 Hey everyone, welcome back to Nintendo Prime. I am Nathaniel Ruffeljantz and hey folks, we've been talking about this direct now all month long and it's finally been announced and confirmed by Nintendo themselves, Nintendo America, Nintendo UK, and Nintendo Japan. Doesn't matter, it was announced worldwide. We are going to get a Nintendo direct mini partner showcase, which is basically what we've now known for the last 48 hours, according to insiders and leakers. And remember, everyone say insiders are full of shit and none of this matters. Hey, guess what? They were right again. So, yes, we are getting the Nintendo direct mini partner showcase. It is happening tomorrow at six a.m. Pacific time, which is very early. Like literally that's eight a.m. central for me, nine a.m. central for the East Coast, but obviously this time zone works a lot better for certain other territories around the world. It is going to be 25 minutes long. And this is important because, hey, I went back and rewatched all of the former partner showcases today back in 2020 because we haven't had one since 2020. And I come to realize something. This is probably gonna be a pretty good show. Now, the whole of the internet disagrees. In fact, when you type in Nintendo direct right now or type in partner showcase on YouTube, you're gonna see a bunch of negative reactions or at least negative thumbnails and negative stuff. If you go to the post on Twitter, it's gonna be full of a bunch of negativity. I am kind of interested in some of this negativity because the negativity to me, it feels a little bit misplaced. And I think it's just based on the premise of everybody wanted something else and they're not happy with this, even though this isn't like 2020 and we actually do know about games still coming this year. In fact, we just had a direct last week on a game coming next month. So this doesn't to me give me the same vibes as 2020. This just gives me the same vibes of, hey, there's no E3 this year. So there's no general direct and Nintendo staying consistent with that. They gave us a Xenoblade direct and then they're giving us this partner showcase. Now, I'm gonna explain why I'm excited for this partner showcase in a moment, but first I wanna address some of the negativity around this and before I do that, I wanna remind you that, hey, if you enjoyed this video, drop a like, hit the subscribe button. We are on our road to 80,000 subscribers. When we get there, we will be giving away a replica steel bladed master sword from Breath of the Wild, along with a replica Hylian Shield and a replica Deku Shield as well. We're not starting that giveaway until we hit 80,000 or if we hit 80,000. I guess I shouldn't be so presumptuous, but hey, we are growing subscribers at least. So who knows? Now let's get into the negativity around this. A lot of people are negative right now because they wanted a general direct. I understand. Nintendo said a general style direct or E3 presentation every single June for like the last 27 years besides 2020, the beginning of the pandemic. So I understand the expectation for this year. We did get one last year when there was a digital show and we've been saying this whole time that Nintendo themselves with the whole directing sorta set themselves up to not need E3, right? Like E3 not being here shouldn't prevent the show from happening. Like 2020, Nintendo didn't have a ton of games coming out because of the pandemic. So hey, I guess we could sort of understand why they skipped it like so many others did. But it felt weird this year when they actually have quite a few games coming from Xenoblade to Splatoon 3, Bayonetta 3, Mario plus rabbit sparks at Hope, Oh and Breath of the Wild 2 next year. These are just known quantities that we would not get some sort of general direct possibly even announcing some of the rumored games out there like a new Fire Emblem game suppose of these in the works. A new Donkey Kong, maybe the GBA and Game Boy coming to NSO which by the way they usually announce that stuff in September anyways. But I find this to be really fascinating that they didn't do a general direct this month but also I'm not really disappointed. Think about what I just said still to come from now through spring of next year is Live Alive, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Splatoon 3, Bayonetta 3, The Threes, we all know all about that right? Mario plus rabbit sparks at Hope, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Breath of the Wild 2. From now through spring of next year we already have a really really great slate of games. Now you might argue where's the big platform or where's our Mario, where's our Donkey Kong? I understand maybe if you're not a platformer if you're not a JRPG fan, if you're not a Zelda fan you're not a Pokemon fan. Maybe things are a little bit dry for you and a little bit disappointing but what I see here is a wide swath of various content coming quote unquote exclusively to Switch. Obviously we know you can emulate it on PC but in terms of being an official release exclusively on Switch. And I find this to be really fascinating that we are looking at that lineup and thinking man, Nintendo needs more. Let's think about that. July, August, September, October, November. The next five months, here's what we're getting. Live Alive, Xenobrid Chronicles 3. We are getting Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. We're getting Splatoon 3 and likely one of if not both a Bayonetta 3 and Mario Plus Rabbit Sparks of Hope in the next five months. That's six exclusive games dropping on Nintendo Switch in the next five months. And even if you want to discount Live Alive, fine. I think that's doing that game with disservice but it is technically a remake remaster or whatever. Fine, that's still five games in the next five months. Five games in the next five months. What are we worried about? We don't really need a general direct until September. We would like a general direct. We would like to see more Breath of Wild 2. We'd like to see what's happening with Mario, Donkey Kong, Fire Emblem, all that. We would like to see them but if these games aren't really till 2023 why do we need to see them now? Or do we need the next Mario