Nintendo Wins Todays News - Kinda Funny Games Daily 06.26.26

0:01This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. play high on life 2 now on xbox playstation and pc with a demo newly available on all three platforms also it is hitting nintendo switch 2 wednesday july 1st and catch it on discount for the first time as part of the steam summer sale if you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows go to patreon.com slash kind of funny the nintendo switch 2 is the second fastest selling video game hardware in US history.

0:52PlayStation hardware hits its lowest May numbers in 25 years and Xbox console sales in May were the lowest ever recorded for any hardware. Period. But most importantly Nintendo has raised its employees base salary by 10%. We'll have all this and more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily.

1:18What's up everybody and welcome to kind of funny games daily for Friday, June 26th, 2026. Of course, I'm your host, Tim Geddes, and I'm joined by the man that's matching me. Snowbike Mike. A lot of sixes. I'm matching you. You're matching me. We're matching each other. We're feeling it today, Tim. What are you feeling today? Tim, I want to tell you, we got good news today. Yes, we do. And I got some good news for you. A lot of people are saying I'm back. You're back? Last night, Tim, two nights ago, I'll set the stage. two nights ago I got beat down I got hit with an obstacle that I couldn't overcome.

1:52For many of you I'm currently playing The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword and I'm having the time of my life first two nights I'm having a blast. I'm lost in Skyloft I'm having so much fun with the lore, the world, the art direction of this game. I'm smiling from ear to ear going more Zelda all the time. And then people were like Mike this is a Wii game you need motion controls and I will say I was the first two nights just kind of flinging my sword around on my pro controller having fun getting by it then on night number three I met the boss and he said oh Mike you need to be playing on motion controls you need the control of the Wii remote you need to be able to control your sword as Link like no one else can you need to kingdom come deliverance to this thing and I said I don't want to do that And I bashed my head against the wall back and forth.

2:48And I couldn't overcome this challenge. And you walked up to me yesterday and you said, Tim, I'm having the best time, but I hit a wall. And I'm going to come back to that wall. And if I can't get through it, I'm putting this game done. So, Tim, last night, I blasted the best Disney training montage music you can imagine. Hercules, Lion King, Mulan. I'll make a man out of you, Mulan. There we go. I'm playing all of your favorites. It's a goofy movie. Okay. And I'm just sitting there, smashing this Joy-Con, whipping it all around. And I'll tell you, last night, I stepped up to the challenge. You overcame everyone.

3:20I defeated the second temple. I had one hell of a time. And just like Zelda's goddess's protector, you know, she looked right at me. She said, you were late, Link. Let that sting a little. Damn. And I said, I feel this. Feel the sting. Feel the burn. I feel this sting. And I'm going to go and complete the trials now. and I'm going to get stronger and better for when my moment has to come. Because just like Lady Yuna, on her journey, she had to go off on a journey. So do I. And I'm going to go off on this journey to get better so I can meet Princess Zelda when she needs me the most. Mike, I want to let you know.

3:56I'm so back, Tim. I'm such a proud father, you know? And it has nothing to do with Samira. God, I love you. It's all you. Final Fantasy X, going down the Z-hole. You were experienced peak, man. God, this is such a, what a time to be alive. Do you know, Mike, do you remember E3 2009? I want to say when Skyward Sword was first revealed, might've been 2010. Shigeru Miyamoto comes out on stage and they did a live demo and he's up there waggling and it just wasn't working. No, it just wasn't. When we have a less busy news day, we'll have to pull up. But it's one of those all time moments of like, oh bro, this just ain't working.

4:37It's just not working. but real quick I just need to say the tenor of the day Nintendo Nintendo news going on we'll get into the nitty gritty of it it's not all sunshine and rainbows but there's a lot of good stuff one quick thing that didn't make the news story but I just want to bring it up the reviews for Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition Switch 2 Edition are out it is sitting at an 86 which is really really good so you can check that out And more than anything, you know I'm a Star Fox guy. You know how much Star Fox means to me. And I can't believe how happy I am seeing everyone be so happy with this game.

