Hey everyone, you might recognize me and Eric here from the Nintendo Prime podcast I just want to let you know before you get into this segment that this merchandise you see on our shirts and on our cups and on Anything else you oversee with Nintendo Prime brandy on it. You can get in the description below You can also get the full audio podcast not segmented in the description below And if you would like early access to our podcast, please go over to patreon.com Slash Nintendo Prime for $5 a month you gain early access to the full audio podcast Mr. Eric, what do you get for $20 a month? Oh, you get to join us on a podcast.  Anyways folks on to the episode Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Nintendo Prime podcast episode 41 and I like to say as always what you were missing last was I was I'm sorry I do apologize for that wasn't feeling the greatest Technically wasn't feeling the greatest today. We wanted to record this too, but hey, yeah, right? You look a lot better. I feel a lot better. So so sleep will do for you. Yeah Hey, I didn't really get any of that because I've been hunting. So, you know, yeah Well, you get do you get anything? No, you got to see something to get something No, I got back that's about it. Oh, well, you know that happens. Yeah So we're gonna kind of keep this a shorter podcast this week, obviously we had the three-hour marathon with me in 5j last week It's just Eric and I this week We're recording this literally holiday week. So Thanksgiving follow of a family time all that stuff So hoping if we give us for a shorter podcast, but you know what I Think we have some good stuff to talk about. Yeah shorter doesn't necessarily mean worse. No, so So an ongoing theme in this podcast this year seems to be Street dates and game leaks. No boy And our first topic here. We're dealing with a xenoblade 2 which comes out on December 1st so at the you it's after you hear this podcast but shortly after because it literally releases the week this podcast comes out I think Thursday or Friday and Xenoblade 2 was apparently had Has reportedly and there's been pictures taken as evidence that the street date of it was broken in the Middle East Specifically in Saudi Arabia over a week before the game who was supposed to come out. Wow so We obviously know that this has been an ongoing issue The guy who is streaming Mario Odyssey in China supposedly got one from a plate another country in Europe that broke the street date We know that Pokemon Ultra Moon was leaked Pokemon Moon was also leaked last year Some other stuff and some of those leaks came from the media. So it's not entirely on street dates And Nintendo responded to the street dates in Europe By basically saying we're not gonna release games to the retailers until like almost like when it releases Which means some retailers are not gonna have the game on the release date So That's how they responded in Europe. There hasn't been any issues of this in the US yet That doesn't mean that there aren't street dates broken in the US. It just hasn't happened with Nintendo games in a while The issue in the US seems to be more media leaking games Yeah, then it seems to be like retailers leaking games So this has no effect on that we know if you want Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in the US like day one You're not gonna have to worry about it. You're getting a day one no matter where you ordered it from Unless there's obviously unforeseen shipping issues if you order online, right so What should Nintendo do about this because this keeps happening I Don't know if there's really anything you can do about it I mean the only thing you could really possibly do is if you know what store did it You just don't chip them any Well, and I think the hard thing is they don't really know what store right did it because it's not like they scan each Individual game and know which stores the game percent to they can track, you know shipping of boxes But you know, you know how to get in a box and people are dumb enough to like Oh, let me take a picture of the receipt on where it was from which or right. Let's get them busted And obviously this is in the Middle East that the I guess you say the nice thing about it It's obviously Nintendo's new European policy worked because this didn't have the streets at least so far as the time of recording Street date has not been broken anywhere in Europe for this game, right? Which was their response to the street dating broken for Mario Odyssey. So I mean It's one of those things where I wonder if that policy is something they're just gonna have to do worldwide Mm-hmm Even before just anticipating it happening And it sucks because if you think about it as I just got to say it doesn't seem to be happening in the United States That doesn't mean it can't happen, right? That doesn't mean it doesn't happen and that the people that buy it early are just not stupid enough to post about it Right, and like I said, it's it's it could be broken. It's we just don't know about it Yeah, so what sucks about the street a being broken is one like everything about the games out there now Because that's just what happens street days broken multiple people by the game to talk online They were videos.  Obviously you get to play the game right for sure but it sucks for people who Don't want literally everything about the game out there before it's time to buy it before day one at least And this is even before like review embargoes went up and everything so like this is even before media are able to cover it Right That's I mean, that's a huge chunk of time a week. Yeah, that's that's and this is a JRPG So like a week you can sink, you know hundred hours in there. That's all they're playing right? it's It's tough because I feel like you know, you could talk about how maybe this isn't newsworthy because game leaks and Street dates have been broken for pretty much my entire life. Yeah But I feel like it's newsworthy in that we know Nintendo is now actively trying to stop it Because they're tired of it, right? And I think a lot of Nintendo fans are getting tired of it, too but again, I don't Outside of Tracking where you know basically having something that you can track where the shipments are going and somehow track like a piece of code that once the game is loaded up It says hey this this code has been registered as this code has been played and you know where you sent that that Cartridge to mm-hmm, and then you just basically punish the store bite I didn't know the only problem is is that it also sucks for the people that are buying from that store But you basically say well tough squats You don't get yeah, you don't get the new games for in the stores that usually get we're talking more about independent stores The big chain stores they don't do that because they don't want to risk losing business from a big company Right, but like my own pop shops that kind of rely on just getting people in the door They're usually the ones are okay Look will break street date because I talked about this in a prior video the margins that retailers make on new video games Are razor thin yeah, so like they're not breaking street date to make more money off that game than other people What they want are people in the door hopefully buying other stuff, right? So breaking street date allows people or entices people to come in get the game early there and possibly oh Hey, thanks for giving the game early. Oh, you have this game in this game in this game We buy all these used games and extra peripherals and suddenly that's where they make all their money Right, it's kind of the gas station effect. You know gas, you know, they make like two to three cents per gallon So they really don't make much off the actual gas. It's when people come in the store and buy things Which is why you see stores like it around here. We have quick trips quick trips I've really stepped up their game the last ten years and become an almost a full convenience store Yeah, because one there's some areas where there is no other convenience, right? And two it's it's just convenient Yep, right a lot of gas stations have started to do that a lot I've even noticed some other ones of holidays out there stuff like remodeling themselves to become basically a mini grocery store Which is nice, especially when I just need to pick up one thing and I'm already filling up gas And their prices aren't usually that bad, especially better than Gordy's Doesn't take much. Well, thank you. The Gordy's grocery store chain around here They overcharge compared to like Not for very much longer. So well, I think they were bought out Well, that Shafers and that hasn't happened yet. Hasn't all that the auction hasn't gone through yet Oh, well, because there's a lot of our family products in all the stores now. Yeah, and our family bags are what you get When you yeah, so I I'm thinking there must be some sort of partnership with our family. Yeah, that was there That was there. No, that was their Generic brand. Okay, was our family. Okay But well, I don't know the stores are being fully restocked now Something's happened. Well, they're taking stock from the other stores and putting it anyways back to This is a whole other discussion Sorry, yes, I think I correct. Oh, but yeah, I don't know what to do about Yeah, I don't the thing is I don't want to punish customers that right they go It's how how can the only way I can really see them doing something besides Punishing all stars is being like look, we're just not gonna give products in the Benda stores Right, but then that I mean is that really what people want? They want to hurt those smaller mom-and-pop shops and be like sorry you can't have new products It would it would have to be the ones that like I said, you'd have to find a way to track it and then How you could You know, I mean you can if the customer themselves that bought it gives up more information, but You could do it. How well when all the customer does is show like look Here's the new game and they show you the front of the box all the front of the boxes look the same There's nothing you know, I know but if That's saying that they don't plug it in and play it Well, I said like you could probably put