Kart 8? Deluxe DLC put in a general direct or can they just drop it on Twitter? Like do we actually need a general direct now? And I would argue unlike in 2020 when we just didn't know what was coming, right? Twitter drop of Paper Mario then we had Age of Calamity stuff announced at a partner showcase. We didn't really know what was happening in 2020 at this point. We're in 2022 and we already know five major games coming the rest of this year. We also know a game that's going to be kicking off the first half of next year in Breath of the Wild 2. We know quite a bit right now to the point that Nintendo can sort of get away with not highlighting their own stuff in the moment and here's the thing. So, Nate Drake said, we were getting this Nintendo Direct Mini partner showcase two days ago, right? That's fine. That's what he would call it. It's cool. He also were getting Mario Plus Driver's Parks of Hope News this week. Seems like a great time to drop it in a partner showcase because you know what else they've dropped in partner showcases in the past? Shimigami Tensei 5. Cadence of Hyrule DLC that is. They've also dropped numerous other things that Nintendo's been involved in in some way from a publishing perspective. The point is Ubisoft would be a partner, a third-party partner. That means Mario Plus Driver's Parks of Hope, Platinum Games and Sega, third-party partners. That means Bayonetta 3. We're likely going to get the release dates and much more information on Sparks of Hope and Bayonetta 3 tomorrow in a partner showcase. We're probably also going to see more. We're probably going to see some stuff from Persona. We just had three Persona games going to Xbox. Now finally blasting the door wide open on getting Persona off of Sony. And yeah, I expect to see some Persona announcements for Nintendo Switch. Don't be surprised that we see other announcements from other major third-party companies as well. We've got 25 minutes. This is not like your little 18-minute showcase that we had back in 2020. This is a 25-minute showcase. They're going to have quite a bit to show and I think it's going to end up being really, really exciting. I mean, honestly, they could make this a Nintendo Direct. Assuming Sparks of Hope and Bayonetta 3 are in this, they could have made this a Nintendo Direct by just including Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and putting eight minutes of that in there instead of doing its own Direct. Imagine that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was part of this and they just call this a General Direct. Would you feel better? Would that make you feel better about this General Direct if it was just what they're probably going to show tomorrow and then eight to 10 more minutes, getting the 35 minutes long of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and that's what they end the show with because it's a first party game. Would that make you feel better? Because in totality, we had 20 minutes of Xenoblade Chronicles 3. We're now about to have 25 minutes of third party games including likely Bayonetta 3 and Sparks of Hope. I don't know what there is to be disappointed in. Is it because you want Nintendo to announce all their stuff right now? I know, as a Nintendo fan, I like knowing everything that's coming in the next two years. I like the roadmap. There's part of me that likes what Sony does and telling you what to expect over the next handful of years, right? We know about Spoken later this year. Obviously we're supposed to get God of War this year. Don't know if that's gonna still happen but we're supposed to get it. We know about other games coming as well, Final Fantasy XVI, et cetera, down the road. We know about a slated games coming there. We also know about a slated games coming to Xbox and I think maybe that's what has people a little bit on edge as well. Xbox might not have a ton of stuff coming this year. We know about a ton of 2023 content and we don't for Nintendo because we already know about a ton of content coming this year. It's interesting when some of the reactions I've seen out there is that Nintendo's 2022 isn't very good and I keep looking at them and I wonder where were you in 2018? 2018 had a pretty light lineup. The first half of 2019 had a pretty light lineup. 2020 had the worst lineup to date and we're talking about 2022 as if it's just a slouch of a year. Do we forget what we've already gotten this year? Pokemon Legends Arceus. To date my favorite Pokemon game and the sales are showing, hey, I'm not the only one that thinks that with that game, right? We're also ending the year by the way with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. So two major Pokemon games in a year never have happened before in the history of Nintendo. Have we gotten two major games like that in this span of 12 months? Potentially three if you wanna go up Brilliant Diamond, Shiny Pearl if it lands within the same 12 month timeframe. That's insane. That's never happened in the history of Pokemon. Oh, and by the way, Kirby and the Forgotten Land. That's literally like the best Kirby game I've ever played. I don't know about you guys but I thought it was really good. We ended up with Nintendo Switch Sports already. These are, well, I'll put one finger down for Scarlet and Violet now, yeah. So Nintendo Switch Sports, right? You know, pretty solid game. We ended up with Mario Striker's Battle League. I'll admit the online leagues are pretty fun. I still think it's lacking content and I don't know why Nintendo can't just hit out of the park with their sports games but it is a game that came out, right? We got that. Oh, by the way, we also, right now, what is it? June? Oh, by the way, our fifth exclusive of the year is dropped in Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes. So think about this. We've had five exclusives dropped so far and we have five more coming this year. That's 10 exclusive games. How much more do we expect Nintendo to do in a single year? Can you tell me? What do we have to tell about? How much more can we expect? How much more? That's what I wanna know. How much more could we realistically expect from Nintendo in 2022? Do you want them to just blow their load and have nothing for