5:18Now that it's in people's hands, my social media is just ripe with everyone being like, I didn't know Star Fox had it like this. And I'm like, thank God. Oh, this feels good. That's awesome, Tim. I love that. Very happy. Very happy. Hopeful for more. I do think this is like the kind of shots in the arm that Star Fox needed. And I understand the irony to this of it being another freaking Star Fox 64 remix. But there's something about the timing of this one. It being on the Switch 2. A lot of excitement. Let's go. Well, we can announce that we're going to play it on Monday together on stream. So I'm trying to decide if I just want to play it and show you or if I want you to play.

5:52Well, guess what? I'm playing it all weekend. So we'll come and meet each other on Monday. And we can decide then. Okay. Maybe. I would love to see the pro step up. I want to see how fast you beat it, the routes that you take. So we might lean towards you, but we'll see. maybe we get one multiplayer match in you and i because you know i love that stuff but i you know purchased it last night maybe a little spoilers for the buzz maybe there was some cool avatar in the buzz you know and stay tuned for the buzz everybody i'll tell you what the buzz went places yeah roger when roger gives me the look that's when i know i'm nailing it he's nailing it everybody all right let's get into it though because we do have a big day if you're watching live be part of the show by super chatting on youtube.com slash kind of funny games we couldn't do this without our producers on patreon carl jacobs omega buster delaney the psalm 20 and lax nomad so thank you very very much but for now let's begin with what is and forever will be the roper reports

6:46oh you know what it didn't register for a minute then i got it yeah yeah we at cyberson news we have six stories today oh baker's desert it's all we do's i guess you know uh kev's kev's heads in a million places today because uh we have a big stream big stream today tim of course it is one of our subathon marathon streams going down it is finally happening we have trapped andy and greg in a room after months years of talking about it they're gonna make an album together and i'm telling you kevin and roger went above and beyond on the production side Andy and Greg are excited. We have a special guest in the building.

7:27Surprises abound. Let me tell you, it's going to be a great stream. So come on by if you can support. Drop a sub over on Twitch. If you're just able to watch, we'd love you to be there. It's going to be a lot of fun. Shenanigans will happen. Yes, they will. Okay, let's start with story number one. We're talking about May video game hardware sales. Matt Piscitella from over at Circona, friend of the show, amazing human being, et cetera, et cetera. We all know that. Release the latest data from May. So throughout this show, there's going to be a lot of different stories, different sales conversations that we're bringing in.

8:01It was hard to kind of segment this into news stories because there's hardware sales, there's software sales from the May side of things. But on top of that, because we're towards the end of June, a lot of companies' fiscal quarters are ending. Their Q2s or whatever you want to call it are ending. So we're getting updated sales numbers from a lot of video games. So it's going to be a lot of sales numbers. A lot of exciting things, some bummers. There's going to be some bummers. I'm telling you that right now. But let's get into the hardware sales of May 2026. Nintendo Switch 2's first 12-month numbers are out.

8:35It's become the second-fastest-selling gaming hardware in U.S. history and the best-selling console in 2026 so far. Overall, video game spending in May 2026 saw an increase, with the Switch 2 helping. increasing hardware spending in may offsetting the dip by playstation and xbox u.s game spending rose by three percent year on year for the 12 months ending in may rising to 1.6 billion matt says this is the switch to bump physical software sales on nintendo's platform are up around 26 percent compared to a year ago but still down from the year ending may 2024 all other ecosystems are continuing to drop by double digit percentages.

9:17It's very likely to be a temporary blip. In its first 12 months, the latest console has sold 5.9 million units, placing it behind only the Game Boy Advance, which sold over 6.5 million units in its first year. In a little context there, I'm pretty sure that thing at that point was $99. Yes, exactly. That's crazy! PlayStation has experienced its worst May for hardware sales since the year 2000 with a significant 43 percent decline in playstation 5 spending and a 58 percent drop in unit sales both attributed to to recent price increases xbox's may hardware sales were the lowest in u.s tracked history and tracking began in 1995 let's stop there mike any immediate takeaways i mean i'd like to start off with the positive since we're having such a big positive news day.

