Discussion on Zelda's release impact (Part 3)

Video game pushed up their launch to get out of the way. After all, you simply cannot compete with what's being called the biggest entertainment release of all time. But not everyone back down. Not Link. Yesterday, Nintendo released the Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, and what's expected to be the second biggest video game launch this year. The game itself is a refresh of the original Ocarina that came out in 1998. And that V1 is legendary, considered one of the best, most influential video games in history and the only one to maintain a 99.9out of 100 rating on Metacritic. The follow up, almost 30 years later, has similarly rave reviews. The stakes for Nintendo are so high, it released its Switch to console last year to much hype, but after a period of strong sales, it's had to jack up prices due to the memory crunch. Thanks, AI. Yesterday it reported that Switch 2 sales plunged 41% last quarter from a year before. And it's banking on the new Zelda to boost those numbers going into the holiday season. No one knows how this November video game battle will ultimately play out, but in the best case scenario, it'll resemble barb&heimer2 huge simultaneous entertainment releases that, rather than cannibalized each other, lifted demand for both because of a Halo effect. So, Toby, this is a big gamble. I think the Halo effect is in play though, because these games appeal to different audiences. The same people who want to roam around in Grand Theft Auto is probably not the same people who either grew up with Zelda or are a kid coming to Zelda for the first time. So, yes, Grand Theft Auto is kind of this Pac man force in the video game industry where literally 30, nearly 30% of US gamers said they intend to buy Grand Theft Auto 6. So it is just obviously going to be the biggest game that has ever hit this industry. But there is room here for another audience, one who's not interested in, you know, living in Vice City or Miami. And it's interesting what's going on in the video game industry in general because it's doing terribly. So we're talking about these two games being so successful, but really they are the exception to the rule. Xbox has been laying off thousands of developers. It's in the middle of this big reset. It's collapsing. Fortnite developer Epic also cut more than 1,000 jobs because of this sharp downturn in the live service games space. Memory costs are eating UP hardware. The Switch 2 has had to raise prices from 450 to 500 in September. Consumer spending on hardware across all console makers is down 9% so far in the US this year. Couple.