next year? Would you like a really dry 2023 besides Breath of the Wild 2? I understand that we went through a couple of dry spells and there's clearly more games in the works. I'm assuming the next Mario Kart is in the works. I'm sure the next Fire Emblem is in the works. I'm sure the next Mario game is in the works. There might be a DK game. We know Metroid Prime 4 is in the works as well. We know that Nintendo clearly has their teams working on new games but we don't need everything this year and we already got 10, 11 if you count live, alive. Exclusive games coming home, by the way, I didn't even mention Triangle Strategy. We had Triangle Strategy this year, that's 12. That's an average of an exclusive game per month. Is Sony doing that? Is Xbox doing that? No, in fact, combining Sony and Xbox together, Nintendo still has more exclusives coming this year. Let that sink in. We're saying this is a week year and a year where there's 12 Nintendo Switch exclusive games dropping, 12. That's a week year, sign me up every year for a year like this. Sign me up every year, three of those games are gonna guarantee sell over 10 million. Pokemon Legends Arceus already has, right? That's already happened. Splatoon 3 is going to do it and we know Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's gonna do it. That's three 10 plus million sellers dropping this year. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will likely be the best selling game in the entire franchise this year as well. Kirby already is the best selling game in the Kirby franchise. What more could we want? We could be selfish and argue, well, Breath of the Wild 2 was still this year, then it'd be an even better year. Sure it would be, but does it need to be for it still to be a really damn good year? This is the best year we've had since what, the second half of 2019? And I'd venture 12 exclusives is better than the second half of 2019. Do we really think a new Luigi's Mansion is in the works after Luigi's Mansion 3 blew up? Clearly there are games in the works. Why do we have to have everything now? We are in the sixth year of Nintendo Switching within that sixth year. We're going to have 10 exclusive games drop. It's never happened in the history of Nintendo platforms. Whether it was 3DS, DS, we, NES, heck, let's just throw the Switch in there. Let's throw everything together. In the sixth year of a platform, Nintendo's never had a lineup like this. And we have the audacity to complain because we're getting a Nintendo Direct Mini partner showcase. Did we not get a full general direct back in February? They're clearly not done with general directs. Did we not get full general directs last year? You really think we're not going to get another full general direct later this year? In fact, you could argue that direct that's likely happening in September is going to end up being bigger than any other September direct because they're going to get the table for 2023. Breath of the Wild 2 blow up potentially. Maybe our first look at Metroid Prime 4 if they think it's going to come next year. I'm just saying, I too want a general direct. I want every direct to be a general direct. Oh, you're giving me the indie world? That's cool, give me a general direct right after. Let's go indie world, general direct followed with another indie world, I'm cool with that. Like same day, let's go. Let's E3 the hell out of this and just drop all the news in one day. Let's do an eight hour Nintendo 3.0 stream, let's go. That's what I want. That's not what we're getting. And the more I thought about it over the last couple of days is I started to come to an acceptance that this wouldn't be a general direct and now that we know for sure it's not. It's that I'm actually already happy with what's coming to Switch. I don't need to know anything else yet because everything else we're going to find out is going to be 2023 and beyond. Now, you could argue, yeah, we want Zelda remakes. We want Twilight Princess, the Winmaker HD dropped. It could still drop that news in July. They could still drop that news in August. Who knows? Like those could still come out and they could still do them via Twitter or social media drops pushing Skyward Sword and Directs clearly didn't help the Skyward Sword sales. I don't think they need a Direct to push out those games. Just a personal opinion. They were able to sell Paper Mario and other stuff without needing to push them in Direct. So I think we could still get announcements like that outside of a Direct. But I don't know. I kind of get the feeling that if you were to throw in the Xenoblade stuff in with this, this would have been a General Direct. And people would have been perfectly happy with Bayonetta 3, Sparks of Hope, and Xenoblade 3 being the three highlight games. But they separated Xenoblade out so it didn't take up 20 minutes. And I'm cool with that. So I don't know. I'm kind of left sitting here like, you know what? I'm cool. I'm good. I'm good. Like, I always want more, but I'm not going to forget to be appreciative of what we already know and what we already have coming. And a lot of the games coming I'm obviously excited for. So that helps as well, right? Sparks of Hope, super excited. Bayonetta 3, super excited. Xenoblade 3, Splatoon 3, even Pokemon Scarlet and Violin. I'm not even a big Pokemon fan. I'm kind of excited for those games too. Like, I'm really happy with the slate of games coming. So I don't know, man. I think hyping responsibly has probably never been more important than it is now. The moment that E3 was canceled, hyping responsibly should have been a thing. We sell t-shirts with it on. If you guys don't care to buy it, no one has to buy our merch, but yeah, man. That's all I got for you for now. We are looking to obviously throw together a more general Prime News episode later today. I'll get my hair all done up and it'll be hopefully audio sounding good, by the way. We're having a little issues with the audio equipment since the flooding. I'm really hoping that we didn't fry something which we might have. And if that's the case, I gotta deal with that, which I really don't want to, so. All right guys, thank you so much for tuning in. I'll catch you in the next video.