something in How can Nintendo know if that person's a media member or not? Because they know what copies they send out to media Maybe but they don't know what they're playing it on They don't know who who switches a media outlet who switches in the media outlet It would be a code within the game. So it's a DRM Yes and no because the only way you check that is to have a DRM You'd have to have the code out of check online all the time. Just the first time But what about what if people just don't connect their switches online? Then I guess you never know but somebody the chances of everybody that has a Leaked game or like a broken street date not Yeah, but I mean, what do you do? Do you punish the customer who bought the game early? No You'd have to because the store but even if you figure out the code you would you're telling that Nintendo now has to track every Individual game cartridge to every store Pot this we sent out two million copies of Super Mario Odyssey day one We have to know we're literally every little cartridge went Instead of just doing them the boxing like they do now just tracking the box shipments. Yeah I mean it just sounds like a lot. I mean I say that they can't do it I'm just saying that that sounds like a lot of overhead Just to stop an issue that isn't technically herding Nintendo in in the It's not really hurting the sales of the games Right, it's different than a leaked game online that we're emulating. Oh, no for sure. Um, it's just Runes the PR cycle of the game. It's just something that upsets fans Oh, yeah, I mean if people got leaked games or got that leak games like early copies of games And they just won't put all this information on the internet. Mm-hmm Then, you know, it wouldn't matter. Well, of course they're going to because they want attention, right? And I can't blame them, but like I said if These people They're gonna put the information on the internet Which means that they probably connected their switch to the internet. So the problem is the internet. Yes Doesn't mean that they connected the switch to the internet You can just turn off Wi-Fi and record it through a capture card the guy. Yeah, I Don't know you'd have to do something I don't know what it would be because one one fan suggested in the past that oh, they should just run full DRM services I'm all no, and I'm like, no No, that ends up hurt. Okay. I Can understand why you might think they should do that He didn't call it a DRM service, but the way he described it was basically it was DRM And I'm like you can't run DRM on a console that the DRM They'll put this in perspective There are certain PC games that use DRM and the problem The DRM exists basically to stop people from hacking their games leaking them for free and people playing them because You don't have to emulate on a PC. You just get the game and you play it. You just have to have this ID key or a crack, right? So to combat that they have all these different DRM's that they put on the games Now not all PC games do this but like Ubisoft takes advantage of that a lot The problem is is the DRM ends up hurting the legit consumers a ton because what happens when the server is offline What happens when you can't connect to the internet, but you're not even playing an internet game Yeah, you know all these different situations or you get a bleep in your internet because you know as much as we have constant connection Internet, there's always little bleeps you might not even notice it Like I'll be on my computer doing stuff and I might not even notice my internet went off for a half second Right. Oh, no, but when you're in a game that's using non-stop constant online DRM that little blip disconnects you you get booted Out of the game. You didn't get a save in there. You're screwed. Yeah And it's been a big that that's what sucks about DRM is it hurts real consumers So much that it's not worth implementing it Just to prevent like early release of games It's a tough situation I'm glad Nintendo is trying to do something about it just as a consumer like I don't get review copies of games yet Maybe I will someday, but I don't now so It just I'm a general consumer like the rest of you I don't want all this stuff out there and I'm some of the reports on all this stuff Like and you're the ones that you're somebody that actually doesn't mind week You're like my I know I know spoilers. I don't want spoilers and all that stuff, but it's just Like when Mario Odyssey had all the spoilers out there. I actively avoided, you know I thought I talked about one little leak on 4chan and then I left it at that I think I'm like, okay all this other stuff. I'm reading about just too much info. Mm-hmm. Like I can't I Could get a ton of views don't worry on this But I don't want to right because I'm that means I'm openly supporting Oh, yeah early release copies of games and you know potentially, you know leaked games or hacked games and it's like I don't know. It's a tough situation that Nintendo finds themselves in You know, not every company is trying to trying to combat it some don't care Right. I mean at least Nintendo cares Yeah, yeah, I mean the only other thing. Yeah, like you said is just to give it to him Yeah, I mean the only thing I can say like a beforehand like say this Say they don't want to implement that street date thing in the Middle East You know releasing the given the game to the retailers closer to street date The other alternative and the whole one's gonna like here in this one either is that since they have it locked down in Europe Europe gets it first then the surrounding countries get it like a week later So then if oh no like a place break street date It's not a big deal because the game's already out everywhere else But again people are gonna hate that because that hurts people buying legit copies of the game Yeah, you know, why should you and Saudi Arabia have to wait? Because you bought a legit copy because some stores can't just not release right games early. That's it sucks It's one of those things that it's just so hard And I always say like if you want to help Nintendo out because they aren't going after individual stores Probably because they just don't have a reliable way to track it. I'm guessing is If you see a store That has a copy of the game and I mean just cuz it's on the shelf doesn't mean they're selling it Right, they might put it on the shelf, but that doesn't mean yeah that the cases might be on the shelf to just Display yeah, I mean heck they might even have the games on the shelf But that doesn't mean they're selling me yet, right? That's when you just go up and ask but if you can buy it and they like I would literally buy the copy there They can buy it. You can always return it. Just don't open it Mm-hmm, and you know walk out the store and go home and send an email often to your local Nintendo And be like look, I just got this copy of this game from the store and it's a picture mercy Here's yeah, here's this give give Nintendo the info and they will blackball those retailers Oh, yeah, and it sucks if it's a retailer you love, but it's it they're breaking the law technically Yes, they're just not being caught and they know that the punishment for it is very minimal and someone's not gonna sue them They're punishing all retailers in Europe. So yeah And what it really affects, you know, what they're doing in Europe is the online retailers Because the online retailers have to ship it to your house So like Amazon like in the US Amazon will sometimes ship it four days early to ensure against your house So you might get the game a day early, right? But the goal is to have it to you on launch day They'd rather you have it a day early than have it a day late Mm-hmm, especially when a lot of these games launch on like Fridays, you might not want to pay for that Saturday shipping, right? But yeah, it's I don't know. It's a sticky situation you guys Let me know what you think Nintendo should do about this or if you just don't think they shouldn't do anything There's plenty of people I know other I don't really think this is a big deal It isn't it isn't I mean, it's not because it's different than like ultra sun and moon leaking or Banner saga the Mario and Luigi Bowser saga or whatever thing banners I don't even remember what it's like that leak that caused in some way to Do all this stuff in Europe Like those are 3ds games.  Oh black Friday for sale. Yeah Well, I wouldn't I buy it now, right? Exactly. I know I can live stream it And I'm not under any NDA restriction because I didn't sign anything, right? So I could just do I can make a whole bunch of content for you guys And I would do that but you know, I'm also perpetuating the fact that it's okay to release games early So that's also a personal conundrum like morally I probably shouldn't do that But it's hard for me to resist because I'm like I want that game, right? I want to know for sure. So I want to buy it now when I had the money and the games there So just gonna move on to our next topic since there's no really answer to this one. It's just yeah Tell us what you think right exactly So something interesting happened on the Nintendo Japanese website And they're Nintendo Direct section They did what seems to always happen before they're about to announce a direct is a Spot opened up. So they bumped off one of their All like the oldest video you could watch and new spot opened up at the top And that usually indicates there's an internal direct coming Yes People track these things to find out when the hundred directs are coming and it's been like 100% correct every single time now It does not mean I used to mean that Nintendo Directs were coming like within a week or two But the last few times it's been like a month or so later so could just be Nintendo's just changed things up and Nintendo has has a history now of having a Nintendo Direct land in January Because they have the game awards that they usually present something at that. That's December 7. It's coming up fast guys and then Yeah, then January they usually have a big direct my kind of everything that's coming out before e3 So the question is what are they gonna show up? I mean There's going to be a new Nintendo Direct eventually anyways And I'm