 Hey everyone, welcome back to Nintendo Prime and we've got quite the video for you today. We've got three big stories, stuff, new news about Splatoon 3, the next game coming to Nintendo Switch online for the N64. Oh, and by the way, Activision Blizzard did something positive and it feels almost foreign to say this and we cannot claim that Microsoft can take credit for this. Now, before we dive into this, and this is the first time you've ever seen a Nintendo Prime video, I would appreciate it if you would subscribe to the channel, drop a like, all that jazz. Also by the way, this video is sponsored by Into the AM. Into the AM makes premium shirts. You can get just standard blank shirts, which is actually a sale right now on their basic t-shirts for 30% off. You can also get an additional 10% off using the code Nintendo Prime 10. Also the shirt I'm wearing right here is one of their brand new printed tees as well if you would like to check those out. There is a link down in the description or go to Into the AM.com slash Nintendo Prime 10 to get your 10% off discount and thank you once again for sponsoring this video. So our first story deals with a massively positive story coming out of Activision Blizzard and this one actually really surprised me for a number of reasons and the primary one being that we're hearing about this news from journalists directly on Twitter. So here's a tweet by Jason Schreyer earlier today and he says, new Activision Blizzard just told staff that all 1100 quality assurance of QA testers will be converted from contract to full-time employees. So no longer, hey, you only worked for us for a few months, no, now you're just full-time employees and they're going to have a bump up to at least $20 an hour. Obviously some might make more, but that's going to be the lowest paid QA tester will not make less than $20 per hour. This is a big win for QA in the wake of several worker revolts and the burgeoning union effort and he's obviously going to have a story out soon if he doesn't all ready on this. And someone tried to, you know, say, hey, did Microsoft have any influence on this and Microsoft is legally not allowed to have anything to do with the company until the acquisition goes through. So this is really interesting on a number of reasons. One, it's groundbreaking for a major Western studio to actually take their QA testers and make them full-time employees, which means full-time benefits. And obviously, you know, includes things now like better pay $20 an hour is definitely quality pay for QA work, especially if you just got into the quality assurance ring. Yes, there has been, you know, pressure from unions and you could talk about how maybe the union pressure from the employees and obviously all of the walkouts and everything over all of the controversy surrounding at Division Blizzard might have influenced their decision to do this. But this was not really the expected outcome of any of it because most companies only do contract employees. This includes EA, even Nintendo will just do contracted QA testers that are just there temporarily. And this is a very forward thinking move on at Division Blizzard. Now, you could argue that maybe they're just looking for some positive PR because there's been a lot of negative PR around at Division Blizzard. And I'm really glad that people aren't bringing up Bobby Kotzic's name too much in any of this because he's obviously implicated in a lot of the bad things that have happened at Activision Blizzard. But this is still good for those 1100 QA testers and really a good gold standard to set for the industry and other companies can maybe look at this and go, hey, maybe we should do this because their QA testers could walk out as well demanding. Hey, why are we getting at least $20 an hour? In fact, some QA testers are getting paid as low as $10 or less per hour in some territories in some states at some companies, which is absolutely insane. I can speak as someone personally on this, I'm not going to name the companies, but I actually used to do a little bit of QA testing back in the day for a couple of games. And I can tell you right now, we were not treated very well. You did not get benefits. It was a contract only position. You were paid very close to minimum wage and you really only took the job because, hey, you're just that interested in video games and you want to help make them better. And this felt like your way to get in the door and in the industry. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of progression from QA testers into upper level positions or trying to move on into a full-time position. But this is very good. Obviously speaking as someone who used to be one to see QA testers rise up to this level, I'm very, very happy that this has happened for those employees. I do think that, you know, I'm not going to not talk about this just because it's a positive story about Activision Blizzard. I think when we're talking about video game news and being hyper critical of companies, whether it has to do with Crunch or whether it has to do with workplace environment and all the lawsuits happening with Activision Blizzard, that we're also fair to cover some of the positive stories. This doesn't mean that you need to like Activision Blizzard, but this does mean they actually did a good thing here on behalf of employees that they technically did not have to do. Now, let's get into our second story. And this is because Nintendo has announced Mario Golf 64 is coming to Nintendo Switch online, in particular the expansion pack. Obviously that's how you get N64 games on April 15th. So what is that? A week, a week or so away, eight days away. So that's really incredible. Next week, Friday going to be a great add to the Nintendo Switch library, to the Nintendo Switch, you know, in general, this is a good game. This is