Week in Mobile Games E48 - Nintendo Switch 2 release date reaction & Tencent's bizarre Ubisoft deal

[Music] Hello and welcome to the pocket gamer.biz podcast week in mobile games where we discuss the week's news and provide some insights. This week Aaron Asel is back on the show news editor. Uh how you doing Aaron? Yeah. Yeah, doing well, thank you. I've had a birthday since my last appearance. Um, technically you haven't been on for 3 weeks cuz we didn't do one during GDC. You didn't do the G. You weren't obviously weren't here for the GDC roundup. A while. Yeah. Yeah. So, I was off. I was probably eating cake whenever you were recording last week's episode. All right. Um, but um, yeah. So, yeah, I'm doing well. Yeah. Had a couple of days off, which was nice. And then you basically celebrated your birthday for like a week. Yeah. Yeah. Out with different people every night. I was making up for lost time. Um yeah, I missed a couple of birthdays. Pandemic

started like three days before my birthday. Um while I was at uni, so I was in the midst of making all these plans to go out with uni friends and then I was back home and locked down for my actual birthday. Yeah. Um so I've been making up for it ever since. Busy couple of days. Did my first escape room which was very fun. Um cleared it in You smashed it as well. Yeah. So, we had an hour. We did it in 31 minutes. So, crazy. Topped their leaderboards, which was um yeah, I feel like I've set a high bar now, though. If I go and do another one, I won't be able to fail. So, what have you been up to? Um I haven't really been up to much. Just the usual playing some Starcraft. Uh actually, uh the weekend we uh there's a in a town nearby to me. So, I basically grew up in in this in Hertfordshire. And uh there's like a rooftop bar that I just never heard of my life. I don't know how new it is. And

then you go I think it must be quite new. But you go there. It's really nice. It's like a London sort of bar, but not in London. So, it looks it just looks really nice. Not many people know about this. It's not crowded either at the moment. You go there and it's basically the entrance to a barber shop and there's just like a bouncer there. There's no sign to say what this place is called that there is a bar there. And then so you just you walk in and then up like three flights of stairs and there's still no indication that you're going to a bar. The only indication where you're going is is to a barbers. And then yeah, you get up there and it's like this lovely looking place. Lovely drinks. My friend will be furious for me uh saying this in public just in case more people find it. Uh I was under strict rules not to talk about it, so I thought I'd do it on a podcast. But on this episode, we're going toh talk about the huge news that has dropped today. We're recording slightly early than we usually do. We're going to talk about the Nintendo Switch for the majority if not all of this

podcast. If there's time, we will talk about some more mobile relevant news. There have been some big stories over the past couple of weeks. Before we get into all that, as usual, we're going to do the obligatory shills if you like. So, our conferences that coming up, Dubai Game Expo Summit powered by Pocket Gamer Connects is next up May 7th and 8th. PGC Barcelona, which seems to be proving very popular already. June 3rd to 4th. PGC Summit in J in Shanghai 30th of July. PGC Helsinki October 7th and 8th. Late this year, we'll have Jordan, maybe somewhere else. And and just an FYI, I'm in Gamescom Latam at the end of this month. So if anyone wants to meet you there, drop me an email, message me on LinkedIn, we can talk. So we're going to jump straight into it. The Switch announcement today and uh we'll go through the games, some of the features, and the price. But I guess just a very quick snapshot. So yeah, Switch 2 is kind of it looks basically more of the

same, I guess, just just uh better tech inside. It's going to cost 395 or £396. They caught me out um in the UK. So, we'll start with the games. Kart World is going to launch with. So, that's the big title. I think that looks it looks pretty great. It looks like Mario Kart, but this time they've got like an openw world style to it, which I wasn't sure from the trailer how like I know it is based around this, but uh how integral it is actually to the gameplay. It looked more like sort of chilling in the open world rather than that was a key element of it. Yeah. No, it seemed kind of like there's just going to be a lot more maybe like side content to do or like party modes and just generally roaming about looking at stuff because it's hard to see quite how or maybe yeah how that's the optimal way to race if you're going off road into the into the wilderness. But it's pretty nice addition, right? So in a way Mario Kart

