What’s up, guys? Welcome back to Newsweave. Yesterday, we did have we’re going to start today with Hogwarts Legacy on the Switch 2. As it appears, there’s another game now using DLSS. This we can see posted up. This is over on VGC. They’re citing for Gamer. Now, Sega is publishing the game in Japan. And we had some more information come out through them when it comes to the resolution, which says the game will render at 1440p resolution while it’s docked. And then in handheld mode, it’ll be using the screen’s full 1080p resolution. And both modes will be supporting HDR. this through the DLSS upscaling technique which we’ve heard about it with something like Cyberpunk 2077. So now here it is present with Hogwarts Legacy. Now they also say it will have improved lighting, shadow quality, anti-aliasing and much more significantly upgraded graphics for a deeper immersive experience. I think the big part of it though is that they’re removing any any situations where I had to break up the world and have a load screen. For example, going into like the larger town there, they went ahead and just got rid of that completely. So, it’s all seamless whether you’re getting on the broom and flying around or running around on on just the ground itself. So, it it b it essentially has it now like how we’ve had it with the the other systems. The Switch version was quite compromised. Here it looks like a lot of that’s just been fixed for the Switch 2. How many people are going to go back and play it after it’s been out for a while? I mean, it’s it’s going to be there for the early days of the of this new system. So, I’m sure it’ll pick up some sales there, but I’ve already played through it. I’m kind of looking forward to apparently the next game they’re going to do and what’s becoming I guess a series for them. But still good to hear that the Switch 2 is handling the game really really well and it’s another game using DLSS. Also, here’s an interesting thing to keep an eye on with Donkey Kong Bonanza that is coming out in July, the month after the Switch 2, as it appears maybe there is some form of multiplayer in the game. Take a look at this. This is posted up over on Nintendo Life as they do have screenshots of exactly how Don Kong Bonanza is presented over on Nintendo’s website where it is placed alongside of other titles in the multiplayer category that being like Mario Party Jamre, Mario Party World. This was noticed by user on famboards. And then on top of that, it just says in terms of number of players for the game, TBD are to be determined. So, this of course has people speculating on maybe there is something similar to Mario Odyssey since a lot of people look at this as, oh, this is part of the Mario Odyssey team that was working on this and maybe they had the idea of, hey, with that you can have a second player use a Joy-Con to control Cappy. Maybe there’s something similar here with Donkey Kong Bonanza. I I think that’d be a lot of fun because while it wasn’t like a full-fledged co-op mode where Mario and Luigi are running around in Mario Odyssey, it was still a nice little thing to have there just for people to either help you in the game or just completely troll you and mess around with Mario as he’s trying to run around, do all kinds of platforming. So, I guess keep an eye out for this one as I’m sure Nintendo will share more details, especially as we get past the Switch to launch and start to roll towards its release. Oh, and we did get a release date for Gex Trilogy along with a bunch of different editions you can spend uh hundreds of dollars on if you want. This though we could see this is over Gamatsu. They say Gex Trilogy will launch digitally PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, and PC through Steam on June 16th. Now, the different editions, they have just the standard one. They have what they call the classic edition all the way up to something called the Tailtime Edition that has a 36 in inflatable Gex doll. does have like a seveninch GEX statue, but I mean an entire inflatable there that comes with it. That version is $200. But I mean, at that point, you’ve already made the decision. You’re going all in with the the Gex trilogy there. I do like the the classic edition has that play that original PlayStation box art setup there with the limited run text on the side. That that’s a nice nod to the the old school releases. Uh but overall, I mean, I’ll probably just play the the the regular edition when that comes out in June. I’m not like the biggest Gex person, but it was a franchise that was very much present growing up, especially with the original PlayStation. So, I mean, I’ll I’ll check it out again next month when it releases and see just how well it’s actually held up. And guys, with some of the quick news out of the way, let’s get into the bigger stuff. Let’s start right away with Nintendo’s recent fiscal quarter report. This does span technically the entire year, but since we’ve gone over every quarter basically as it’s happened, we’ll just focus in on this most recent quarter that would have been January, February, and March. As expected, kind of a quieter quarter since they’ve already announced the Switch 2. All the focus is on this new system. And I’m sure most people rather than buying getting into the Switch now are probably thinking, I’ll use that money instead with a little more on top of course to get the Switch 2 when it comes out in June. So, they didn’t necessarily have the best overall report. In fact, a lot of their their major numbers were down double digits. However, you can see over on their website, they are now reporting that the Switch has sold 152.12 million units. That means this past quarter was 1.26 million. So again, down quite a bit from the last year, then the year before that, as you expect for a system that is uh completed eight years on the market. It’s actually pretty impressive that it’s even still selling that at this point. But again, gross revenue, profit, all that down double