obviously better than the shadow dropping they did for Super Nintendo and NES games that they did, you know, just last month. So whatever. Hey, at least they gave us some warning. They're being pretty consistent with this one game per month mantra. And you know what? I don't know if this is enough still to justify Nintendo Switch online to you. But I know I have yet to load the N64 app. So maybe am I alone in that? I don't know. You guys let me know your feelings on Nintendo Switch online down below. Now, our last story actually deals with Splatoon 3, because the Japanese Splatoon 3 website has gone up in now public and there's brand new screenshots and things. So we're going to explore that site together. One thing to note about this is, yes, this does pretty much confirm Splatoon 3 is not delayed and going to be landing this summer. There have been some people out there kind of coming at me and saying, Nate, why are we talking about Splatoon 3? But now, Breath of the Wild 2, guys, if you fell for Switch forces, April Fool's joke, you have no one to blame but yourself. Always check the calendar around this time of year. If it's May 31st or April 1st or even April 2nd, and you see a new story out there, need to be skeptical. Switch force, love you, Zach. I didn't like that you put a fake story in the midst of real stories. I guess maybe that was your point, but that's a personal gripe. All right, let's get into Splatoon 3. So this is the Japanese website. Obviously, we see the trailer from the direct that we've seen before. So these trailers are all things that we've seen. That's nothing new. But then we get into some of the screenshots here. And I got to say, looking good. I mean, what's up with this robot style? Look, hip, hop, dark thing. I'm liking that. It's a darker skin there. We got, you know, this is all looking really good. I mean, look at the shine. This seems like such a dumb thing to get excited about. But look at the shine on this knee. I don't know why that excites me, but for some reason, I could just tell that there's just this extra quality to the visuals in this game. Next up, we see, you know, a little tribe last from the bow here. Looking really good and smooth on some nice motion blur behind. Next up, we have this image here. I don't know if, you know, it looks like they're riding this. So I don't know if this is one of the new abilities that you can get in the game with certain weapons, or if this is an enemy, or is this like a mode in the game? I don't know, because clearly there's handles. But this is really, really cool. I really like that. Here we see, you know, fully inked up. Are these, what is this? Is this a new mode in the game? I'm not seeing any weapons. Are these enemies? I don't know, but it's looking pretty cool. I really, I really like that. Here you see just a nice little look at some familiar faces. That's always, that's always really good there. Again, looking better than ever. Just like this guy here, I mean, look at, look at the details. This was probably all in game. So that's looking, again, better than ever. Then I'll poofed up. I find this, I always, I find this image to be quite funny. I was looking at it a bit earlier today. Then you see this screenshot here. Again, looks like, you know, pre-starting right before a match. Everyone's getting ready to jump out. Looking, looking like a lot of fun. This is, you know, that mode that they showed off earlier. Again, look at the shine. And I've just, I'm telling you, this is a significant visual upgrade over Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 1. And, you know, there's one of the bosses and that is it for the new screenshot. This is the latest series between three of them released in summer. Again, this just went up today. Really, there's no delay in this game. I won't be surprised if the game's already done and being printed right now. Action shooting by Mysterious Wids, who transformed into human figures, has been enhanced. Divide to four on four teams. Stage is chaotic. City, you know. Bunkara Town. This is obviously a Google translation. Don't, don't take this stuff literally. Hero mode to challenge alone. A one person mode that depicts the fierce battle between skids and octopus. The theme of this work is the return of mammals. What does the word mean in the world where mammals are said to have disappeared except for two cats? So mammals might be coming back besides the cats, huh? How about that? Cooperation with Salmon Run. Oh man, people are gonna butcher me. Salmon Run, okay. I know you don't pronounce the L. Come on, be nice to me. But yeah, I'm really excited about this. I do think that this is one of my most anticipated games and probably the one that I'm gonna log the most hours in this year. I could easily see me dropping 50 to 100 hours into this game, just through the live streams, let alone playing on my own. Because Latune is just such a fun pick up and play game, get a quick match in, you know, play for hours on end. If you want to play the single player, if you want, or just, you know, play a match here or there. And it's just a ton of fun. And, you know, this is just a reminder. If you guys want to end up playing with me, we only allow our patrons at Patreon.com. Session 10 or Prime or our YouTube members by hitting the join button on our channel to do that. Because otherwise, there's just too many people making requests. But yeah, we're gonna be playing lots and lots of this later this summer. All right, folks. I'm Nathan DeRuble, Jance from Nintendo Prime. Thanks so much for tuning in. Remember to check out IntoTheAM.com and see if there's any shirts you're liking 30% off sale. I'm basic playing Call of Duty right now. You get an extra 10% off with code Nintendo Prime 10. Thank you again to Into the AM for sponsoring this video. I'll catch you guys in the next one.