you know our best guess is January now. We have evidence that okay. This just happened on the Japanese website We got a month and a half or so so How about let's go what do you want to see at this Because this is like this would be like kicking off 28 team. We're done with odyssey and zelda and all that height It'd be interesting to see some kind of concepts for pokemon Okay, just kind of like what they're thinking may you know it may not be like actual gameplay But hey, this is kind of what we're thinking like this and this and this That'd be kind of cool to see Yeah, it's kind of maybe some concept art or something Especially if they Nintendo is really pushing that 2018 date, right? So we talked in the past how on their financial report It says 2018 or later versus like Metroid Prime 4 that says tbd Or tba Yeah, get around what we're trying to listen. It'd be interesting this to see Maybe something from Metroid I mean it would be again. That's that was actually something I was thinking of before you brought that up But I mean let's get this out of the way. We're going to see more Yoshi. We're going to see more Kirby Those are two games we know for sure. We've already seen a bunch of gameplay for They're going to be coming out in the first half of next year. So we're going to see more of those um man I mean it'd be interesting to see what new I mean because they can't blow their entire load at this one right because they have e3 still Oh for sure. I mean they're probably gonna know it's maybe one or two new games I'm guessing. I don't know. I mean if I think about it Fire Emblems supposed to come out next year like a legit full version of Fire Emblem Haven't seen it yet. No, so if it's coming out next year, it feels like January is a good time to show it Uh, obviously like you said Metroid and Pokemon Um, I keep thinking that the January Direct might underwhelm in terms of game announcements Okay, yeah for Nintendo stuff, right?  They always do and they're going to announce probably some new third party games Which I'm hoping they announce more, you know, maybe we get a release day finally for Wolfenstein 2 Um, and I'll hopefully that's not like the only major third party game coming early next year Hopefully there's more and they can announce that there. Um, but I feel like You know, if you look at if they show a pokemon metroid fire emblem Um, Kirby Yoshi. Mm-hmm Uh, I'm trying to even think I know there's a couple other in Nintendo I mean it's to show off more of the no more heroes Travis touchdown game Let's just say is there any more new 3ds games coming out that we haven't Is it dying? Is it finally dying the major 3ds games now? Okay. Um, You know cap coming those ace attorney stuff so we could see the new ace attorney game Um, but like that like Nintendo's got five really big games that they can already show off that are announced You know already announced anyways, even in 2018, right whereas I feel like new games It would be like, okay, we're gonna announce new games any three Um, but I don't know. I mean, I feel like if they're going to announce one new game it has to be Something big Like smash Right, that's like one of the biggest games. They still it's funny We're less than a year in and I'm like, well, how many big games do they really have left that can release Smash pokemon animal crossing. Yeah, right fire emblem, right Metroid We already know that most of the games have already been announced Did they actually announce of animal crossing?  They did announce fire For next year. You just didn't see it right and then he got the new animal crossing mobile Yeah, and I guarantee like I shouldn't I shouldn't guarantee it But since the animal crossing mobile game, which we're going to be talking to one next um is You're on a camping adventure. So you're like away from your man I'm wondering if it's going to work intermingle with your game. It wouldn't surprise me We have your main town and then you You know you go on camping trips when you're when you're not at home, right? Even though. Yes, you're just portable blah blah blah blah But I don't I think that should be really cool Um Yeah I guess I mean an animal crossing would be a big announcement too just because animal crossing sells a lot I don't know how many people realize how popular animal crossing, right? It's a pretty big franchise. It's like people talk about how metroid Some of the metroid is one of nintendo's most important ip's Sure, if you want to talk about important in terms of having like a more realistic looking game Um in terms of the prime series nintendo having an fps game In terms of having a female protagonist Sure in terms in terms of like popularity and mattering in the sales charts metroid just doesn't matter But samus is also one of a more recognizable character. Sure. So that's also yeah iconic. Yeah Um, but it's it's also one of those. It's just not popular. No, right It's I hate saying that I love metro guys. It's in a niche genre. It's always been on a niche genre It helped create that genre and it it's just Like castlevania. It doesn't sell oodles millions upon millions upon millions of copies animal crossing does Animal crossing is almost as big as pokemon in terms of per game sales now pokemon I know just crossed 300 million Ultra sun ultra moon had a nice launch I know I didn't report on it, but it's because I'm like well pokemon always is a nice launch What am I talking about? That's a five second video pokemon had a great launch. Yeah, oh pokemon sold 1.5 million in japan in the first three days Of course it did. Yeah, right and it's on 3ds that has 70 million units Oh, it does that on switch right now with all the seven million units out there Now we got something to talk about right even then that's less than mario odyssey's now We say who wants to sell better odyssey? But No, it's I'm not worried about the sales of pokemon. I mean it is a cool milestone Yeah, I think they said there have been 76 total pokemon games. This includes all the spinoffs And 300 million total in sales.  I'm like, yeah, but a lot of the spinoff games don't So, you know, you do the math on that it was like 3.2 million per game Basically, and I don't know if they're throwing pokemon going those don't really can't be throwing pokemon going The pokemon goal is over 300 million downloads. The way that pokemon goal is included in those numbers Probably none of their mobile games But yeah, it's It's a very interesting thing with this incident right because I feel like there's a lot of things we can pretty much say Yeah, that's gonna happen. Um, I can definitely see pokemon I mean wolf of the sin 2 is going to be there. Yeah, first time. We'll probably see like legit switch footage of it Um I mean, I can almost guarantee used pokemon nothing pokemons gonna be there, but I mean, it's it's It's a nice idea. It has 20.  Yeah, I don't know seriously How long has it been since tropical freeze three four years?  Did everyone just quit and they're just rebuilding the studio? Anything possible Actually, that would be there would be kind of cool donkey kong. Well, I love donkey kong like that's the thing I love donkey kong I don't know that next year's the year to do it when you're already releasing a 2d science rolling platformer Um and Kirby and then another one in yoshi. So you got to space that out That might be a holiday game What? Like a donkey kong maybe Those games don't sound that well The only 2d games that 2d side scrolling games nintendo has that sells phenomenal is mario. Yeah, everything else just it's like metroid No, that's not that's fine because they don't cost a lot of money to make right um Then let's think like tropical freeze to me is like one of the best if not the best side scrolling platformer game ever played but um I know a lot of people are disappointed because they wanted another metroid instead From that studio because they had that studio reportedly had a choice between making another metroid prime Or making donkey kong they chose donkey kong and i'm just like well, you can't get mad at them that for that They're making what they want to make instead of what nintendo saying. Yeah, make another metroid right right um But the metro primes being made by a whole new studio rumor to be bandai We don't know for sure. It's bandai namco Um, we know the bandai namco helped with smash bros last time. So nintendo does have a partnership with them kind of So i'm sure if there is a new smash game that are probably the studio making it especially if sakurai doesn't make it anymore Um, so i don't there's a lot of possibilities. I just I am not expecting to be surprised The only way i'll be surprised Is if they actually have game footage if they have if they have game footage of fire emblem Metroid and pokemon that's going to shock me Games are all announced so they could but i don't expect it Right and on top of that the game footage blows my mind like if the pokemon footage is just like ultra sun ultra moon in hd i'm just gonna be like Yeah, no i'm done. You i'm already done. I mean come on I told you guys i wanted to try to get back into pokemon and that's what you're giving me I don't give me wrong. It looks great, but it's like come on Come on. You might still just put it on mobile phones at that point They can hd. Yeah, they can run hd pokemon games. Come on And i don't think i also think it's what they're gonna do the fact the most recent report was that the pokemon game After they saw the success of breath of the wild and the the reaction before odyssey came out To just how big and wide and like how blowing up the game It's weird because odyssey didn't really change Much they kind of built off of a formula that just haven't used in a long time Whereas zelda really just did stuff that they've never done After this i mean like take over e3. Yeah, they saw like the hype. They saw the excitement Uh, it sounded like the pokemon team at that point realized Okay, because like they were Supposedly afraid to break away from what they know, which you understand.  