8 is just like the pinnacle of Mario Kart. What do you do after that? So I think this is quite cool that you you know you get the tracks the races now with 24 players on which which just sounds ridiculous. Like that's going to be very rage inducing if you get like blue shelled at the start then a bullet bill a star a red shell then before you know you're 20. And I think they said that as you get to certain like checkpoints like the players at the back will get knocked out. So I guess by the end it will be more kind of standard. Oh, was it I thought that was like um I thought there were different modes then maybe I thought there was Yeah, the mode where you just kind of keep racing through the different tracks and then Yeah. Yes, I I thought quite well, you know, they might actually, sorry, throughout this lifetime, I'm sure they'll kind of keep updating it with new content. So, there's probably a lot they could potentially do down the line with DLC or just regular updates,

whatever they want to do with the open world style. So, I think it adds a lot more potential to the game than it might otherwise have. I I think it's probably been in progress for a long time as well. So, I've got quite high hopes for like how big it is going to be at at launch, how much they'll be to do because like Mario Kart 8 on the Switch is a port of the Wii U Mario Kart. So, the last actual new one, which was eight, was in 2014. And so, I imagine, you know, obviously they planned to port 8 to the Swit, which they did in 2017. I doubt they expected it to become like the bestselling Switch game and still sell so well for like eight years, which fittingly with Mario Kart 8. So, I suspect this has been in development for quite a long time and was probably originally going to be the Switch and then they just didn't need to release it. I mean, it's their biggest IP really, Mario Kart, so I'm sure they kind of expected it to do very well.

Yeah. So, I think it was the bestselling Wii U game as well, but that wasn't such a high bar. But yeah, like I Yeah, I wonder I doubt that they expected to stick the same one throughout the whole Switch life cycle. Well, I feel like actually they kind of I would actually say that they they release kind of one of these trying to think back if I'm actually correct in saying this. I feel like I am. They basically release a console and then they kind of have one title per IP per generation. Now, obviously Zelda was a bit different, but like Yeah, that's was supposed to be an expansion. Yeah. Right. Which they turn into a full game and then they have like one big 3D Mario game. There might be some crossover, but you usually that I feel like that crossover like say with Twilight Princess It was for the new console, but it was

also on the current one. Was Breath of the Wild the same? I was going to say Breath of the Wild was the the last thing that ever happened. So, I I feel like one per generationish. Maybe give or take a 2D Mario. I can't remember. Um I feel like we'll have this and that that will be it. Oh, yeah. I think that'll be it for the the Switch 2 for the next eight years. Whatever. So, some other games they've got a big deal with from software for the Dusk Bloods, which I I was starting to think, is this a Bloodborne sequel? No. But then one of the characters changes into a dinosaur. And I was like, oh, this isn't even From Software. And then it says, "Yes, this is a From Software exclusive, no less, coming out, I think, next year." Uh, I think that is a major coup for Nintendo. One, just having From Software. Sony must be like, "What the hell? We invest in your parent company. We had Bloodborne. Come on. Where's where's this exclusive for us?" And you wouldn't expect a game like this to be exclusive

for a Nintendo platform. So interesting the direction. I think Nintendo's going that they are known for basically familyfriendly kind of kids games of all ages. And I think they've always tried to sort of push a little bit into these adult games, but the publishers never really supported them. Nintendo Switch is such a been such a massive success. I think publishers will now all want to be there. And when you've got a more powerful platform, we'll see how it does the eventual PlayStation Xboxes, but it's kind of releasing in a bit of a sweet spot at the moment, I'd say. Yeah. With the Switch 2 that Yeah. everyone wants to be on there and they're even God knows the money that was involved in this, but the fact that there was any money involved in making this happen again says quite a lot. So, I was quite impressed to see that. I think that's Bloodborne was a huge seller I think for PS4 when it came out. So, yeah, I think this is good. This this is the kind of thing that makes me want to get the console. We'll go into a bit of that what we think of it overall later, the