10:10Amazing. Fantastic to hear Nintendo Switch 2, how well it's selling. I think we kind of knew last year before it, it was like, hey, this seems to be the right time. There's a lot of goodwill built up on the system. We were kind of ahead of where we are now with console price increases, the insane memory leak situation that we're dealing with where it's like a nightmare out there. So we were kind of living in a different world, but there was this feeling of like, the Switch 2 might blow up here, everybody. get ready for that and it's awesome to see like yeah it did that and some yeah and now a couple things i think are very important to note in terms of the the nintendo selling well and xbox and playstation not so well xbox and playstation have had price increases already go into effect nintendo has not had one already go into effect they announced it but it will be coming so you got to imagine when matt piscatella is saying here it's very likely to be a temporary blip it's like we're getting that price increase i think uh in the beginning of august for the switch too so we'll see what that does but temporary blip we're also talking about two consoles that are late in their life cycle as well right as opposed to a console that is like hey this is its first year it is the first there's a lot of factors that you're going to put into that but of course the price crease price increases will be very high up on the list but going back to it being its first year yeah i do think it's interesting that uh these numbers being like so impressive here right fastest selling game in harvard u.s history and uh best selling in 2026 when you think about nintendo switch 2's 2026 i don't think the majority of people would be looking at this like there it's been stellar so far right like i think a lot of people look at it oh it's just a bunch of ports in a yoshi game but it's like well they clearly have a strategy to get these things out there and it seems to be working and this does fall back to what i've been saying for a very long time of just like you don't put animal crossing out yet you'll wait for that you know let this mario kart worlds continue to sell and a lot of people like a lot of people keep making the argument that like mario kart world sucks and then no one's buying it and whatever it's like we'll get to it later people are buying mario kart world like nintendo are in a good place with uh strategy at this point can they maintain that when are the bigger heavy hitters gonna start to come because they can't just hold out and build a install base forever especially given where we're at with the economy and with the fact that this is probably the upcoming um price increase for switch 2 is probably not the last one i'm so glad you brought that up tim because i was going to save that for the end of like when we look back on the year that nintendo had right i think it's been a stellar year a good year but if we look at it from just say hey there was no mainline mario game there was no heavy zelda game out there right this was built off the back of Mario Kart World, an unknown Donkey Kong 3D platformer that we didn't know was going to be as great as it was, right?

13:00You have a Metroid slid in there, Tomodachi life, of course. But this isn't the heavy hitters as we normally think about with, of course, Nintendo. So it is fun to look back. I was going to ask and say, are you surprised that it's this well sold without the biggest, baddest titles on there? No, because I believed in this. And I also feel like I'm crazy saying this, but I feel like I'm being proven right where it's like the third party support on the Nintendo switch to right now can feel annoying to people that have multiple consoles but over time it's just going to continue to make the switch to a real force when we were talking about the console wars or whatever you want to say it's like for years we've been like oh there's it's Xbox and PlayStation and Nintendo's over here despite the fact that Nintendo's just been dominating by most metrics right so it's like now it's like I think we're getting closer to if there is a conversation station nintendo's in it and maybe winning yeah you know what i'm saying it also feels like it was the time to get that upgrade first switch right 2017 to now we're nearing almost 10 years right it's like a full eight-year life cycle and like when i looked at my switch it'd be like i'm not really playing that or not getting a bunch of third-party support or doesn't run the third-party games that i wanted to run as well as i wanted to run there's steam deck competition now but I'm sure for the average Nintendo fan, the family especially, who has run that thing to death and probably loves their experience.

14:24When the Switch 2 happened last year, it definitely felt like, hey, it's time for an upgrade. We're ready for this to happen. Yeah, and I also think that when we look back, we're just talking about them not having the heavy hitters or whatever. But they had hitters, heavy hitters in a way that Nintendo hasn't had debatably ever in the form of Final Fantasy VII Remake coming out, which, again, old game. but Resident Evil Requiem day and date's not an old game Pragmata day and date's not an old game looking down the pipeline of Capcom continuing to support this thing with Onimusha coming out day and date in just a couple months and when Final Fantasy 7 Revelations comes out day and date there's a narrative being built here that you can expect the big AAA third party games to be on Switch 2 day and date that's awesome so I think that this is going to continue in a very very positive way because that's not even including the Nintendo first-party titles that we know sell consoles because they have for a very, very long time now.