Right exactly why fix was isn't broke. Yeah, but Apparently after seeing what zelda did because again, you could argue why fix wasn't broke with zelda Um They're like, okay Where we like their ambitions for the game became like breath of the wild Ask yeah, and the my problem when I hear that it's not really a problem I hear that and I hear that they kind of realized that last year or this year. It's like, okay There's no way how we're seeing this game then right breath of the wild took how long and how many delays Right like if you're gonna go i'm not saying they're going open world But i'm saying if they're gonna be that ambitious and being like look We really are just going to change everything up. We're going next like this is This is the next generation of actual like like forget the annual gen gen four five six seven eight whatever But I mean like the next like a true generation elite, right?  Maybe it's actually just even the name hype Yeah, I mean think about and before I was like, oh, yeah, just the name on cool Do you remember how excited people got to seeing the metro prime four logo? Yeah, or The when we were at e3 how many people like freaked the heck out when it was like breath of the wild came up And pokemon Yeah, I've almost called it breath of the wind at the time. Yeah, did you guys not read? Yeah Got so excited that you just skipped the last word. He saw w and just assumed. Yeah But yeah, it's I I'm excited It's in the tunnel direct. It's a one of their major Nintendo directs. I'll always be excited Sounds like it's coming bet on sometime in january For now. I think the next thing look forward to is the game awards But we will probably do something on that next week because 5g and I talked about it last week, but We'll probably do some like Bets or something. What is the actual game awards? December 7th. Okay. Okay. Yeah, you said that already. Yeah, so it should be I think it's either I think it's friday I think the first is a friday next week. So seven. Yes. Yeah, thursday or friday Either way the podcast that we will record next week will come up before it So we'll do like a betting special We'll see if anyone else wants to get on it Maybe we'll make like losers eat hot peppers while reciting poems like we talked about before Or something Is this is an actual punishment something?  We'll make it a real punishment. All right. Okay. Okay, um But we'll see. I don't know. I actually don't know what the punishments gonna be yet Eric and I'll probably talk about it behind the scenes to figure it out But yeah, we'll do a betting special. We'll basically pick winners for each each of the 30 awards and and it's funny because there's something like Who's good at eSports here? Yeah, it's just one out of four chance. Good luck. Yeah, or one to five or six. I don't even know um Anyways, we'll add to the last topic. We talked about it briefly already and all crossing is on mobile now Mm-hmm It released in australia About a month ago and I actually got the sdk and had it this entire month and just forgot about it and never played until Nice, um, it released basically without any announcement. It was coming out Yeah, it was really weird. It's just here it is. It's like, okay I mean, I guess that's how mobile games work. I guess I don't remember I don't remember any any announcements in my lifetime being like, hey, this comes out this day and it's a mobile game So I guess it kind of falls in line with mobile games. If you're a nintendo They did a whole direct for it. So you figure they make a bigger deal out of the release date, but um Yeah, so animal crossing pocket camp Uh, we won't have to play a little bit of it. We're Um, I mean as you guys were now, we're not like super super far into it I think we have like the whole maps unlocked now. Yeah, so we basically opened it up now where we can kind of start doing whatever we want um And before we get into like our thoughts on the game just some interesting stats about this game like the first like day That it's been out. Um, it's the most downloaded game in the united states, japan, canada, france, germany, spain austria and luxembourg And it's like top 10 basically everywhere else So really really popular not like pokemon go levels of first day downloads, but like it's Very very very performing very well. Um, what's interesting that it's only right now a top 10 grossing app in japan It debuted at number nine But again, it hasn't been out very long. You give it a month once people get past the tutorial and really get into it You could see them. Yep buying some stuff in it or order them. Maybe they don't I don't know Yeah, um, well apparently in japan. They did they did well japan goes nuts for their phone. That's very true So They ain't gonna wait they ain't got patients Yeah, I mean they love animal crossing But they I mean if you would offer micro transactions in animal crossing new leaf It would have been the number one grossing game in 3ds history in japan guaranteed. Yeah, um, so Yeah, uh, obviously You know the nintendo's goal with this game is not just to increase the popular animal crossing as micro transactions They want to make money. Oh, yeah, um, and it's cool It's interesting when you download it. It does say free to start. Yes, it does I thought that was interesting because Most games still label themselves as free to play when they have micro transactions Nintendo's just like look it's free to start and what I thought what I think is interesting about that free to start is At least so far. I know early. I have been playing the game. I haven't read anything That's like you have to spend money to continue, right? Yeah, and but that's the that's the part that worries me is it's again It says free to start Does that mean that eventually you could do a get to a point where you have to spend money to Because basically what you spend money on in this game is for the leaf tickets um You buy leaf tickets and they'll allow you to speed up things. Um, you can make the You can buy townsfolk. I guess campsite folk You can re-enable them to ask you to do more tasks for them so you can earn more stuff More supplies which are used to craft gear And craft clothes and furniture and set up your campsite Customize your camper, which is really cool You can use them to do certain events There's like this one part of the map that it cost 20 tickets to even go to it Or you can have five friends go with you. Apparently I don't have five friends yet because it It just said I had no friends I don't know. I have to go. I haven't gone through all the little settings. I'm sure there's a way like I can like friend up with you Right, right. Like on my switch or whatever. I just haven't gone through those settings yet to set up my friends, but um Obviously I'm early so go through a lot of tutorials and all the things are handed to you Uh, but what are your thoughts so far? Because you played animal crossing way back in the day way back in the day game cube days Excuse me guys. Yes. Yes. Um, Hmm So far it's not too bad. It's it's it's an animal crossing game. It it really is. Yeah That was my first thought playing. I'm just like, okay. Yeah, this tutorial. I'm like, this is what animal crossing feels like Yep Like this is It doesn't feel like something that's watered down necessarily.  Yep.  Yeah, yes Um is isabel so kindly reminds you at every turn right right. How are you doing managing your camp? I'm like I don't know building up my own camps. I don't care about anyone else. Yeah But I love how everybody has an opinion on what your campsite should look like. Oh, I know Wait a minute. Yeah, this is my campsite. Oh, here's my dream. Here's my dream No, I don't want a merry-go-round. I can't sleep. Thank you. No Do you like my vision? I there's no option to say no. Come on. Right, right I don't have a cross to stay positive my The thing with that too is you if you go and watch that whole entire vision that he has Where's your tent? You have no place to sleep besides a hammock. I guess but that's out in the middle of everything Yep Yep, I There's no tent. There's no tent The merry-go-round for the tent is maybe you upgraded your camper at that point You already already sleep in the merry-go-round because that's where your tent was There is I don't know. Um Yeah, it's an animal crossing game. It feels like an animal crossing game. It controls just fine Well, oh What do you actually have a problem with the controls? What happened the pathing? I have a problem with the pathing. What happened. Um, I don't really talk about I had no problem I have a problem with like, let's say I it says you can click on somewhere to go on the screen That's where it goes on the screen, right? Yeah.  Oh, that's just an AI issue. Yeah, right But I'm saying that's a problem. Yeah.  Um, you wind it up That's not how I'm controlling my guy. I'm just right. No, no, no, I know But then I'm gonna issue. All right, but Yeah, if you tap on like if you tap on a person to go talk to him or a character to go talk to him And you run into something you just stop. Yeah Hello, it's collision move go. Hello Yeah, it's interesting because that that's the one thing I did like about tapping on the characters Is my guy would just automatically walk over to him But again, it does tell you early on you could just tap anywhere and your character will just walk to it Yep, um, I just that's not how I'm really controlling my character. I guess no, but um, but it it's not something Like they said it's it's the way they convey it is you tap and it goes Which is not how it is.  Yeah. Yeah.  