 Hey everyone, welcome back to Nintendo Prime. I'm not really around. I'm still at a hotel here for our final day of our vacation, so sorry if the audio's not great. I have no idea. I'm recording it with my phone, but I had to make this video because we have some interesting things happening in the world of Nintendo, especially when it comes to that direct, right? We were supposed to get a direct at some point in June, and then we got one, right? We got the Xenobite Chronicles 3 Direct, which was absolutely incredible. I somehow live streamed in the middle of the ocean to you guys that direct, but what's interesting though is that despite that, all the people that said we were gonna get a direct on the 29th are still saying we're going to get a direct on the 29th. So a lot of peers, you know, Nate Drake, Nate The Hate, and obviously, you know, well, maybe not obviously, because actually one person is backtracking, that person being Tom Henderson, who wrote an article for Video Game Chronicles, saying that his sources told him that there would be a direct, and then I don't know, about 13 hours ago or so at the time of recording, on Twitter he responded to someone and said, are we sure there's a direct on the 29th? I'm hearing there's something then just not a direct at the moment, which is weird that he's basically just about facing on his own sources, supposedly, when he was claiming that he knew that there was gonna be a direct, and I was like, ah, you know what? Maybe not, there's just gonna be something, which we already know what something is gonna be on the 29th. We know that Nintendo has their financial briefing that day. So we already know there's gonna be Nintendo news that day. Anyways, I already am aware that I have to wake up in the middle of the night to get a video out for you guys, and all of that stuff, but whatever. We do that once every three months or so. We know how that goes. That's just Nintendo's financial briefing. We update on the Switch sales and how well Switch games are selling, updated projections, and all that stuff. But what I find interesting is some stuff that Nathan Hades said, because a lot of peers are saying, hey, that Xenoblade Direct had nothing to do with what I heard, that Nathan Hades has been doubling down that there's gonna be something. Now, he's gone on the record to say, he doesn't know if it's gonna be a general direct, and I wanna be clear. He never said it would be a general direct. He doesn't know if it'll be a general direct, a partner direct, or any sort of other possible direct. Maybe an internal direct mini. He does say, hey, you always lean towards general direct until somebody says otherwise. But right now, he just says, hey, it's a direct in some form, but we actually know some news that's gonna end up dropping, at least if you're gonna believe Nathan Hades here. We know some news that's gonna be dropping next week with or without a direct, which I find to be really, really fascinating, and that's what something I wanna talk about today. Before we get into this though, I gotta remind you, hey, we're on our road to 80,000 subscribers. When we get to 80,000 subscribers, we're giving away literally a full-sized replica of the Breath of the Wild Master Sword. We're giving away a replica Hylian Shield and a replica Deku Shield. I don't know if you're not a Zelda fan. Maybe that's not exciting to you, but I don't know, I'm a big Zelda guy, so it felt appropriate that, hey, for a major milestone, we do something like that. Well, I've even crazier giveaways at 90,000 and 100K, 100K is gonna be a really special occasion that I'm, we'll see. I have no idea when that's gonna happen. I don't presume we're ever gonna get there. Maybe we can get to 80. Let's just work on the little goals first, right? So, this I actually got over from on Twitter. It comes from Leonardo Werner, who added Nate The Hate 2 and says, "'Does your upcoming prediction video,' because he has a podcast he does and stuff, discuss whether or not you and modern vintage gamer think a Switch Pro announcement is in this direct. And Nate The Hate responds and says, "'We do not discuss hardware outside of the Streamlabs question that's specifically asked about the Switch DLSS hardware.' And then, Lozwell responds and says, "'Do you have an opinion on this?' And then quotes Tom Henderson, talking about how there's probably not a direct next week. And Nate The Hate says, "'There's a direct next week.'" Again, not specifying general, many partner, et cetera. On June 28th slash June 29th, the timing may depend on your region. So that's obviously an interesting update because it was like the 29th before and I was 28, 29th, which I feel like that makes a lot of sense. It will be the 29th, probably in, say, Japan, but maybe the 28th here. 28th lands on a Tuesday in the United States. That's a typical Nintendo direct day. So that could actually line up really nice and happen before the investor's meeting. Lozwell then responds and says, "'Thanks, Nate. I hope you're right.' You're welcome, by the way. I know you're not talking about me. Nintendo's silence makes me nervous. I just want a Band-Aid of three date. Nothing more, nothing else. People out there screaming Breath of the Wild 2 and Metroid Prime 4. I would just settle with Band-Aid of three. I think I'm not being too demanding.'" Nate the hate responds and says, "'Not sure if next week is the right timing for that type of announcement, but we can hope.'" Then Lozwell responds and says, "'If it's a general direct, those kinds of announcements would be logical, right? I mean Band-Aid of three, Mario plus Rabbids two, needs new