15:22Of course, it's been a solid year, I got to say. I mean, it also launched with a new Mario Kart and for a casual fan like me, like a new Mario Kart is a big deal, right? It's like, oh yeah, I finally get something new on the kart racing scene that I love, a franchise that has so much longevity that people know and love. So yeah, for me, it's been great. Let's, one more highlight, outselling the Game Boy Advance. is a pretty special little one of like that's crazy because that was 99 tim yeah and i also didn't know the game boy advance at that time was moving like that oh yeah i mean dude you gotta like remember that the game boy at that time was a major success like it was like a huge pillar of video games and it was handheld gaming like there was no competition at that point in time around 2001 like this is three four years before the PSP enters the scene right and it is years many years after the game gear when you look at the game boy itself like the life cycle of the that hardware it was the longest run of a a video game console ever that we've ever seen like what was it 1989 to 2001 for the original game boy like if you want to include game boy color which came out in 98 that's like a weird pro console essentially right where it's like they're the majority of games were playable on the old game boy as well there were exclusive games on game boy color but not that many like i think it was like 30 or something like that total and we're talking about like thousands of games overall um so getting to the game boy advance that three years after the game boy color even in 2001 that was the next big jump for um handheld gaming like getting it to that more super nintendo level um of graphic fidelity and all that and even the game boy events didn't even have that long of an actual life cycle without other consoles in nintendo's life because the ds was 2005 so the the but the game boy dance was heavily supported by nintendo and then also uh the audience loved it so fun little history lesson with you tim i love just telling me that i'm wrong about the uh game boy color the amount of game boy color games let me know like please correct me there because i want to make sure that we're i remember the game boy color games they had a little booty on that but yeah exactly because the other one would go in i love that uh let's talk about let's talk about playstation xbox then yeah let's uh i want to bring a little bit more into this and then i i have something interesting to bring up here because so that was the uh matt biscatella side of the uh you know just where we're at with the u.s sales there's some japan sales oh okay brought up that i think are very interesting because i haven't actually seen these laid out this way now we understand japan a very different climate when it comes to video game hardware and what they support what they don't support and how much they do support those things um the switch 2 has outsold the playstation 5 in japan already after one year this comes from sal romano at gamatsu there is an asterisk to this though because that is the base ps5 that does not include the ps5 pro but even if you do it is hot on the heels of outselling the entire family of playstation 5s and it has hand over fist outsold the xbox family yeah of course um so going through these numbers here you can look at them and uh kev if you can bring up this link this gamatsu link so people can follow along uh with this so the real quick is it this one yeah go down to the hardware sales excellent sorry thank you so what we're looking at here is the number um of sales and then lifetime sales in japan so switch two has sold 5.9 million in japan wow and then you go down and it's like uh playstation 1.3 million right okay for digital edition then you like keep going down the number on the left is how much it sold in the month yeah the switch 2 sold 26 000 down at the bottom the xbox series x 217 217 yeah look that's we understand it's japan but then we look at lifetime for xbox in japan you got to combine a couple here because it is the series 350 000 yeah so there you go there and then you look at playstation and it's like significantly more than that but then you look up at the switch too at that coming up on six million already yeah uh just in one year and then you look at the switch here 20 million stop it you know right yeah so which family is crazy numbers if you put them all together that's crazy numbers so crazy stuff there i just thought that that was interesting to bring up just because it's like we always talk about oh the xbox doesn't sell in japan and you know nintendo does playstation does we can look at these numbers like this is what we're talking about these lifetime sales on the right there i think are very very just key for the japan conversation that's wild yeah um and then kev the next link i have there so steven totillo uh over at game file put out a chart that is showing off the xbox series ps5 and switch to price increases over time so you can kind of follow it here on on the left and you know 2020 of where they started at and then kind of where they're going to.