console. But yeah, I think that was a really good one. Someone some other quick games. So, someone pointed out to me that I must have missed it. I looked away like a second. So, the kind of the followup to Hollow Knight, Silkon, and I know someone that is a just following it all the time cuz there has been like no news on this game that was supposed to come out ages ago. I think there's going to be an expansion that's a full-fledged title and fans are just like hanging on to anything they can get. So, anytime there's like an Xbox showcase or a Nintendo Direct X or whatever, they're kind of all over it like, "Oh, this is the one." And in this they said apparently it just comes up for like two seconds silk song footage possibly footage that's already been out there in the sizzle reel and it's like 2025 release. All right. Just the fact that it was on there at all. And then some other quick ones from me. The James Bond teaser made me laugh. When I heard them just mention it and then the music comes on I was like whoa. Nintendo Switch 2 has got a James Bond

IO interactive trailer. This is this is what incredible. And then and then it's like you see the uh the gun barrel. I was like, "Oh, no. This is just the same trailer that turns out they first teaser. Sorry. There's no gameplay footage or cinematics really. It's just a gun being shot." That trailer was first released in 2020. So 5 years nearly 5 years later, they're showing this teaser to say, "Oh yeah, it's coming." Yeah, sure. Why not? I think that Hitman's coming though, right? So, and then was was Super Mario Wonder on there? There might have been an image of it. Maybe there was a picture. They didn't highlight it cuz they talked about quite surprised by that. Yeah, cuz they talked about Mario Party. I thought they'd just do a new Mario Party because I think there's already three on the Switch where you're saying there's like one IP per I thought they would have just made a bigger thing because that's what people want to get the Switch for and and and

Nintendo console for is Mario Kart and a Mario game. Yeah. Platformer. So, I thought they'd just made a bigger thing since they did do that with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Yeah. And it's only 2023. And then uh there was Kirby Air Riders. I never played the originals, but that I thought they were going to finish with that and it was kind of a finishing shot of Kirby's bum, which was a bit like And then there was a lot. Yeah, that was really strange. And then uh the new Donkey Kong game. Now I I remember enjoying Donkey Kong 64, new 3D Donkey Kong game, but uh apparently this is like widely panned. The fact that they're going back to some sort of 3D game. I think it had like 2.5D elements as well. Was interesting one. It was an interesting one to close on. Yeah. What did you think of the games? Yeah. So, on the subject of Donkey Kong, it's good to see him back. It's been quite a long time since a new game of any kind for him really. The last like properly new one

was Tropical Freeze on the Wii U, which was 2014, and then it's just kind of been ports and remasters on the Switch. Really? Really nice. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's interesting. Yeah. He's come back in 3D after this long. Yeah, because you The last one was a 2D platformer and yet it's been over a decade. Um, and yeah, funny. I don't know whether this is representative of a bigger move at Nintendo, but like Kirby a few years ago made the move into 3D because they've always been like 2D platformers. And then, yeah, Donkey Kong, no new 2D platformer for over a decade. And then he it's a 3D game and obviously it took until the end of the Switch life cycle to get a 2D Mario game wonder as you were saying whereas the 3D one was right at the start of the Switch. So that seems like a bit of a trend that's going on lately that they're kind of moving more into the 3D

platforming space. But um either way, I say it's it's nice that Donkey Kong is finally allowed to have a new game of his own. His design looks like um what they've used in Mario Kart in the new one as well. I don't know if you picked up on that. I people noticed obly they teased Mario Kart with the initial Switch 2 reveal back in January and people noticed then that Donkey Kong looked like not like he's looked for in like Smash Bros. and the previous Mario Karts and stuff that he had like a bit of a new more cartoony design which seems this is this what he looks like in the film? It's closer to the film. Yeah. Um, so yeah, bit of a interesting redesign. It looks strange to me because I've always been used to the kind of more serious looking Smash Bros. style for him, but doesn't look bad, just different. I'm sure it will it will grow on me. Yeah. So, for me, the biggest one for me probably from it is the Zelda Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment,

