seems pretty much what we expected from Microsoft. They're in last place. They're not doing well. Maybe they're shifting things or going to streaming services, yada, yada, yada. So honestly, it kind of seems par for the course. They literally bought Activision Blizzard, but they're keeping things that call a duty multi-platform. I'm just throwing out there that I think Microsoft is in the unique position to be a platform holder that does decide to eventually go third party. This could just be a step towards that. I don't really know. Phil Spencer literally said he wants their games everywhere that gamers exist. So if Phil Spencer is talking like that, why are we surprised they're going to deliver on that, right? They're just doing exactly what they said that we're going to do. So what to wait and see for now. This is still a rumor, but it is one that is gaining new heat and new twists and turns almost every day. One thing I want to let you guys know about is Nintendo's big financial report coming up for the holidays. This is one of their most important reports of the year. I would argue this one and then their end of year report are typically the two biggest financial reports that us as Nintendo fans should pay the most attention to. Now this report is dropping on February 6th and will include updates to sales on big games like Mario Wonder and Tears of the Kingdom. Also we'll get our first look at sales for Super Mario RPG. Now that's really, really enticing and really excited to see how well Nintendo performed in October, November and December. But obviously some people are kind of wondering, well, how's the switch going to look as well? Well, a lot of people are thinking the switch should be close to 140 million, if not slightly above 140 million units, which is just insane to even think about. I mean, gosh, we're not that far away from passing the DS. I mean, that is insane, but we'll have to wait and see. Also we need to see how Nintendo's holiday season performed. Is it below projections? Is it at projections? Is Nintendo still projecting just 15 million, which is quite a lot of Nintendo switches to move in its seventh year to end the fiscal year? Are they going to raise their projections, lower their projections? That's all stuff we'll find out. So they tend to do Nintendo Directs around when these reports are happening, not always. But look, there's kind of a history of February Directs happening right around when they do these things. So if the Directs in February, then this could be a good indicator of expectation of either our Direct that week or the following week. Now speaking about Nintendo Directs, we do have a new rumor for you guys because yesterday I mentioned in the video right towards the end, so you might have missed that Zippo is back. If you remember, we did a report about how Zippo had his blog mysteriously deleted out of nowhere at one point in December and nobody really knew what happened. You know, did the Nintendo ninjas finally get him because he said too much? Did, you know, a hater grab him? Did he close down his blog to create some drama? Well, he came back and he basically stated, I don't know what happened. Nintendo wasn't the ones that did it, at least he doesn't think it was. There was definitely a nefarious actor. He had been talking to Blogspot this whole time to get his blog back. I don't really care about any of that stuff because it's not like we can verify any of it. But what's interesting, of course, is he did throw out a new rumor today. And it's about the Nintendo Direct. And yes, this contradicts the rumor we posted yesterday. It's funny when you have rumors coming from multiple places and they don't agree with each other, are either of them correct? Are both of them wrong? And none of these rumors are coming from people like Nate The Hate. So our more reliable leakers out there. So I guess we're just going to sit here and cover this today. Just to make sure we're fully crossing all of our T's and dotting all of our eyes on the rumor mill. And that is because Zippo said the next Nintendo Direct is happening before the end of this month. In fact, he says this will be the final direct that's dedicated to Nintendo Switch and that there's still some surprises up Nintendo's sleeves. But like, this is it. They want to get this direct out now, which could tell you that, yeah, because they might be announcing a system next month or in March. So they might be focusing on that versus Nintendo Direct. Get the direct done early. Like, it does make some sense from a logical perspective. It also makes sense to just run the directs when they typically do right around their financial briefing in February. I don't really know. It's not like I have any sources on this guy. I've tried to talk to a few people. Nobody I know seems to know when the next direct is. So I'm just going to leave it out there like that. We have Tommy Bear knows yesterday. I know. Play on waddledy knows. John Combs. I know. Anyways, he's saying this thing is happening on February 7th. We have Zippo saying it's happening by the end of January. Both of them could be wrong. So just keep that in the back of your minds. I'm just keeping you up to date on the latest happening in the rumor mail. And now let's get back into the rest of the real news out there. Now, earlier, I mentioned that we need to wait for Nintendo's financial briefing to get an update on sales for games like Mario Wonder. But we do have an idea how well it's performing, at least in one territory. And that is the UK. Christopher Dring ran ahead and put out a report on gameindustry.biz talking about the sales for December in the video game industry. In the United Kingdom. And it turns out that Mario Wonder sold more in December than it did during its launch month in October in the UK, which is awesome. This