20:44You can see the Switch 2 starting in 2025 at 450, but then as we get to the end of 2026, it's going to go up to 500. This chart sucks. To see it laid out this way, Mike, how do you feel? Only increases is very unfortunate, Tim. I brought us up some sales of the numbers. We heard the Xbox news earlier in the week of that all going up, but it is crazy that right now a PS5 Pro is$900, right? We're sitting and looking at an Xbox Series X for $649, and all of that price is going up next month, two months from now. It sucks. This should be going down. It's been six years. Eight years, it should be going down.

21:31Game Boy Advance started at$100. By the end of it, they were giving it away. I'm joking, but not by much. We've talked about it so much that back in my day, consoles got cheaper and it's like yeah not only is that not happening they're getting more and more expensive with no stop in sight and and now this is where i want to bring in some like really bad news my favorite one the xbox series s with this price increase will be as much as the x was at launch yeah that was the cheapest way to play yeah way to get into console gaming crazy so um again like i was saying it was kind of hard to organize today's news just because there's like so much of it but i'm trying to like build a narrative here with uh what the stories actually are so we're looking at these price increases of consoles we're seeing the hardware sales kind of flounder and just dramatically dip for playstation and xbox nintendo's going up but how long can they maintain that after the price increase what's that going to look like like it's going to be bad right like it's going to do you think so i mean they have some heavy hitters still right like when you announce a new Mario game, a new Zelda game, that's got to see some boosts still, though, even with the price increase.

22:42But what if the Switch 2 is$700, Mike? Then we stop everything. You get what I'm saying, though? Then we stop everything. They're not there yet, but they're just$200 away. And I now want to bring in two different news stories, and we might end up talking more about these next week, but I just want to give a couple top-level headlines for us to understand the context of this is not going to get better. These numbers are going to continue to get worse. So, Lenovo warns high memory prices are the new normal through 2030 as DRAM and NAND may never return to early 2025 levels. This comes from Hassan Mouchtaba at WCC Tech.

23:17Memory shortages are worsening each passing day and major players have signaled the markets to brace for far worse hits in the coming years as supply demand gaps widen. Micron just stated that things are out of their hands as they cannot fulfill the demand even for their strategic and top-level customers, while Samsung and SK Hynix have made similar statements. These companies are making massive profits from the ongoing AI boom, but with no stopping in sight, it looks like high memory prices are here for the long haul. Memory prices beyond 2030 will not reach the levels they were a year ago as Lenovo lays out its survival guide for the Ramageddon.

23:57I need this to be clear to everybody, and Mike, I need you to understand micron and samsung and this s case hynix they are the ones that make and sell the memory if they are saying in the coming years supply demand gaps are widening prepare for this to be far worse that means our consoles are going to go up in price this is not the end these price Like it's going to continue to spike to the point that the switch to might be$700 in the coming years easily. And that's not fear mongering. That's not doom and gloom. That's just everybody. This is the reality. And I think that a lot of the world is going to get hit with a reality check soon because here we are sitting at this desk and we've sat at this desk for a long time now covering these stories.

24:49Y 'all have been listening. Y 'all know. Y 'all know that AI is causing the RAM shortages. They're making a ton of money, but they don't have enough supply to be able to even keep supporting this to make more money to the level they need to, which raises the price of all of our video game consoles. And we've been talking about that over and over and over. And as gamers, we're upset. We're on social media. We're talking about it. We're on podcast time about it, listening to it, talking to our friends about how much this sucks and looking at all of it and being like, wow, Now, it's not Xbox making bad moves or PlayStation making bad moves and Nintendo making bad moves.

25:24They're making bad moves as well. I'm not saying they're not. But what I'm saying is everybody is fucked because of this. I think that we are about to hit a new level of mainstream people having this conversation and it becoming a much bigger conversation with normies of like, what the fuck is going on? Because let me bring this in. This was from two days ago. Apple just increased prices on almost all of its products. This comes from Joe over at MacRumors. Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook said price increases were unavoidable. Apple indicating that it needs to begin raising prices suggests that additional price increases might occur later.