which Yeah, very easy to say. Sorry, was it the war of imprisonment? It's the imprisoning war. Sorry, it's even worse. The imprisoning war. I just hate I just hate the name. Yeah, it's they said it uh like Tears of the Kingdom is a very very well-made game, but I think they kind of the open world style worked so well for Breath of the Wild and then I think they kind of mudded through it with Tears of the Kingdom. Controversial. Yeah. Um because yeah, as you go to each area, you kind of um you get these various cut scenes of things going on, but there's no like trigger to say someone's already done this other area and got the kind of establishing lore, so we can skip it the next time. Like it gives it to you every time when you go to different areas and it's different characters that you're getting it through, but it's like the same backstory just from a different

voice actor basically. But yeah, each area you go, it's like the imprisoning war of like secret stones. This is like the Final Fantasy trailer, isn't it? Like chaos. Chaos. But yeah, so I'm quite used to the the imprisoning war expression at this point, but not Yeah, it's a tad reluctantly that it's But no, the game looks like it should be good. I like the other Hyrule Warriors games. The last one was Age of Calamity. So they're obviously kind of riffing off that with Age of Imprisonment, although that is a bit hard to say. So before we move on, like some other games I guess worth mentioning, right, that are coming out. Metroid Prime 4 Beyond New Pokemon Legends game this year. Yes. Um we mentioned Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and then again a lot of third party games. They were already out, but obviously that big exclusive that we mentioned, but other games like Elder Ring was another big one. Split Fiction, EA Sports FC, Madden NFL,

that's kind of great to see. Cyberpunk 2077, like the ultimate version, I think. Um, what else have we got? I'm just reading from a list. Obviously, Fortnite. Yeah, Professor Leighton. Forgot about forgot about that. Civilization. I mean, a lot of these games you probably kind of expect on on on a console, but the fact that they're coming to they're all coming to Nintendo's platform. Like Hogwarts Legacy was on there. So, there's there's a lot. And then there if you get an online subscription that you can get GameCube games. Yeah. As well. So, so there's a few of those coming at launch. So, I don't think like I was talking to someone earlier and I was like if they'd launch a month later, there'd be like a couple more games released. So the launch date is um I don't know if we said at the start June 5th and pre-orders open from April 8th in the UK and 9th in the US. I was like just launching a console with no games other than um like new games I guess of America which is obviously a massive one but then I was reminded that that happened before I think Breath of the

Wild was the exclusive game for Switch one and then that was kind of yeah for quite a long time. So I think yeah my like 2017 I got Breath of the Wild and then a third party game called I am sets and then that was like it that was everything I had until like October. So like March to October and it was basically just Breath of the Wild. Um and then I got a there was a Fire Emblem spin-off and then it was probably another like year before I got anything else new one. Yeah. So they they can get away with it, but yeah, it's a little bit if you're not a fan of whatever the launch like franchise is, then you're a bit stuffed for a while. Well, that's why they had to have Hogwarts Legacy on the Yeah, we got to show something. A big game, though. That's a good game. So, there's a few things we talk about. So, the features, obviously, it's just more powerful than the Switch one is really the main thing I would say. Uh, it's going to be 4K resolution, I guess, on the actual TV. 256 GB of storage. And

then they had some other kind of interesting bits. So Aaron, you as you were predicting, you can use the Joy-Con as a mouse. Yes. I'm not sure. I'm just trying what the the pract sorry the practicalities of using that. Yeah. When you if you play your console on your sofa. Yeah. Whether it will work just like on your knee or whether you'll need to like lean over to the table or whatever. How that works, how much that gets used. But I mean cool option right to have. And then there's some other things. So the new button you press C and you can use a voice chat. It almost feels like a this is a very like Nintendo feature where actually it's pretty cool to have like that. But it's like you've been doing this for a while now. Literally it's like something new. I quite liked on the screen that they had uh you could see other people. Yeah. And you could even see them play. But man, the frame rate on watching

three other people play was awful. Yeah. For that to be like what they're showing in the presentation as well. That was that was really bad. I think the idea is amazing to be honest cuz it really it kind of brings you bit. The way they showed it obviously was they had the they had the three screens at the bottom and then your one on the main like as the big large screen. I could easily imagine it with just like old kind of couch, sorry, old local play days where you you've got the whole screen individually divided into four different screens. That'd be amazing because that would really bring you back to for me people of my age. Sorry, I I realize you probably you're probably like, "What are you talking about?" Uh everything's online. Yeah. Played all that on the same screen. Golden eye perfect dark. It was amazing. kind of if you wanted to bring some of that back. Um, so there's plenty of good cool things that they could do with that. The frame rate though, that would that would really