Yeah, exactly the pathing of it should be smart enough to But yeah, you complain besides that No, no, I mean, that's that's my major complaint. Actually, that's my major complaint to the game so far Yeah Well, because like everything else it's like, uh, like i'm skipping through a lot of the like when I was I was going through the story because I was reading the tutorial really close and you kept saying Tap to do this tap. I'm like, well, duh It's a phone. It's a phone. What else am I gonna do? You tap to do everything unless you're telling me to shake my phone with a gyro Yeah, whatever stuff or throw it across the room, but I'm like Yeah, I get it tap tap tap tap to catch a fish Tap to tap to through it when it says the exclamation point comes up tap to catch it. I got it It's isn't that hard. I love the whole the exclamation point says tap Wow I mean, I get it. It has to be this way. There's gonna be kids. They're gonna play it. Um, well one thing I do like That I will say about this is the microtransactions aren't really in your face So far so far there there There's exceptions. Um in the top left corner. I did notice a pop out Um That's sad like limited time off limited time offer That's obviously a paid thing. It is but it's not but it's not Obtrusive it doesn't block any Like we play testers baseball. Yeah Limited time offer a whole screen. You can't ignore it. Yep. Um, you have to literally close out of it We're here. You just not even pay not even notice this happening. No, no for sure. Actually Tap sports baseball. I noticed since the new update like the whole Get rid of advertisement things is back I already spent money on this game and and That the ad should be gone. But yeah, that's that's again whole nother sidetrack But they probably don't mean their own ads No, no, are you are you getting like the in-between game ads again? No, but yeah, that's probably what they mean You're still gonna get their ads.  You bought something They want you to buy more But yeah, um I don't know. They have some interesting deals now. You can get like these make awesome players with 20 bucks. I'm like I wish you know what to offer. I bought one. I wish you would have offered me that like three months ago That would have been awesome. I bought one Nice Now I've walked compared to 80 bucks. It used to be but oh, no, I know but it it's not that's so you're supporting micro transactions indeed Here's reluctantly. Well, okay, so this brings up a point because this game does have micro transactions Yes, uh, so we like basically every mobile phone game in the world basically has micro transactions, right? Which again, it it understandable. It's the way the companies make money um I don't have an issue with it in games like task force baseball or this where it is because of Well, there is one issue in task force baseball, which might be affected by a lawsuit right now. All right, um Yeah, because you know how it has the random random like you get a draft pick and it's randomized Yeah, it's not that that's a game. That's a gambling system And right now there's a lawsuit happening because of star wars battlefront 2 and their loot boxes And if that lawsuit Keeps teetering they could affect mobile games which means things like the randomized spending money to have rent to get by gold to buy draft picks that are randomized Yeah, it can go by Hmm Interesting like the the transaction to spend 20 bucks to buy a player. No that that'll be fine. It's not random Right, I mean the offer is random But whatever you know what you get when you spend your money right versus spending it basically they're saying to promote gambling So they're saying I don't know how many kids are playing task force baseball But right it could just be where it just becomes an m-rated game or something and they allow it to continue um But yeah, it's micro transactions. I always say in a free game And they don't bother me. I know a lot of people say oh it bothers me all the but I'm like you're getting the game for free They didn't it Do you just expect everything to be free because it's a phone game Right They it costs money to make these games right and a game. That's this high quality That feels like an animal crossing game, right? No, for sure. I don't invest it at all for any into this for sure and being You know, both of us being devs Nothing big of course, but you know um I understand why they do it But as a consumer it's As long as it's not completely intruding on your gameplay. Yeah, that's that's the thing I understand having almost paywall like macro transactions. I get it to a point. Yeah, but Because that's even what it's like in task force baseball, right? That's the game. We will play a lot um And I haven't spent money in it in a lot of time not since I switched from apple to android Have I spent any money on it? Yeah, but I haven't felt the need to at this point because The money I spent in the past has gotten me to a point where I just make so much skull now I make so much cash now. Right. I have no reason to spend money anymore. Um And What sucked is, you know, I did spend I've probably spent over 100 bucks on the game to get where I am Yeah, yeah, I don't even want to even know. Yeah, and but that's all it gets you No, I'm right and but then I look at it as but it's a game You know that I'm that I enjoy playing and I play a little a lot Right and I played it, you know for if I spent 100 bucks total I don't really think that's a big deal to me if I want to I played it, right? But it was free to play and I chose to spend money, right? Um versus like Like 60 dollar games that you pay 60 bucks up front, then you're throwing microtransactions And that kind of bothers me a little bit. You mean like mbi 2k 18? Yeah, well the thing is the way I play the game. I don't have to worry about it Right, but like if I was really into building a team Like using like my my team creator and then using the my career like yeah That's all microtransactions And the thing is some people like well, maybe because of the microtransactions That's why you don't do it. I'm like, no, I just never really been interested in that Right, right, like when they added the card packs to Madden and the ultimate teams in FIFA It's like I mean I get the appeal but like if I want to do that I'll just go buy card packs and collect cards that are worth money Yeah Sort of like building a team that yeah You're going to beat me online all the time because you randomly got better players than me That just doesn't seem exciting to me. Yeah, I mean I get the appeal. That's why I like the uh The one mode that they added in Madden I think it was new last year with the out of the uh the draft mode Where you go through like 12 rounds of drafting and you get to pick between like five That was really cool Yes, I know that it turned into like an ultimate team thing after that But at least you could build the core of your team right through a drafting system And I love that that was fun right um, but It just brings up a point here like with Animal Crossing that has microtransactions I so far don't feel they're that intrusive right. Um, they're not doing full Full screen full screen. Um, it only really ever pops up one of your auto leaf tickets and you try to use leaf tickets Well, I don't I don't I don't give you a little button that says buy leaf tickets, right? Obviously obviously.  No, you can't buy apples At least one maybe we could buy it from a vendor in the game, but you can't you you can't buy it with money um, so And here and here's what one reason why it also doesn't bother me as much in this game is it's Animal Crossing When it's like, oh, pay you could pay, you know Three or ten leaf tickets or whatever it was to uh, we have this person give you three more tasks Or you can wait a half hour. I'm like That's nothing an animal a half hour and Animal Crossing. Yeah, that's nothing Days for certain events to happen right right And that might happen where they might end up getting longer the deeper you get into the game It might but but it's just one of those it's one of those it's Animal Crossing It's it's always been a game of patience, right?  Yeah you know It's got the relationship building in it Now that's how you at least so far. That's how I've been able to unlock things Higher relationship gets with certain characters the more items are unlocked The obviously don't know anything about special event items yet Because it hasn't been a special event yet besides this is launch. Yeah, um, so Be interesting to see like I would love if they started adding like medieval special event because I want I want a castle Well, I know I have a sporting castle. Yes. Okay. I want a camping camp if you can have a merry-go-round I can have a castle There is that okay, merry-go-round is my tent. I can have a castle. I That that It's animal crossing it doesn't have to make sense point doesn't have to make sense. Um, what surprised me is, uh And I knew I knew some of this but I just kind of forgot like You know the customizer camper you can make it bigger you can customize them inside stuff on it Because a lot of the a lot of the advertising everything focuses around your campsite your campsite your campsite But like it's not just that it's really cool how like you have kind of like two separate places You can kind of customize up And it's probably cool because I think when you go visit other people's campsites you go on your camper to their campsite Um, so then they can enter your camper and check out some stuff. Yeah So it's like, yeah, what am I going to put in there? And it's funny. I hate saying this this is going to make this podcast not be advertiser friendly First thing I thought when I saw the van it was that's a rape fan Yeah Doesn't look like a camper to me. It looks like a rape van down by the river Yeah, that scares me and then you go inside and you're like, oh, it's just kind of nice in here But I'm like from the outside Kind of have a better design The campers have windows on the sides and stuff. Why is there no windows on the side?  There's light that comes in, you know Yeah, I don't know. Maybe it's a something you can end up changing later, but Um, let's just let's let's let's just let's just go with creeper van creeper van creeper van is a little bit better It's just I don't know and the thing is I know it's stereotyping, but I'm sorry. I've seen too many movies. Oh, yeah Yeah, like that's just the vans. I'm just waiting for free candy to bury it on the side of the dang thing No Oh, it's funny too when I went to the shop area because it's a shop area where you can like interact with different merchants Oh, no, no, no when I first got into my campsite, they made me build a sofa. Yeah, I'm like that looks like an ice cream truck Oh, wait.  Give me some candy. Yeah. No, no candy.  