26:06So this is just the beginning. On the other hand, Apple noting that it's working tirelessly to find solutions suggests that prices might eventually come down again. That's very hopeful thinking as far as I'm concerned. Apple yesterday raised prices on many of its products. So I'm just going to jump ahead and get to the point here. Every product in the Apple line had price increases to an insane degree that would make you sick to your stomach, except for the iPhone and I think the Apple Pencil. and uh the apple so sorry iphone apple watch airpods studio display and apple pencil are the only unaffected product lines guess what though mike those will be affected soon those will be affected guess what that's when the general public goes what the fuck is this that's what i'm saying that's what i'm saying and we are so close to that being a reality will it be this september or october when the new phones are revealed probably probably but like let me just give you some actual numbers here so you can understand how fucking bad this is and how bad this is going to continue to be for video games.

27:11The HomePod Mini, the little tiny speaker that Apple has that was$100 is now $130. So a$30 increase for that thing. Well, you don't want that. Oh, no. Apple TV which I love and is one of my most easily recommendable products to buy if you are interested in home theater period. is going up from$200. Sorry, you're going from$130 to$200. A$70 increase. That is unbelievable. If you want the one with the Ethernet port, it's$250. And you know what you say to that, Tim? I'll just stick with the apps on the television. You know what I mean? Well, the TVs are going to go up. What's happening here, Mike, is like some of these things, they don't have RAM.

28:00These things don't have RAM. The price of these things are going up to offset the things that do have RAM. Everything is going up. And so let's keep going down this. iPads up$100. The iPad Air up$150. The iPad Pro up$200. MacBook Pro up$300. The iMac up$200. They just put out the MacBook Neo, which the whole point of that is being the entry level, college kids can buy this. This is for anybody. And for like the last year, for the first time in so long, Apple had debatably the best entry-level laptop product for the most people from a financial perspective. Well, even that's going up$100. As we go through even more, the Mac Studio is going up$1 ,300.

28:50A$1 ,300 increase because that has RAM. All right? Oh. when you look at all this stuff, Ben the average price increase across all this is$250 per item all of this is stuff that, yeah we've been talking about video games this, when we're talking about you freaking moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas going to the goddamn Apple store to buy any product and the already expensive products are now this level of like excuse me? this is bad, Mike It's all happening, Tim. And like you said, soon enough, it will come to the iPhone, the Apple Watch, the AirPods, the ones that are like the big movers for this team.

29:33And that's when everyone's going to be asking the question, what is going on here? Yeah. And at that point, it's too late. It's too late now. Yeah. Because that's the thing is like with Micron saying that like essentially throwing their hands off and being like, we're making hella money. At some point, it's going to stop, you know, just because at that point, they, they, I is just going to take over and kill everybody. Like it's fucking terrifying. with where we're at here. And I just like, I'm saying it right now. The Switch 2 is going to end up costing$700. And I hope that I'm wrong. I hope that this clip, whoever's clipping this out right now, is like, this guy's a fucking idiot.

30:07That'll never happen. And I hope you're right. But with all of this, with the Apple news, with the Micron news, with where we're at, with the hardware sales news, all of this is painting a very, very, very bad picture. And we're going to have, we're going to talk about it for a long, long time. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. We're going to take a quick break from a word from our sponsors. When we get back, we have some really good news. So stay tuned for that. This episode is brought to you by High on Life 2. Just four months after the February release of High on Life 2, the Squatch Games team is back with the Kind of Funny crew.

30:42Last time the devs stopped by, the game hadn't been released, which forced them into a very painful, agonizing secrecy. Today, though, the NDAs are off, and they can pretty much say whatever they want without getting yelled at. Mostly, they really want to talk about the following, though. A demo is now available for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC as of this week. Also, High on Life 2 is on sale for the first time as part of Steam's Summer Sale, which kicks off June 25th. High on Life 2 hits Nintendo Switch 2 on July 1st. Those are in no particular order of importance to us, but for those of you listening, feel free to rank them yourselves and argue about them in the comments.