digits. So, it seems as we expect Nintendo is full speed ahead on the Switch 2 when it releases uh in less than a month now. But from there, they did have a bunch of highlights they wanted to point out. I also will point out myself, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is is coming up on that 70 million copies sold. I I think it’s going to get there. Even with the Switch 2 out, it’s just it’s Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It just keeps selling. Basically, as Nintendo keeps supplying, it keeps selling. And I’m sure people some people may pick it up to play it on the Switch, too. Hey, we you never know. Anyway, some of the game highlights Nintendo specifically pointed out next to some of their other next to some of their other documents and stuff here. Super Mario Party Jambbury 7.48 million. Echoes of Wisdom 4.09 million and Switch Sports at 3.16 million. They also mentioned that they’re 128 million annual players right now that they have. So, at least their their overall user number went down like a million or so. And okay, holding steady there at 128 million. Many people, as you can see, are just engaged with Nintendo and this ecosystem that they formed and are now continuing on from the Switch to the Switch 2. The big thing people were curious about because we are now in the fiscal year for the Switch 2’s release. We do need their forecast exactly how many Switch systems they believe they can sell by the end of this fiscal year that we’re in. And of course, that one March 31st, 2026. Nintendo is saying they will move 15 million Switch 2 systems. And in fact, with the Switch One, they’re looking to sell 4.5 million, which technically speaking, all the way around with their Switch family, quote unquote, is 19.5 million systems. Now, the 15 million is technically under what analysts were believing Nintendo would be shooting for, which is actually closer to 17 million systems by the end of the fiscal year. Keep in mind, this isn’t the first overall year of sales. This will be the first 10 months because I mean I mean June through the end of March 2026, you are leaving out then two months that don’t necessarily align completely with their fiscal year release. So you have to tack on the next two months and that’ll give you your your first year sales. Who knows if Nintendo will give us that exactly. I’m sure people will be trying to track it like VG Charts and and other publications and stuff. So, it’ll be kind of strange there, but at the very least, we’ll find out how it did in its first uh 14 months or so, as Nintendo will be updating their website as they go along. And I have to imagine, as I said, this is uh bit less than analysts were thinking. And even for Nintendo, I feel like they could sell more if they’re able to produce them or if they were certain of just everything going on around them. And I think that is the big holdup for them currently is they’re going to be very conservative about this number. 15 million is about where the Switch was around that same time. So, they’re not selling less than the current Switch when it first came out, but it’s about the same. Although, technically, they’re selling a system that costs more and the games cost more and everything about this costs more than than the Switch One. So, if you just align it completely, then technically it’s going to be shooting for just more overall revenue. But, I’m sure inflation, exchange rates, all this stuff kind of muddies the waters for them. especially that word tariff which seems to be something that they definitely have at the forefront of their planning right now just based on what some of the investors were saying which uh we’ll talk about that actually a bit over the weekend with some of the questions Nintendo fielded but for now we’ll see how they do with their launch again coming up here in less than a month. Next up let’s talk about Mafia the Old Country. Now, at PAX East, they did have what looked like a panel and presentation. And as part of that, we did get the the full gameplay reveal trailer as well as the release date and a price point that uh I I hope to see a lot more actually as we go along. First though, we can see some of the trailer here. Some of the things to point out. I did notice at least the gameplay trailer, it’s titled whatever it takes. But while the visuals look very good, I didn’t really see much of a HUD during the gameplay at all. And look, they may just be hiding the HUD just to give it a better look, say in this trailer for the the presentation and the cutaway shots and stuff. I don’t mind though if there’s no HUD. You know, I I think sometimes the the H like the screen space gets kind of busy with all these things they’re throwing at you, all this information. This actually looks really really good without too much on screen at all. And you know, it did look a bit more like an adventure game. Some were saying Uncharted like even. And I I will say at times it it didn’t look like a mafia. what I would expect a Mafia game to be. I mean, the last one I played that I that I remember was the the remake that they did for the first one that felt very much like a Mafia game. Still though, I’m I’m interested here. It’s not open world. It’s more a linear narrative driven game. So, while it looked like there were towns and set pieces, I think it’s going to be a situation where they kind of funnel you through the game. But get this, it’s a $50 title. So, let’s say, all right, it’s a 10-hour experience, high quality experience, and it gets you from point A to point B in the story, and maybe you beat it over a course of several days. All right, I I still think the $50 price point is something with even larger franchises, we’ll say, like these, that’s leveraged more and more for releases that don’t take forever to make and then cost a ton of money. The game is coming out August 8th, though. So, again, towards the fall. We’re a few months out, what, three months away from its release. And I’ll be on this day one