Yep. It's some butterfly catching Yep, another bug catching. There's all the bugs you can catch Um, yeah, mostly I gotta say I'm the micro transactions don't bother me But again, we just admit openly a minute. We're people that participate in micro transactions if it's a game we like, right? So It's definitely a game. I'm going to continue to play at least for you know, probably the next few weeks Yeah, we'll see because it's just because I This is why I don't play Animal Crossing games because I can't stop They're very addicting Because the whole point of Animal Crossing. I mean you could argue there's multiple points too But to me the fun of it was always decking out your place. So when friends come visit They just like how the heck did you get that? I was like, dude, I got a full football team here Yeah, yeah, old post and a roller coaster and yeah. Yeah, this is ballin. Yeah. This is what I want in real life In my backyard. It's not gonna happen. Right. No And that's just always been like the fun to me and the fact that it's very pick up and play Um, because I feel like the the time it would take me now that we're done with the tutorial to go to each area and collect Like all the bugs and all the fish and all the all the items and do all the little quests for all the characters I could probably do all of that within 15 minutes 20 minutes at most Yeah, um, and then yeah, you can go build stuff. I'm like, I don't want to wait I don't want to build anything until I unlock the stuff I want to make so I don't waste my supplies right, um But yeah, it's Thanks, Nintendo You finally released a mobile game. I can't put down Yeah um You know, I play pokemon go. I know that's not nintendo, but there's an antic but play pokemon go had fun Haven't played in a long time Play pokemon duel didn't like that so much just because the ui I like the I like the concept of it the gameplay is great But like the ui just well until it decides it wants to freak out and freeze Well, that says that's again. That's not the wrong with the gameplay. That's the app. Just not being good, right? um Then there is uh firehome heroes. I enjoyed that for a little while and then just got kind of bored um I don't it just didn't feel like Close enough to a real firehome game personally. I know some of you some of you guys love it and that's fine It was a lot of okay. It's very very repetitive at least for me. It was it was a lot of okay Here spend feathers Get poles to do characters. You know, it's like, okay And then go fight basically built the wrong collecting your favorite characters I mean, I know there's a story and there's like a thing that you can play through but It's very much built around collecting characters spending money to collect more characters, right? And that's fine. So if you guys are into that, uh, obviously it makes it's nintendo's highest grossing mobile game currently Maybe animal crossing will surpass it now, but before animal crossing came out. It was uh, super mario run Love super mario run. It's amazing bought it spent the 10 bucks on it bought the full game had a blast But like once you're done, you're done Um, yeah, it's like it's like any other mario game. Yeah, you're done.  You can go back and replay You know, you can try to beat times that they had like ghost mode in and try to like Yeah on leaderboards for time. Yeah, that's all fine. I think that's cool And there's people that care about that. I just don't I just don't care, right um So but it's fun like super mario run was surprisingly Probably one of the best runners like non-stop runners I've ever played um Maybe it felt I don't know how they pull it off, but it felt like a name mario game and I'm like, this is awesome.  Oh, yeah for sure. That's one reason I don't want to keep playing too because I'm if I if I if I put like 300 hours in this little mobile game like I have with task force baseball and The switch one comes out and there's no connectivity. I'm gonna be so mad. Yeah, because literally I feel like I'm I'm playing it now because I will want to import some stuff to switch. Mm-hmm. And if I can't I'm gonna explode over here. Come on, Nintendo. You have the online networks to do it. Just yeah do it So that hard It might be I might it is Nintendo. You never know sometimes some of the easiest stuff is hard Like voice chat. Yeah So here's what's cool about the voice chat thing Um, it's not really cool, but leave it to a hardware manufacturer to try to fix some of the problems Uh, because you know, one of the most annoying things to me is the dongle. Mm-hmm Um So steel series, I'm trying I've I got in contact with them trying to get them to send me a test product Uh, they have this new headset. They're releasing the arctic three or whatever Uh, and it's literally targeted switch. You can use it for anything, but it's targeted to be Uh, it's got one cord you run to your switch from the game audio and then it uses bluetooth to connect to your Phone for voice chat. Okay. So it basically goes through voice chat and game audio in the same headset Now you can use some other things the advertiser. Oh, you can use it on your, you know Playing 360 and playing music on your phone or something like yeah, obviously you can actually your phone You can do anything you want, right? Um, but basically the primary reason it exists is there is this issue with switch and no one solved it yet and this doesn't really solve it but it Makes it a little more convenient. So it's just one cord being ran and you have voice chat and game audio Which was obviously one of my big complaints It's 130 dollars. So it's not like a cheap, but it's it's a headset right exactly Yeah, it's a high quality headset from a high quality vendor. So you generally know like I know when I get the product I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have a positive outlook at it unless it has issues connecting with bluetooth Right, um, if the audio if the audio is cracking for some reason the microphone quality is bad But it's steel series. They usually don't make back quality stuff Grand I've only ever used a steel series mouse. Yeah, never used their audio stuff. So Um, but for 130 bucks, I'm expecting really good quality So we'll see and if that works out, obviously, you know, then I can do a product review Like I did for the rap power power banks and the wall mount and all that stuff Um, because I don't like suggesting products to you guys If I don't feel like they're worth it and this doesn't fix everything But nintendo is not going to stop using the app of voice chat. At least we have no indication they're going to stop so Make the best of the situation you can Um, and and here's the thing. We're like, well, just use discord this works with discord on your phone. Yeah, so there you go Yeah Like so this could do it. So if you'd rather not use the online app and use discord this does that too. So, um Yeah, it's definitely something that uh, I'm not going to throw a link down to the description for it yet Because I again, I don't want to suggest anyone buys it until I can verify that it's worth it But it sounds like a really neat concept Uh, it's probably not the first concept like this. Well, it might be the first concept that lets you have two simultaneous connections Oh a wired and a bluetooth. I don't actually I can't think of any other headset that's done that There's headsets that allow multiple bluetooth But usually you have to hit a switch to switch between them You can't combine it all in the one and here we have a bluetooth and a wired kind of interesting. Yeah It's a really cool design. I'm glad that the product exists. They'll probably be more of them in the future if this one does well, but uh Yeah, just just wanted to mention that All right, I think that's gonna do it for this podcast. So it was gonna be a short one Was a little over an hour. Yeah, sweet Nice and short this week. I hope you guys all had a if you're in the united states had a good holiday weekend And if you went shopping for the black fridays and the cyber mondays and all that great stuff I think this podcast should supposed to release on cyber monday Um, so I hope you guys, you know found some good gaming deals out there Or whatever got your presence for anyone that you need for the holidays um, I haven't Because I had to pay bills bills before buying presents, but no, that's okay. I have I have YouTube money. Yes, youtube money from nintendo prime coming that i'm buying presents with Thank you guys so much for your support because you guys are why i'm able to do that. So Awesome. All right. Well, uh, i'm nathan ruffle jance from nintendo prime You can follow me on twitter at neat chance. This is eric moore. Yeah, that did Don't worry about following me because you can't follow him at nint prime He doesn't actually use twitter, but we'll pretend that that's his twitter. Right. That's the official nintendo prime twitter I run both at his what it is. Um And we haven't mentioned yet this podcast, but you can check us out at patreon.com slash nintendo prime Uh, the big thing is is even when the video version was delayed like last week's podcast The video version got delayed till wednesday the audio version was still out on sunday So technically those people ended up with four days early access instead of one Just for five bucks a month and that happens every single week So even if the video version delayed you don't have to wait for the podcast if you don't want Uh, because I know some people said oh, it's even when you release on monday Sometimes you're a couple days behind me if you become patreon backer you get the podcast like pretty much as fast as we can possibly edit it Um, which is awesome. So, uh, that's one way to get the podcast early You can be on a podcast for 20 bucks, which is actually interesting about the 20 dollar tier We have 10 slots Seven of them were taken None of them could make it for november Wow And they're still supporting us anyways, that's what was the thing Yeah, I do Well, I do note in there that all I guarantee is that I invite you to a podcast They've all been invited if they can't come it is what it is, you know, it's like it's very transparent Right. Um, I don't like to like make people feel like they're not getting their money's worth But it is what sometimes doesn't work out schedules, right, right? They all know, you know, it says they're very clearly in there that we record on thursday's generally at 9 p.m Right. Um, but we will adjust if we need to