31:18This episode's brought to you by Factor. Sometimes hunger strikes and you are just exhausted. or you're hosting shows back to back to back and you just don't have it in you to set up and prepare the whole meal you thought you'd have time for. That's why so many of us here at Kind of Funny love Factor. Factor makes it easy with fully prepared meals designed by dieticians and crafted by chefs so you can eat well without the shopping or cooking. On many occasions, Factor's completely saved Greg and Jen when they needed it most. Every meal is crafted with functional ingredients, lean proteins, colorful veggies, whole foods, and healthy fats.

31:53Factor bans 175 plus ingredients. No artificial colors, no sweeteners, no high fructose corn syrup, no refined seed oils, just nutrient-dense food. For more choices to better nutrition, that's why 97 % of customers say that Factor helped them live a healthier life. Feel the difference no matter your routine. Head to factomeals.com slash kindoffunny50off and use code kindoffunny50off to get 50 % off and free daily greens per box with new subscription only while supplies last until September 27th, 2026. See website for more details. We have some good news though, Mike. I'll take some good news. I was trying to come up with the headline for the show and I was like, I was trying to not focus on the bad.

32:36So I was like, what is the good here? And it's like, well, sales wise, Nintendo's doing pretty good. But there was one other news story that I'm like, oh, you know what? Nintendo has won the day. Nintendo wins the news today because of story number two. Nintendo has raised its employees base salary by 10%. This comes from Sicker at MyNintendoNews. Nintendo president Shantaro Furukawa has stated to shareholders that the Kyoto-based company has now raised its base salary for employees by 10 % in a move to retain talent. Here's what he told investors today via machine translation. Quote, we maintain salaries at an appropriate level.

33:12We believe it's important to ensure that compensation remains at an appropriate standard. For example, we've increased pay, including raising base salaries by 10%. what that's a nice little moment right there you don't get that often in the video game news sector here what one of the fucking big three is doing this telling shareholders letting them know hey that's what we're gonna do we got to keep the talent we got to try to keep our people happy keep them here with us because this landscape is insane and let's let's get it up that's great You know, jumping back into it, here's our mandatory Jason Schreier shout out.

33:51One of the many amazing videos that Jason Schreier has put out recently was talking about how is it possible that Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy is such a success, such critical hit, so actually good, and all coming out so close together. This feels like we've got a trilogy within seven years when we haven't got a Naughty Dog game in seven years, right? How is that possible? And the answer was maintaining a team, keeping a team together, keeping people happy and making sure that the knowledge that they have built together as a team creatively and technically can continue to allow them to jump to the next project and not have to start from scratch, reinvent the wheel, figure things out.

34:35Nintendo does very similar things within its teams. It's a different strategy, but they allow their teams to cook. They allow the teams to finish a game and they just kind of put it on the side and wait to put it out at the right time. We've seen this now many different times. And things like this, it's like that's how you retain the talent that you have. And there's not many more talented than the studios at Nintendo. So it's very good and important for them to make sure that they retain these people. Because these are the people that are resulting in 5.9 million sales of the Switch 2. in all of these Nintendo video games being some of the shining examples in the industry of system sellers, of games that you can put out that will sell millions of units and of hardware.

35:20So yes, retain them, treat them right. This is awesome. Fantastic news, especially because we're going to circle to the next story and talk about a game where we saw some slimy people trying to get out of just paying some bonuses and doing everything they could to jump through any hoop to avoid paying those employees. so got it we have more coming with this celebrate bungee news just a small win is very nice and nintendo to do that one of the big three very cool to see yeah yeah and uh it's not actually official yet but the rumblings i've been seeing uh from people on online it's like oh next week looks like some realities of the bungee situation are going to come out where it's like oh okay a lot of people uh things are happening at certain times because that's when certain stocks are best oh okay this bonuses and what it's like all right this is some nasty dirty stuff but hey nintendo good stuff i hope that this maintains like the reality is we're in a world that they're not immune from no one is like things are about to get or already are very bad so um it's just nice to finally have some good news to talk about and this is gonna be a fun news topic right now this next one let's jump into the next one circana released the top 10 selling games of May 2026.