bother me. Yeah. Yeah, it did look a bit choppy. Well, it comes with its own camera. So, it's kind of like the connect is back. The PlayStation camera is back. Nintendo's Nintendo has finally arrived. They're like, "This sounds like a good idea." I do think they're going to have inadvertently created endless entertainment that you can like put yourself as if there's a green screen in front of your game play. The number of screenshots I expect to come from that. It was really cool that they had the um like if you're playing one of the party like maybe maybe it was Mario Party or like a party game and you could it would just have like a little bubble of your face. Yeah. Yeah, that was cool. That was pretty cool. So on the character as this as your character is moving around or whatever you're doing, so is your face. Yeah. Which is which actually is perfect. That's such a good idea. But you know how many people are actually going to have this camera? Not many. Like if that's the use case, right? It's not really worth it, I would say. And

I'm not going to buy this camera personally. Um, no, they definitely seem to like emphasize just social play more generally, as you say, with obviously the camera stuff, trying to yeah, recreate the local multiplayer experience, I guess. Um, and yeah, obviously like voice chat is nothing new for the industry, but um to have it like built into the console. I'm curious how it works because the the microphone's attached to the actual console itself that you do. So, if you're not holding the whole thing, you're just holding the controller. They did say in the in the direct that it don't worry. Yeah, other noises will be it won't pick that up. I was like, really? Yeah, that might be they might be correct. That's a tough one. And I I sit pretty far away from the console to be honest. Any other thoughts on any interesting features, Aaron? So,

hardwarewise, I think so. They said it's an LCD screen. Um, so I think they've they've gone back from OLED there. So I guess we know what the upgraded version will be in a a few years time. But it's nice they confirmed it's a the handheld screen. So I know by like modern standards that's not asking for a lot, but pretty sure like the the regular Switch the handheld mode was 720, which you don't really notice at the size it is. It's still 4K like on your screen. Yeah. So they the Switch and the Switch 2 has different of outputs depending on what you're on. So like the Switch one I think was 720p handheld and 1080p on the telly. So this the Switch 2 is going to be 1080p handheld in 4K on the TV. Yeah. Which would be a nice upgrade to have. They said it's going to be able to um run at 120 frames per second as well, which um as a non PC gamer, I don't even know what that looks like. That's going to be interesting to see. Might prefer

my nice stable 30 fps. You're missing out. Yeah, you you were looking at the uh the voice chat frame rate when it's really clippy. You're like this this looks great. Yeah, they've really they really improved it. But yeah, so obviously yeah, good to see that there's some kind of hardware improvements. I say I was a little bit I'm sure it'll look good. Uh they said it's like HDR and stuff, but um I really like my OLED screen. It's surprising how good that screen looks, but some stuff I think looks better on that than on my telly. But yeah, I don't know with going to the LCD screen whether it's whether you're going to lose any of that or if things have just moved on enough that it looks just as good. Anyway, I don't think we've mentioned the Joy-Cons being magnetic either. No, I thought that was a very cool feature actually. just as a like a a little quality of life improvement because I I am an idiot so I occasionally would find it actually

stupidly difficult to like take it out or put it back in. Right. So that I think that's actually so much better. Hopefully um they're going to release some kind of attachment to the old JoyCons so that you can like magnetically rip them to the Switch because otherwise presuming Switch One games will still be like for multiplayer at least you might want to use your old JoyCons rather than have to buy multiple sets of new ones. You know if you've got friends around because some people do still play local multiplayer. It would make sense to be able to use your old Joy-Cons, at least on the Switch One games, but then it'd be really inconvenient if you have to charge them up on your old Switch One before you can then use them. If they can't attach and charge off the new Switch, that would be a bit of a oversight. I think that's a really good point. I never even thought of that. Can't use your old JoyCons. Yeah, that would suck. So obviously, yeah, if they don't um use some kind of attachment, I guess they just won't be

usable in handheld mode. So pricewise, $450 or $396 British pounds uh is the launch price. So if you compared that to the original Switch that launched at, so this is for the base Switch 2. You can get the bundle for £499 or um so £500 or £430. Um the original Switch launched at $300 or £280. So it's a massive difference, $150 difference. That was in 2017. So I app there's been a lot of inflation since then. Uh but massive difference. But then if you compare again, these are these launched in 2020, but the PS5 that launched at $500 or $400 for the discless version. Then you got the Xbox Series X launched at $500. Series