but people just like it's busy. It's holiday time Right, exactly. Um, but I I'm I'm assuming one of our early december episodes will we get someone because like we have one more episode That's for november Yes, next week's episode. Yes, theoretically. Yes. Yes. Yeah, because last day of november. Well, yeah, because Yeah, wait This is the last one. This is the last podcast for that's going to release in november Release in november. Yes. Well, because it was so yeah, so I guess this is the last the last november Yeah, podcast and we record on the final day of november, but it's the first december podcast Um, so yeah, I'm gonna try to get some of them in hope maybe on next week's podcast or the one after Uh, the harder thing is obviously we had two new 20 dollar backers joined this month They can't be invited until the money clears. So They can't get invited for the next week one, but the people who Uh, have been backing and couldn't make it. Maybe I can get them on next week. We'll see We'll see. It's it's that time of the year. It's busy, but I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Um, Oh, yeah, we have links to like merch like this down below. I don't know if it's on sale anymore It was on sale all this past weekend. No I don't know if it is anymore. It's cyber monday. Maybe it's on sale again. Yeah I I you feel like I should be able to tell you that but like it's a third party merch store I don't know what they're doing But I could tell you this if it is on sale It's like the exact same sale every time so it never gets any cheaper. So just dive in don't like oh I'm gonna wait something to have our prime merchandise is 50 off. It's not gonna happen. I'm sorry. Yeah Um, not unless we go with a new a new merchandise provider And we don't have any other options on the table So it's not true. I have one other option on the table, but I don't like the way the store is set up. So Um, it comes from our our partner bbtv Like oh you got the access thing you get really good commission from it to way better than we do from this site, but Man, I tried to set up just a t-shirt and like you go to site on mobile and like everything's like cut off And I'm like, okay, I can't send my fans to a site. They can't use right So fix your stuff.  Um Yeah, actually there's only one down your deal one's upstairs. Yeah, uh, then Uh, this new this other merch store does some other cool things that you get rugs I don't know why you wanted the tender prime rug But you know what and I first of all say that our our design Like this design here is Too in your face. Uh, I mean I am in your face. Have you have you watched one of my videos? I'm very Yeah, uh, but Uh, I hear you. Uh, there's a couple things. I'm going to be doing Um, if I don't get it in in a newer merch store if I put it in the one I'm currently using There's going to be some more designs going up. Uh, there's going to be one that's just the just the original bomb logo no fancy Explosion stuff around it. Um, then there's going to be one that's just the nintendo prime text I don't know if it's going to be side by side or just going to be top and bottom like this I haven't decided yet. It's kind of when I go to design it. We'll see what happens. Um, and On top of that when we launch arguing arguing with myself the logo for that's going to also be on a t-shirt and stuff design Now some people said they wanted something more subtle like, uh, like the bomb logo on like a pocket over here. Yeah Um, unfortunately the people that we go through right now don't have that option But I think if my partner bbtb gets their stuff together Um, what we can use through them actually has an option for that. Okay. Um, so for someone who wants something more subtle like that Um, I understand because I maybe you want to show some love, but you don't want it to be like just in your face I get it especially when you're like working a professional environment You know, maybe you're you're you work in an office.  I get it Um, so we'll see what we can do about that. I know no guarantees. It's kind of limited by the providers We have and these are providers. I work with back at zelda and former Um, but whatever no one bought zelda and former merchandise either. So Well fun, so we did sell one nintendo prime item at the time of recording this Someone bought one of the baseball t-shirts Nice and they said they wear it a lot and i'm like awesome. Nice. I will say something The t-shirts seem to last a lot longer than any of any of the other Um, like if you buy like a sweatshirt product, it doesn't seem to last as long in the wash as the t-shirt does All right, it could be the material It could just be my water because my water sucks here. So I've really I've really acidic water It's not good for I shouldn't even I should be hand washing with my drinking water probably um But It is what it is Um, I didn't pay for that one sweatshirt that I have so I guess I can't be too mad But it's like one of those do I keep telling people to buy something that might not last But the t-shirts last I've washed them several times and they still look brand new And obviously I really like this noble. This is my favorite notebook They have the two styles of notebooks the ones that playing paper and it's a hard cover and a soft one I love this. This is like something you could use like a planner. Yeah, um, you know You know, it's got you got the lines and like even today, you know, we had I haven't issued with the printer I don't know why I always have issued with the printer when it's podcast time. But like there's the podcast topics Yeah, it's convenient. It's nice to have my little doodle All right, folks, that's gonna do it We just extended this by yeah, we just extended this by about 10 Messing up my audio In the next one See you later


Okay, and then I will welcome Dario Canino. Good afternoon to everyone. First I would like to thank the organizers of this session for giving me the opportunity to be here today. In every new Roman foundation the only public spaces certainly planned from the beginning were the streets and the main public area that is the forum. The first town planning, Seterlain, must have been carried out by the Roman authorities since in the foundational phase could not yet exist a strong local elite, loyal to Rome, and able to assume the burden of financing new constructions. The first public areas of the city therefore were built with the money of Rome and the first structure that was built generally was sacred building that could be built on the site of a pre-existing sacred area. All the other buildings were built later and the real process of monumentalization could take place only if and when it was formed a new urban elite that possesses the necessary resource to finance architectural works of great commitment. As we know, Romans deduce the two types of colonies, the Colonia Latina and the Colonia Civium Romanorum. This last type represents small settlements totally dependent from Rome. Unfortunately, they did not constitute the jurisdictionally autonomous communities and at the beginning were not provided with buildings of a political and administrative nature. Only with the censorship of Cato of 184 BC even the forum of the Roman colonies were equipped with the necessary structures to carry out all the function for autonomous administration of the city. As for example in Minturne where the area at north of the Via Appia had already been defined in the republican age when the city had expanded outside the walls of the castrum, while between the second half of the first century BC and the full Augustan age was realized the monumentalization of the sector on the other side of the street with the construction of the forum square and many public buildings including the first basilica. The Latin colonies instead were originally foundations of the Latin League but after its dissolution in 338 BC Rome continued to deduce these colonies that formally constituted sovereign states at least with regard to internal relations because they could have own constitution, magistrates, laws, citizenship, coinage and army. Most of the data known today on the first Latin colonies come from research carried out on some cities founded between the end of the 4th century BC and the first half of the 3rd century BC, Cosa, Pestum, Alba Fusciens and Frigerle. These settlements have some important characteristic in common. One of these for example is that in all the city there are domes without room built near the forum. The structures found in Cosa were identified by Brown as Atria publica but the systematic excavation by Elizabeth Fentres or one of these structures the so-called domes of Diana attested that this building is a domes without room with an exit tabern. The investigation in Alba Fusciens have allowed the recognition of probable similar structures on the southern side of the forum below the basilica. Moreover, other residents of a certain value have been recognized close to the forum area. Similar situation are repeated also in Pestum and Frigerle. The presence of domes without room which have a look on the forum or built in its nearest areas shows that in urban planning the construction of houses for magistrates and the richer families was planned near the public area. Even in other cities similar situation can be identified. In Grumentum for example in the second half of the 1st century BC the north-west side of the forum were built some domes on axes with the main road which were obliterated by the later public structures. Or in Falerinovi where surface and magnetic surveys attested the presence of large residential structures to the north and south of the forum area. In Pompeii there is a greater concentration of prestigious residents in the insula of the so-called regions 6th and 7th near the forum. The domes are private structures but within them the patronus performs some function that can be considered public in which his residence, while remaining private, is opened to the visitors. As happens in the morning with Salutatio Matutina's use that is the moment when the pater familias received his clientes. Despite this original intrusion of the private sphere but partially public into the first forum areas