As usual, my name is Jake Baldino, here to talk about all the video game news that has been going on this week.

There's quite a bit, so just jumping in first, it's kind of a conversation starter, but it seems like at this point, we've talked about it before, but the big games are just taking way too long.

By that, I mean like from the time that they're announced to when they actually release, it's often years and years, or the gap between sequels can sometimes come up to like a decade.

The most recent examples now are The Witcher 4 and Intergalactic The Heretic Prophet, Naughty Dog's new game.

They're in headlines specifically because a reporter from Bloomberg, Jason Schreier, who often gets a lot of scoops right, essentially took to forums to state that both of these big high-profile AAA titles aren't coming until like 2027.

Yes, he said that they're not releasing next year, which is 2026, so it's safe to assume 2027 at the earliest.

Intergalactic The Heretic Prophet, the most weird title ever, sorry, it still drives me nuts, but Neil Druckman from Naughty Dog did go on record in an interview with IGN recently saying that like it is playable in terms of like how far along it is.

They're playing it at their office apparently, but we know that The Witcher 4 is still very much in the early stages.

So I think the reality is sometimes just like armchairing it here is that these games cost so much time and so much money to release that by the time they do, that's part of the reason why you hear every game development studio say that the last game that released like underperformed or fell below expectations because like the corporation's expectations are so high because of how much time and money they invested into these things, leading to a lot of people wondering how long is this whole thing sustainable.

Bethesda games taking a billion years, a new Witcher game presumably taking a long time, big triple A Sony first party games taking a very long time, with some studios like Naughty Dog only putting out like one or two games per generation at this point.

Look, as someone who just buys the games and plays them, I don't care what the bean counters at the corporations really think, I just don't want to wait so long.

The way I look at it, I like when a game is announced and then it's out soon.

I know it's fun to talk and speculate and hype when a game is announced six years early, but sometimes it's sweet to just know something's coming and then have it.

Like remember Fallout 4?

It was leaked and stuff like that, but they announced it, I believe they announced it at the summer and then it was out in the fall and that was it.

Sometimes that's just a beautiful thing, man.

But again, if you want to read up on any of this or any of the other news stories I talk about, of course, all of it will be linked in the description down below.

The other big news this week is Nintendo had a last minute Nintendo Direct.

Nope, not focused on Nintendo Switch 2, but seemingly one of the last big directs focused on the original Nintendo Switch.

Maybe not the last, but you know, definitely coming to it, coming to that point, especially because they announced that April 2nd, we're getting a full dedicated Nintendo Switch 2 Nintendo Direct.

I'm really excited to see what comes from that.

I'm expecting quite a bit in terms of full hardware details, as well as hopefully a release date and most importantly, a look at some damn games, man.

But this new Nintendo Switch Direct that we got just yesterday, if you're watching this on Friday, revealed a lot of cool stuff.

I can't cover everything, I can't give a full play by play, so I will link the full Nintendo Direct in the description.

But some highlights for me personally include Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD remaster coming this year.

This is hot off the heels, of course, of the Dragon Quest 3 HD remaster.

Patapon 1 and 2 are getting a re-release here.

And then there's also a new Everybody's Golf.

It's Everybody's Golf Hot Shots, which is just a really cool idea.

This is coming in 2025.

We also got a new look at that weird edgy Pac-Man sci-fi horror thing.

It's very much like a 2D Hollow Knight Metroidvania style game.

And we know now it's releasing July 18th.

I definitely want to play that just because that just seems like some insane cocaine brain idea that I'm on board, whatever.

Nintendo also announced a new Tomodachi Life game.

This is not coming anytime soon, it's slated for like 2026.

But it is Tomodachi Life, living the dream, and it looks totally bizarre.

You know, what you expect.

We also got a new, more in-depth look at Pokemon Legends ZA, if that's your thing.

At this point, I'm still expecting a little bit more from the Pokemon company, but there are some interesting ideas going on here.

But for me personally, man, they announced this new, kind of old-school style Marvel Super Heroes beat-em-up game.

This is from Dotemu.

This is the folks behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder's Revenge, one of my favorite games the year that released.

They just really understand the beat-em-up genre.

This is Marvel Cosmic Invasion.

Along with that, man, we got a full, in-depth look at Metroid Prime 4 Beyond.

And I'm not gonna lie, it looks incredible.

To me, it looks very much like what I expected from a new Metroid Prime game.

It's got the same types of feel, the same types of gameplay flow, the same types of atmosphere, keeping it kind of chill and the story kind of low-key like the original Metroid Prime.

Love to see that here.

Some glimpses of the music sound beautiful.

Samus has this badass new suit, as well as psychic powers, which seems like they could be pretty interesting in terms of like some puzzle solving and some combat abilities as well, like using her psychic abilities to control like how she shoots her beam like in real time.

I don't know.

It's like curving the bullet, Samus edition.

I'm in.

I've been in on this one since it was announced a billion years ago for the Nintendo Switch.

The gameplay we saw here kind of looks like Nintendo Switch too.

It's got a lot going on graphically.

But we do know it is releasing in 2025.

That's what Nintendo tells us.

I'm hoping that's finally the case because this looks awesome.