also coincides with the fact that Nintendo Switch saw a 39 percent sales bump from November heading into December. So 39 percent higher than November, which is really, really good. Now, obviously, December is their big sale season. So it's not shocking the sales are higher in December over November, but it is shocking to see Mario Wonder sell better in December than it did during its actual launch month. So that this is just all indications really good. Mario Wonder is sitting at number four on the charts right behind Hogwarts Legacy. And I've note Hogwarts Legacy had kind of fallen off the charts until the Nintendo Switch version came out. So there's a high likelihood a huge chunk of those Hogwarts Legacy sales also happened on Switch. But hey, I'm just throwing it out there. PlayStation 5 was the number one selling system per usual in the UK. So there you go. That's sort of our big update for sales data. Again, we don't have any real numbers because of just like, you know, the MPD or I guess they don't call it the MPD anymore. Whatever, the Stracana, whatever the heck they call it here in the US. Now, they don't give us real numbers anymore. So it's something to chew on, I suppose. Our last story is just a very, very interesting one. We're going to cover two different stories about Shigeru Miyamoto here. The first one we're going to talk about deals with Pikmin. And this is because for a little while now, Shigeru Miyamoto and, yes, Aitoi, the creator of the Earthbound and Mother series, have been doing an interview series, a very, very long interview series over in Japan. And today we got some word from Miyamoto on the origin of Pikmin and just how much he really enjoys the whole Pikmin characters themselves. There's little flowers running around on your screen when you're playing Pikmin 4 or Pikmin Bloom, etc. So let's get into what Miyamoto had to say during this interview. So Miyamoto said he saw a sketch from one of the designers on the team for the original Pikmin game with leaves attached to the head. And he said, this is it. Then Miyamoto said, it's fun to think about how Pikmin drink water, whether it drinks it through its mouth, its head or its roots. Isn't it nice to have a character that you could talk about things like that? So I thought, OK, this is going to bloom in my head. Now, that's some really fun stuff about Pikmin. Pikmin 4 was utterly amazing. And to me, maybe the second best game Nintendo put out this year. Mario Wonder is way up there as well. But Pikmin 4 is a masterpiece. But here's the thing as awesome as it is to hear about the origins of this. One thing that a lot of us want to know is whether or not Miyamoto is ever going to retire. He's getting way up there in age. And while he seems like a Nintendo lifer, we all know at some point even me at YouTube here, you got to just walk away and enjoy what's left of your life. Or at some point, you simply pass on and hopefully there's a life after the current. So let's dive into what Miyamoto had to say about retirement. More than retiring, I'm thinking about the day I fall over. In this day and age, you have to think about things in a five year time span. So I think about who I can pass things on to in case something does happen. I'm really thankful that there is so much energy around the things that have already gone out into the world. They've been cultivated by others. Other people have been raising them, helping them grow. So in that sense, I don't feel too much ownership over them anymore. Now, later on, he does go on to note things like he doesn't think too much is going to change at Nintendo when he eventually passes away. It's kind of dark at what he's getting to. But that's only because he thinks that things have already passed to other developers and other hands already. And it's been like that for long enough that, you know what? Nothing much is really going to change. In fact, what he's really worried about is if long haul, people will even remember his contributions or if they're just going to be like, hey, the only thing we think about with like the Zelda series is Fuji Bayashi and Aji Onuma, or the only people you think about with Mario is, you know, Takahashi and stuff. So it's very interesting to think about his concern that people might not remember who he is. Also, I think Miyamoto doesn't quite understand the legend he is in this industry and how much he means to the whole of gaming. I'm pretty sure Shigeru Miyamoto's name is going to be honored among gaming enthusiasts for decades, hundreds of years, thousands of years. I'm pretty sure his his entire legacy is pretty cemented. But I get it as you get older and you get towards the end. Sometimes you wonder, hey, well, I don't ever plan to retire and I'm trying to put some things in place in case I fall over, which that's sad to think about. It is still something where it Nintendo's in good hands. I think it's just what he's trying to reiterate. Hey, I don't know if I'm even going to be remembered, but Nintendo's in good hands. But I'd like to be remembered while Shigeru Miyamoto, I could tell you right now, at least for the rest of my life here at Nintendo Prime, you'll always be remembered. Just like we talk about Satsura Owada, the late Satsura Owada in very, very fond terms, we're always going to remember you, Shigeru Miyamoto. And that's going to do it for today's episode of Prime News. I hope you really enjoyed it. We didn't go and inject a bunch of comedy in like we have in the past. I really just wanted to straight line get to the news and get that stuff out to you guys. I hope that you had a really good time and you you felt some of the passion and the energy in it all. And if you didn't, I'm sorry, man, it's the first Prime News of the year. Give me a break. All right, guys, we'll get you in the next video.