these spaces are clearly defined from the beginning as public areas where took place public functions that were necessary for the administration of the city and the citizens. Romans could gather in different types of popular assemblies the meetings that gathered all the patrician and plebeian citizens were called comitsia and they took place in the comitsium which was the meeting place of the people while the courier was the meeting place of the local senate. So from the beginning exist two buildings courier and comitsium used as a meeting place which often are structurally linked forming a single complex that will constitute the centralizing element in the spatial unity of the forum in the Latin colonies of the republican age that is in other words the focal point of public life in the forum. Later the comitsium will lose its central role in the forum and was replaced by other more important buildings like the basilica. The courier instead will continue to be the central organ of the legislative power even more after the extension of Roman citizenship with the Lexiulia decivitate Latinisets such as Danda. And its importance is confirmed in the subsequent Lexiulia municipalis which establishes that anordo or asenatus is obligatorily part of the local administration in the municipia, in the colonies, in the prefectures and also in the forum and in the conciliabula. As we know in the Roman empire and so also in the provinces the political organization was based on urban communities in particular Colonia and municipia that were autonomous administrative entities. The organization of a new urban settlement took place on the basis of individual status which, however, were defined on the basis of a probable law with general characteristic expressed in fundamental forms that defined the common procedures for the urban and political structure of the new communities. In hispania as well as in all other parts of the empire the transition to the Roman administration was reached in different ways taking into consideration the urban tradition of each region or province. However, the passage to a privileged status implied the adoption of models that were based on a Roman public administration and that were common to almost all the cities with privileged status of the Roman empire. Generally there was not a total break with the previous administrative structures. Rome in fact had to relieve on the urban communities to be able to structure and organize the new territories requiring the support of local elites who had the potential resource to be able to face over the years to come all the changes that the new administration implied receiving in change social prestige and the economic power. So the concession by Rome of privileged status was connected with the progressive transformation of the urban structure and of the entire urban landscape. The monumental phase corresponded in general with the Augustian and Julio-Claudian age and during the reign of the Roman Empire Rome progressed legally gave to the public space a value of great importance and the urban decorum became a necessary condition in order to acquire a privileged status. Bilbilis Italica for example was built on a previously Tiberian center probably in the Sicilian age was given to the city the use Italicum in this moment in fact were attested the first sign of urban change. Then the city was elevated to the municipal status by Augustus with the toponym munisipium Augusta Bilbilis. It is probable that the new nucleus of Italic inhabitants played a primary role in the urban reform process of the city and consequently also in the transition to the new social status. A radical restructuring of the urban space takes place in those years and transform the city into a real moment of Romanity. Colonial Cesar Augusta was an immune colony of Roman citizens founded around 14 BC. The development of the city was certainly facilitated by the tax immunity and the protection of the emperor and his family who probably contributed by financing the construction of public buildings and infrastructures. The exact moment of the founding of Capara is still uncertain. It was a new foundation and had the legal status of opidum stipendiarium. In the Flavian age acquires the juridical status of munisipium shivium latinorum and the toponym of munisipium flavian caparensis. In this moment the city begun its face of major urban and monumental development. It spread the phenomenon of evergetism and the courier was built as the headquarters of the new munisipial institution. In the last years of the first century BC at the opidum of Libisosa was conferred the legal status of forum perhaps by Cesar. This is not a true Roman city but was used to centralize the public life of a large territory that lived scattered around the old Iberian opidum. From pleaning the elder we know that the settlement became a colony with the use italicum called Colonial Libisosa for Augustana probably in the Augustan age no later than 12 BC. In this time the city lived the moment of greatest urban development and was built the forum that was characterized by a certain research of scenographic effects. After the Roman conquest Colonia Virtus Ulyaitucci was achieved as stipendiaria. Then a colony was deducted between 30 and 28 BC. The city lives an intense constitutive activity that may be related to the legal promotion of the city which took place during the Octavian era and this is the moment when it was built the first unitary and monumental forum complex. From pleaning we know that Emporia was an opidum shivium Romanorum. The moment of a possible acquisition of the status of Colonia is a still debated topic. The granting of the status of munisipium was placed between the 27 and the 25 BC when Augustus was in Spain. In this moment the forum area lives profound changes including the construction of the particles in which the east arm was connected directly with the new basilica which oven had inside it and with the new curia. In the Augustan age was founded the munisipium of Lucentum on a previous Cartagena settlement. In concomitants with the munisipal foundation is built the first forum between 20 and 30 BC. The first construction phase of the complex lasted only few years and is only partially known while the second which was realized between the age of Augustus and death of Tiberius is the best known. The city of Saguntum as an alley of Rome lives a nearly process of romanization and holds the status of Civitas Federata. Around 55 BC the city possesses the juridical status of Latin Colonia at last became a munisipium during the Augustan age. In this moment the city lives a period of great transformations and new buildings were built including the large basilica on the west side. After the roman conquest the status of munisipium was acquired from the age of Augustus. Around 15 BC the forum complex was built as part of a monumentalization program that involved the whole city and was supported by local elite. The conversion into munisipium was of great importance in the life of the city and explained its subsequent economic and social well-being. Tarraco was a roman military settlement already attested in 218 BC. In the republican age the city was Achivitas Federata with the deduction of the Colonia Julia Urbs Triumfalis Tarraco the city acquires full roman law. The first complex consisted of the square by the first capital in temple and dates back to the 2nd century BC. In the Augustan age was built the new complex with the Edes Augustus, the basilica and the second part of the square. At least at Valerian the first phase of the forum dates back to the late republican age and is only partially known. After the acquisition of the youth slatsy granted by Augustus there was a radical urban organization which involved a new monumentalization of the city. In this moment was realized the second phase of the forum the new complex was built above the previous one raising the entire area and consists of a rectangular portico square close to the north by the new judicial basilica and on the north side to the east of the basilica there was the new Curia. These few examples and also many others attest out the monumentalization of the public areas closely related to the moment of the acquisition of a privileged status and especially that it can't depend on a hypothetical diffusion of models.


Russia forming new large units to strengthen its ground forces. Over the past two months, Russia has been forming new large units to strengthen its ground forces, but a new wave of mobilization is needed according to British Defence Intelligence. United Kingdom Defence Intelligence noted that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has mainly used mobilized reservists to replenish existing units or, as part of infantry units, from territorial defence. Russia rarely creates new combined arms military formations, such as combined arms armies, which are supposed to be a self-sufficient force. The exception was the Third Army Corps created in the summer of 2022, which has generally performed poorly UK Defence Intelligence added. UK Intelligence suggests that any new Russian formation will be used as a reserve force in Ukraine. However, in the long term, Russia is seeking to strengthen its forces facing NATO. Without a major new wave of mandatory mobilization, Russia is unlikely to find enough new troops to resource even one new army. British Defence Intelligence said, besides, it is known that Russian President Vladimir Putin is forming a network of mysterious private military companies across Russia to protect himself from another Wagner uprising. The insider media outlet reported this. The plans for the private military companies or special enterprises were noted in a new bill that raises the draft age for the Russian military. The move is aimed at countering sabotage and internal threats, according to a statement by Duma Defence Committee Chairman Andrey Kartapolov. It comes weeks after the mutiny by Russia's Wagner mercenary group, which exposed gaps in Putin's defences. According to the report, Putin's militias would be under the command of regional governors, operate at Putin's behest and would be armed by the Russian Ministry of Defence.