S300. So yeah, they're they're going at a hefty price again kind of for a Nintendo console. I'm not looking at it like that. Maybe I just warped view of it now doing this too long. I'm like, it's not that expensive. Like, it is, but then if the PS5 was already more expensive than that, as was the Xbox Series X in 2020. So, $150, £400, maybe they found I feel like personally, maybe they found like kind of a sweet spot there. Like they want to make as much money as possible obviously, but they've not gone too cheap. I think they're not having to compete with Well, I mean, they are have to compete with PlayStation, Xbox, but well, PlayStation anyway. Yeah, it feels like a good price. The only thing that the thing that puts me off, which I guess kind of sums up my overall feelings about the console, it's just not enough games, new new games that I'd be interested in. Mario Kart World is

awesome. So, I may end up buying this day one cuz I am also a bit of a sucker for tech. So, but at the moment I'm like I don't feel like I need it. I don't This isn't the purchase I'm like I have to get Switch 2 cuz I have a Switch One which has some of these games like I have some games sitting around I haven't played like Tears of the Kingdom. I have it. I just I just haven't actually booted it up even though I love Breath of the Wild and I'm like is Marart World enough? Is it is it going to be different enough from era Kart 8 which I played too much of? So yeah, I I feel like the price is okay, but nothing's making me go I'm going to buy this day one. But what do you think of the price? And I guess overall, yeah, in the kind of context of the other consoles and just the price of the Switch at launch, it feels kind of fair and you can understand the price point. Obviously, it is high for a Nintendo product, but yeah, it's been over eight years since

the Switch. So, that was £280. So, obviously, it is a jump, but like just over 100 more in 8 years for better tech and stuff. It kind of it feels acceptable. I don't feel like I'm going to get swindled in buying it, but it's about £116 oddly more expensive or $150 more expensive. Yeah. So, yeah, I think I'm okay with it. Like I thought it might be a little bit lower just because it's Nintendo hardware, but I thought it would be like I was imagining like 350 360 price range. So, it's not not way above what I had in mind. Just for a bit of um I guess context from outside the industry. So, as you say, maybe we we've been um been around too long, but so I was talking to one of my friends about it yesterday and

saying that this we're probably going to find out how much it is today. And so, they have a Switch One and play it a lot. Um they were saying basically if it's over £300, that's too expensive and they're not going to get it really. And I said, well, like, yeah, the Switch One was nearly £300 eight years ago. Like I can't see this being any less than that. So yeah, maybe it will put some people off. I say like compared to the the competition like PlayStation and stuff, it's still a lot more affordable. I think my bigger concern is going to be how much the games are going to cost, right? We didn't go into that, did we? M. So, America World apparently 80 is what we've got or as a digital version or 90 as a physical copy. Yeah. So, if they just decide that can be like 90, that's going to be the new price for physical games. Thing is, I know that games are expensive to make. For me,

that's worse than the console. I'd rather the console be like £500 and you only do that once and then the games be more affordable. I guess though you look at how low how low can you price a console? In theory, they're always they're already loss makers. Like if they're pricing at this, you'd assume I would assume that's making a loss still on the actual base hardware. I don't know. And then there's always been the argument like I know they've gone up re in recent years, but you know games are priced too low because they haven't actually gone up properly with inflation over the decades. And now they kind of are. But I I I am always I'm usually of the belief that kind of to what you're saying like games are quite at the top range. They're already quite expensive. Like you can get a loads out of them. But it's not the consumer's fault that development costs are so high. Ultimately you have these companies have to work with like the returns that they expect to make. I don't Is the answer