They also announced an update that is going to be rolling out in April called Virtual Card Sharing.

This essentially is Nintendo kind of changing up how digital game ownership works in terms of like essentially now you're going to be owning a virtual cartridge and you're going to be able to swap that cartridge between devices you own as long as those devices are linked and paired up.

It's also going to work with family sharing as well and sharing your games to other people for a limited time.

I think ultimately and again, it's just kind of like first impressions because I'm recording this not too long after Nintendo Switch.

It seems like good moves.

It seems like positive moves.

I'm always waiting for like the other shoe to drop with Nintendo.

There's going to be some like thorn to this.

But ultimately, it seems like they're making digital ownership easier.

Is digital ownership becoming easier and more accessible?

Going to push out physical game releases even more and continue our all-digital hellscape future?

Probably, yeah.

But if this is at least some consumer-friendly moves within the digital ecosystem, I think that's okay.

But I definitely want to know what you guys think.

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And now let's get back to the news.

That coffee is hitting.

That coffee is hitting big time.

Next up, of course, some new releases.

Last week was Assassin's Creed Shadows.

That was the big one.

Seems like it's doing pretty well for itself.

According to Ubisoft, they put out player count numbers now over three million.

You know, that's not sales numbers.

So we're going to wait and see that stuff.

But it's an interesting update for a lot of people who were kind of looking at this like Ubisoft's last big hurrah, potentially with all of its corporate problems.

And speaking of Ubisoft, just breaking news at the time of this recording.

So IGN is reporting that Ubisoft forms a subsidiary for IPs like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six with the help of a billion dollar investment from Tencent.

Now, this is kind of something that was rumored in the past, but here it is.

This new subsidiary of Ubisoft, this like separate thing, is, according to them, quote, building game ecosystems designed to become truly evergreen and multi-platform, with IGN saying that Tencent's stake amounts to 25 percent.

They also said, backed by greater investment and boosted creative capacities, it will drive further increases in quality of narrative solo experiences, expand multiplayer offerings with increased frequency of content release, introduce free-to-play touch points.

OK, dude, you guys were already doing that under Ubisoft.

So I just don't understand exactly what this is.

I am not a business analyst type person or anything like that.

But to me, it just feels like a money move more than anything.

It seems like employees that work at regular Ubisoft studios and work on these franchises don't necessarily know what's going on yet.

Does this mean Ubisoft is going to form new teams or are they just going to leverage their existing stuff, bring it over?

I have no idea.

But this, to me, just kind of seems like, you know, changing numbers on a balance sheet and tweaking things and just, you know, creative accounting more than anything else.

I'm curious to see what this actually does end up being long term.

But for now, it seems like it was a lifeline for Ubisoft and in a way to get some additional investment from Tencent.

So I don't know.

I guess we're just gonna have to wait and see.

If you have more insight into what this actually means, if you're smarter than me, let us know in the comments.

Anyway, I digress.

Releases for this week, Atomfall.

If you're looking for something a little bit of a change of pace, something a little different and you like AA games and don't expect like massive AAA quality, Atomfall is really cool.

It's its own unique thing.

It's new IP.

It's creative.

It's experimental.

And it's from Rebellion.

The people most recently behind the Sniper Elite series.

This is kind of like a very, very light kind of faction version of like a Fallout mixed with a lot of Bioshock and Atomic Heart, but with survival elements and it's all set in Northern England.

I know that sounds like a lot, but there's a lot of elements to it that's pretty abstract.

The game doesn't hold your hand.

It throws you in.

It's part investigation, part survival.

I think it's really cool.

A lot of you guys already watched the Before You Buy.

I'll link that in the description down below, but thank you if you watched that because I really like this game.

Also, we did a Before You Buy for the first Berserker, Kazan.

If you're looking for a Souls-like that'll really kick your ass, it seems like it's this one.

The art style, the kind of cel-shaded anime style is really cool, but it's also bloody, chaotic, crazy.

And for some of you guys out there, especially people who love the sub-genre, it might be just what the doctor ordered.

Also, I missed it last week, but Frag Punk released.

This is a competitive first-person shooter with some real creative ideas.

I definitely think it's worth putting on your radar.

If you like multiplayer, and you like playing games like that, but you're a little tired, you want something a little different, something that shakes things up, Frag Punk might be something at least worth keeping an eye on.

And in terms of shaking things up, one of the first real big competitors to The Sims, Inzoy is out.

We're only just kind of getting our first impressions out.

There will be a sort of video out this weekend for it.

It seems like it has a lot of interesting ideas in terms of player creation tools, and it uses machine learning stuff, but I'm curious to see how it actually plays as a life simulator game.

Graphically, it looks wild, but yeah, we'll wait and see how the mainstream gaming crowd really takes to this one.

And in some small updates worth mentioning, the first is this trailer for Fatal Fury City of the Wolves.

New character announcement, it's Ronaldo, like it's Cristiano Ronaldo.

Okay, cool, why not?

Put Shaq in the game too, Shaq will do anything.

Anyway, that's cool, I appreciate weird crossovers like that.

Also, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2, the game we've been anticipating for a long time now that has gone through quite a lot of development changeups, was slated for the first half of 2025, but now the developers have come out and announced that it's officially releasing October.