trailers and dates." And here is the fun bit. Nate the hate says, the latter will get updates on next week. The former, I'm unsure if we see it in the direct. If the game remains on track for 2022, then expecting an update soon is indeed logical. So in case you missed it there, he just said, "'We're getting Mario plus Rabbids two, sparks of hope, news next week.'" I can already see Eric at his parents' house jumping for joy because it is literally his most anticipated game besides Lozwell too. In fact, you probably won't even know about this news until I post the video. So that's some pretty big stuff to be going over here. And I honestly am, I guess, a little bit surprised. We had rumors in the past that maybe Mario plus Rabbids sparks of hope was delayed. Then we heard from our developers, like, oh, things are going fine, but developers don't get to really decide if and when games come out. And obviously, on the point of the entire direct, Nate The Hate and Alana Pierce have been the two people at the forefront of what's happening on June 29th or 28th, 29th, depending on time zones. Alana Pierce is always traveling everywhere. So like, time zones can mess with things a little bit on the exact date of 28th or 29th. But I do find it to be really, really interesting that we got a Xenoblade direct. And I talked about this during the Xenoblade direct actually when after I was reacting to it, I said, you know, I don't know that a Xenoblade direct necessarily means we can't get another Nintendo direct this month because, hey, Xenoblade, last time they put it in a general direct took up like 15, 20 minutes. And it was sort of a complaint a lot of people had about that direct was, man, you know, we're spending a long time on one game going really deep into it in an event that's supposed to have a whole bunch of games. It was like half the direct was dedicated to it. So instead of going that route doing a dedicated Xenoblade direct made sense to sort of get it out of the way before you talk about anything else because Xenoblade Chronicles 3 comes out next month, July 29th, really, really exciting. I can't wait for that game, but that's the end of next month. We still have obviously Fire Emblem Warriors 3 hopes that actually dropped today, by the way. And if you use, well, if you live in the United States and you use our affiliate link down below, I would really, really appreciate that. You can buy it digitally or physically in the United States from Best Buy. And believe it or not, this is the crazy thing. 25.7% of your sale will go to support the channel. Like that is one of the highest percentages I've ever seen a big shout out to Best Buy and our affiliate link company for allowing that to happen. But, and I guess if we sell like 10 copies, they'll do it again for Xenoblade 3 and then do it again for Splatoon 3. So, that's, wow, I don't know, and I'm just full of sculpture. I'll probably use the affiliate code myself just to get Yulia her copy of the game. But look, studying all that aside, I do think we are gonna get a general direct next week or many, I think one of the two. A partner showcase is in the end of the world. We have had some good announcements in partner showcases to give just an example of like partner directs and what we've gotten out of them because people always get over to partner directs is not as exciting. Hey, we did get the cadence of Hyrule DLC announcement in one, we had Shimagami Tensei 3, HD remaster announced, we've had a new SMT-5 trailer drop. We've had Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory announced, we had Monster Hunter Rise announced, Monster Hunter Stories 2 announced in that, a Hades Shadow drop and Ori and the Will, the Whisper Switch review. We've had a new Bravely Default 2 trailer drop and No More Heroes 3 trailer. So, partner directs do tend to still have some really, really big things in them. And a partner direct could be something that could have, say, Mario plus Rabbids Sparks of Hope because they are a partner. And by the way, they also had a Age of Calamity trailer and demo shadow drop for a partner direct. So, partner directs aren't necessarily a bad thing. Obviously, a lot of us prefer the general directs because it means we know for sure we're getting a bunch of updates on first party stuff from Nintendo. And to be fair, they ban it a three. You can argue that could be in a partner direct, right? Like it's made by a partner, but Nintendo owns the game, or the rights to the publishing of the game. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what the direct's gonna be. You know, and hey, it's not claiming that he knows what the direct's gonna be. He just know there is definitively a direct next week. So, call it a rumor, call it what you will, a leak, speculation, whatever. It's from a trusted Nintendo insider. And I'm just excited. I mean, the fact that he, at least is stating a singular game in Mario Plus Rabbids, Sparks of Hope, that we are getting news next week. That, to me, is exciting. When I hear news, I'm hearing release date, I'm hearing trailer, I'm hearing new information, new screenshots, I'm, oh boy. Sparks of Hope is a, they might be one of Eric's most anticipated games, but it's also one of mine because I actually beat the original Mario Plus Rabbids. And let me just say, XCOM style Mario and Rabbids games. They do it for me, man. They do it for me. All right, guys. I'm Nathan Neuroflageance from Nintendo Prime. I wanna thank you so much for tuning in. And hey, we'll be back in the studio probably tomorrow afternoon, evening-ish. So, we'll see you guys then. Otherwise, have a good rest of your day.