because from what they were showing, I think it looks awesome. I like the idea of not having to go from big expansive open world that takes you 60 hours, big open world that takes another 70 hours, here comes an 8 hour one. I don’t mind sitting down and going, “Hey, okay, this is a 10-hour experience and it’s it’s focused. It’s not like here’s an open world, go find your own fun.” I don’t mind if they want to make what kind of boils down to more of a blockbuster film, but in game form with gameplay and everything, but it’s it’s uh it’s something that doesn’t feel like it’s wasting your time. I don’t mind having those dropped in alongside of the big open world titles because if I have to go from open world to open world to open world and they’re all 50hour plus games, that will get exhausting and fatigue will set in. So, I like something like this to mix it up and I hope more and more companies and big publishers look towards this example and try it a bit more even with some of the big franchises maybe with spin-offs or even just full-on releases. Next up, let’s talk about well actually a a big expansive openw world game that I am looking forward to and that’s Death Stranding 2. I like the first Death Stranding. I know it was a controversial game on release. Even still now people look at and go I I don’t get it. It’s and I will say it is kind of hard to describe, but it is such a unique and interesting experience that it uh even if you don’t like it at first, it it can kind of grow on you as you go along. The story itself is very cojima, very all over the place, very confusing at times, but when you do get it, it’s like, okay, I see the aha moments here. Uh, and it it definitely all clicks into place at that time. But we did have previews go live yesterday and Cojima apparently let people play like half the game. Some were saying they played up to 30 hours and there was a ton of information flying all over the place around this game. I will also link here to Shinobi who did a very good job. I mean so many bullet points here of all the information um with this game. I picked out a few and then you can also see just the Death Stranding 2 trailer here just to kind of refresh your memory on it. Um, but as the media was able to play 20 to 30 hours of it, it does take place 11 months after the first game. And the setting here, Mexico and Australia, which seemed to surprise a lot of the people who are playing it that, oh wow, we’re going okay, we’re going to Australia for this. Now, the player gets in the game play much faster to start the game. That some people of course looked at and said the first game took a bit to get going. All right, in this case, it gets you there much much faster. You’re in the action right away. And even some of the previous gameplay mechanics seem to have evolved more and that’s sort of the the focus here. It’s still delivering. Okay. So, yes, you’re still the the quot the the UPS delivery person or whatever. But again, that’s the thing. The concept sounds so basic and so mundane, but the rest of it isn’t that surrounds it. It’s again hard to describe. The combat here though is a bigger part. So, if you’re someone who’s hoping to have more action scenes and and parts of it, that is here apparently quite a bit. The dynamic weather that they have, it means you’re going to be facing extreme conditions. So, storms, earthquakes, avalanches, which we did see an avalanche uh in the trailer, and it the game looks incredible. Like, a lot of people were say, “Hey, this looks awesome on apparently the base PS5 is what they were playing this thing on.” The Strand system, of course, is still in place here. asynchronous online almost co-op style where you’re helping people that will come before you or after you um where you can drop likes for people who have stuff there for you or you could say leave a ladder for someone who’s going to play the game next week even so I think all of that is really cool of course with death stranding but this just likes co looks like cojima taking everything there to the next level and some are wondering if this game is a 65 to 70 hour experience but again I’m here for it I’m very excited to see what Kojima has come up with for Death Stringing 2. I didn’t really want to look too much at the previews because I like I’m already sold on the game and I don’t want to spoil much about it because again the first first Death Stranding has some scenes that really sneak up on you. Just just just going over certain parts, say big mountains and stuff and seeing what’s it it really does hit you when you’re playing dark room, quiet, the the the music just slowly fading in. There’s a lot there. Um, but for this we do also have a Dual Sense controller that they have specifically for it. I think it looks pretty good. PlayStation blog had an image here for it. It’s like this matte black with a nice orange accents around it with some of the images. Now, it is a Dual Sense controller price at $85, but the pre-orders are live May 22nd and it launches June 26th alongside of the game. So, I’ll be there to at least pick up the game. I don’t know if I need another Dual Sense controller. I think I’m I’m good on that one. But still, I’m really excited to see what Kojima has in store for everyone here, especially when you hear things like, “Oh, it’s kind of like the jump from Metal Gear Solid 1 to Metal Gear Solid 2,” which was it was quite the leap. So, yeah, we we’ll see what he has up his sleeve for Death Stranding 2 on June 26th. And in our last bit of news, let’s actually talk about something that was making the rounds very recently with the Gamecube on the Xbox Series systems. This technically isn’t new in the sense that at one point you could go on the Xbox storefront, download emulators, and use your Xbox Series X or S to play a wide range of retro titles. And yes, that does include the GameCube. However, it started to make the rounds online again in different news cycles, mostly because of this tweet here. And this message