really to just start charging 90? Yeah. one day $100 for a game. I I don't know. I don't have the stats in front of me, but I doubt wages and salaries have gone up also that high of inflation either. You can't you can't just keep raising the price of your games to ridiculous heights. That said, Nintendo is very good at charging high prices for their games and they they sell tremendously well and they are probably the only company that also keeps that price throughout its lifetime. you know, a Ubisoft title, for example, two, three months later, it's like half price. Like they're like, boom, launch. That's when you want to make most your money. And then it's like not long after that, you could buy it cheap. Yeah. With Nintendo, that just never happens. Like a year later, you'll look at it and go, okay, it's still still at the same. But even Breath of the Wild hasn't dropped in price. And as you said, that was the launch title for the That does suggest that they are

very premium games, right? M but then also like you were saying that you know Nintendo has the kind of child friendly reputation. I remember on like the DS and stuff most games were like30. So like if you're buying that for a you know child or if you have multiple children obviously that's buying each of them a 30 pound game versus now having to buy them a 90 game if it you know it's the same in pounds like that is drastically different. I guess closing for is going to be I think it's going to be a huge success. Interesting time to launch it in June not at Christmas. Yeah I guess it's in time for like summer holidays and stuff. And uh quick a quick quick quote. So Pierce Harding Rolls from Ampair Analysis he he put up on LinkedIn. He said the Switch 2 represents a 7 billion to8 billion games content opportunity over the next 2 years which I thought was interesting. And then he said he he

he kind of hoping that they'll do more monetation within games monetization within games rather than just the premium sales. and he thinks that could represent an additional 1 billion to2 billion dollar opportunity over the next over the next few years. So yeah, people are pretty it sounds like people are pretty bullish on it. Again, we we we'll never know until it actually launches, but given how successful the Switch has been and continues to be, I don't see why the Switch 2 would really be any different. It's now the it's it's the upgraded version of the Switch One. Yeah, like you were saying, um, you may or may not end up getting it at launch. Like currently, I probably won't cuz I like Mario Kart, but it's not enough to sell me on a console. But, you know, Nintendo is like the console that I play. So, I know that eventually like once we're getting Zelda in the winter, obviously Pokemon's going to be cross gen, I guess, to to begin with, but presumably the one after Legends will be

Switch 2. And then we didn't get a Fire Emblem reveal today. I was a bit sad about that, but they got something for the coming months. Yeah. Yeah. So, presumably that will be Switch two. So, like I already know I am going to be buying one. It's just a case of when when there's enough on there to force my hand basically. I'll probably have one somehow before by by Christmas. So once you know Pokemon and something else comes out. So we were going to we were potentially going to chat about a bunch of other stories, but just as a quick mention of some of the headlines of the other mobile stories. Maybe we'll chat about some of these next on next week's show. Apple was hit with $162 million fine over app tracking transparency in France. So I think Aaron reported they didn't actually have to change anything even though it was like deemed kind of unnecessary to do app track and transparency and you know upend the entire industry. The regulator even said it was unfair and didn't just give them like this slap on the wrist and that's done with it. Yeah. It's a bit weird

because they said like they don't disagree in principle with like what Apple's trying to do. It's just the way they've done it isn't right. Odd. And so, uh, Eric Suo is saying he expects that'll probably, however, we'll get similar rulings, maybe bit more aggressive rulings. We're not I'm not sure given the Trump administration, retaliation with tariffs, etc. across the EU because Germany is looking at it and some other countries. So, we might see more there on that. The EU set for its first modest fines against Apple and Meta under the DMA. That's supposed to be this week. So, that news may roll out before this podcast goes live. Yeah, Apple's kind of Apple specifically, I think, was already deemed to be infringing on the Digital Markets Act. It's it's hella confusing alternative business terms that I I struggle to understand. Um cuz they keep changing. So, we're expecting a fine. I think it would have been bigger if if a Democrat had been sitting in the White House and not Donald Trump, who again those tariffs were threatened

with. So, that's big story. And then three other quick ones. The applo shorts seller report another one sent shares uh down when I reported it by 19%. Um again just kind of wild accusations about apploven's practices really about kind of the ads market in general and it questioned like how how much of app loving success was down to its technology or just kind of breaking the rules. It all sounds like if you speak to experts, a lot of people in the industry, like a lot say, well, look, maybe some of these practices are even a bit shady, but they're not like illegal. And basically, Apploving isn't isn't doing anything really wrong. They're just really good at what they do. And so, Apploven's kind of hitting back, hit back once again. Uh, released a couple blog posts this week. I think lawyers are now involved uh in in these short sellers who by the way if you remember short sellers they short the stock crashes if if their report does well and then they probably just bought new shares after and and to get on the up at

least the first two fuzzy panda and I can't remember the other company they said that they might do that in their opening disclaimer they're putting things out that they think are interesting and newsworthy but they're not they're not your friend either they have an agenda and then last two supercell Investments has launched launched. So, they've launched a website. It's kind of a rebranding. They're already obviously doing M&A and investing in games. But this is interesting. They have a website. If you if you're after investment, they want you to get in touch. So, quite Yeah. big a big move from Supercell. To me, it kind of I guess kind of completes what they're doing, right? have all their internal stuff, but they got the Spark program, which is kind of how they form new internal development studios, but you can also apply if you don't work at Supercell for that program now. And then now, if you don't want to do any of that, but you have your own business, uh they'll potentially they'll invest in you there as well. So, that's for development or just games tech. And then lastly, I could go on to this forever

probably, but I'll just be very brief, but Tencent invested $1.25 billion into a new Ubisoft subsidiary focused on its top IP. So, Assassin's Creed, Tom Clansancy, and Far Cry, I think, were the top IPs and leaves a lot of questions open about really what's left for the rest for the rest of the Ubisoft business. Who's really in charge? 10 cent owns about a 10% stake, maybe slightly less. They own a 50% stake in the Gilamos holding company, which has the largest stake in Ubisoft. And then through this, they own a 25% stake in this, which is the subsidiary is basically Ubisoft as a whole company, right? It's everything but Just Dance. This is accounting nonsense, right? Watchd Dogs and Just Dance, aren't they? Even even in the new subsidiary, they're like, "Oh, and we we made do new IP for kind of emerging technologies." It's like, "Well, that's kind of against the whole thesis of the reason you put this

together." One of the reasons it's ridiculous. It's just like I don't know, accounting nonsense. I guess there was a lot of issues with the company, right? Yeah. Appears to be on the down. Shadows has had a good launch, but they need more and this is kind of their way of getting more. It's also 10 cents way. It would appear to me I don't know if this is what they it does look this way freight law if you own a 30% stake in a public company you have to make a takeover offer and this is this feels like 10 cent really increasing its stake like really influential and then but not having to make that takeover offer at the moment I'm surprised Savvy alleg I'd be surprised if Savvy wasn't in there trying to buy Ubisoft because they did tell us. I spoke to the CEO Brian Ward and he said, you know, they want to make an investment in the PC console space. You would have think Ubisoft was probably in a good position to be acquired. Worldrenowned IP is kind

of perfect really for Savvy, but I guess not to be. Maybe they'll go for CD Project after they got a partnership now with Scopely, but we'll see. But yeah, that was a big one. Any thoughts on those, Aaron, before we go? You've reminded me of another Switch 2 point I meant to make. I was a little bit, it was a shame because with the Switch One reveal trailer, they showed all these like really bizarre use cases to show off that like it's a portable console, which I know they don't need to do anymore. But it was really it was amusing at the time because you had someone like in the airport huddled in a corner playing it and then like you got on the plane and you see him you know turn it into tabletop mode or you had people like playing basketball and then as you know of course you would do they go and sit down and play on the switch and play basketball on the switch. Would you would you just leave your switch on the ground? Come on. And then like it shows like a lady playing in her house and she sees a

rooftop party on the horizon. So she takes a switch over to the party. So I really wanted to see, you know, what's new with her eight years later and check back in. She's still looking at looking for rooftop parties. She's still out there. It never ended. Yeah. So I hope that down the line we get a trailer akin to that. On that note, thank you very much, Aaron. Exciting day. Glad to be back on a very Nintendo themed one. would have been a shame to miss it. Yeah, very excited. And thank you everyone.