is from Retro Achievements just telling everyone joining the RetroArchch and the Xbox Series X or XBSX2 emulators. You can now play GameCube on the Xbox Series consoles through Dolphin with retro achievements. So the idea here is Dolphin had been moved to the Xbox series. So people of course start searching around how do I load up Dolphin on my Xbox? And the the caveat at the bottom, the little fine print is that you do still need to be in developer mode. Okay, so MEG does have a video that really went over this in depth using even the Xbox Series S and shows how capable it is as an emulator. And as I mentioned before, I mean, Microsoft had to deal with this because it was just on the storefront. people were posting links that would then get you to it through the like the Internet Explore the Edge browser there and it was a way to be able to load it up and just have it there on the retail side, but then Microsoft had to go through and disable it, which I I assume they were running into some legal ramifications or at least legal concerns with different partners. And I’m not just talking about Nintendo. I mean, PlayStation games were running on the thing. Third-party titles were running on it. And we see the the big renaissance now of all of these older titles coming up through PlayStation Plus and NSO with their their N64 and soon to be Gamecube titles. So, I feel like there was just pressure on Microsoft’s end. And even so, we’ve seen Valve go, you know, we don’t really want Dolphin on Steam either. So, it’s it it’s something kind of to avoid because the payoff just is not worth it at all. But, it was awesome to have all that stuff there. Still though, if you’re curious, you can do it. It’s just not as easy as hitting a few buttons in retail mode and downloading it. You got to do some leg work and get into developer mode. Again, check out MVG. He went over a lot of this stuff in previous videos. And before we go to the comments of the day, we’ll take a look at the poll that I posted up yesterday. We’re ask, are you picking up Death Straining 2? Okay. Well, 58% aren’t interested. But you know what? That’s not bad. Death Strraing one, like I said, very controversial title. So to see that it’s almost almost half and half there. Not bad. 30% say maybe later if there’s a sale. Makes sense. It is a $70 game. I understand many people are like, you know what, I’ll Games drop in price all the time. I’ll wait. 12% are getting it ASAP. This is a game I don’t want to be spoiled on nothing. So, I’ll be I’ll be buying it right away. I know there’s an early access period and I don’t It’s like two days. I don’t think I’m going to get spoiled in two days, but I also understand it would technically give me a head start on the game for the the podcast, any videos I may want to make on it. But I the two-day early access thing is kind of throwing me off for it. So, you know, we’ll see. At the very least, I’ll pick it up on release and probably binging through that game as fast as possible. And then we’ll finish up with the comments of the day. We’ll start with the members comment here. This is from It’s Orno, who says, “Trails in the Sky first chapter is indeed a remake of the first game. This is the perfect time to get into the series. It has the deepest lore and characters of any RPG series. I’ve yet to play. Give it a try. It will hook you.” There you go. All right. All right, I guess I’ll be picking up the this Trails game here, the first. So, I figured that’s what it was. That was the idea. There have been so many. In fact, I saw a comment that said, “Yeah, I’ll play I was going to play that, but there’s another Trails game coming out around then.” And it’s like, “How do I have time for two of them when I’ve already played that one?” Because it’s a remake of the first one. So, yeah, that’s definitely for people trying to get into the franchise or the series for the first time. There you go. Pick up this remake. It has the has first in it, so it makes sense. I’ll grab it though when it comes out later on this fall. And then we’ll go over to the comment of the day as you’re seeing here. This is from VSON who says, “Why trade in the Switch? Just keep it. It’s probably the last generation of decent physical games.” Well, I mean, technically, yes, because we have the Game Key stuff happening now. Who knows with the PS6, and I have to assume that Microsoft is like out on physical games just about now, but with the next Xbox, sure, absolutely. Still, it’s always been a thing. a new generation comes up, you trade the old system and you get the new one. And it’s been like that since like the start of video games. I Well, since the start of video games with used titles, that wasn’t always a thing either. The idea of trading stuff in I I do remember the Super Nintendo specifically tra you were able to trade stuff in. But before that, with the Nintendo, it wasn’t as widespread where you have GameStops or EB Games or even at the time Funko lands all over the place. So, it was just like, “Oh, here comes the GameCube. Trade in my N64. Here comes PS2, trade in the PS1.” It was a little different, I guess, when you had t like systems like the N64 to the Gamecube where your games weren’t going to play on the new one. So, the PS1 and PS2 was seamless, easy, here you go. So, I I just it’s always been that way. Save money on the new system, trade in the old one that most likely many people will just be putting in a closet or a drawer somewhere and kind of forget about. Although, how many people, I’m sure, look back on the old days of trading in, especially now some of these retro systems like a Gamecube with the whole collection of titles, maybe like a PS1 with all the RPGs that were out on disc. Yeah. Now, you go back and say, “Hold on, let’s let’s let’s relax a let’s not trade all that stuff in.” I’m sure many people have stories uh covering some of those uh those decisions back in the day. And ladies and gentlemen, that’s going to do it here for Newswe. If you enjoyed this