All right, today we have a handful of stories for you for Nintendo Switch 2, including our first major sale. When I say sale, I’m talking about some pretty big games that are on Switch 2 right now. We’ve actually got some pretty decent sales going on. We’re going to go over that. We also have Nintendo talking about a new online play test program for that game that they actually let 10,000 people play last October. Uh they’re letting people play it again with another play test program at the end of this month. They’re letting 40,000 people in. We have all the details on that cuz you have to sign up today. Hopefully, you saw this video in time if you haven’t seen the news. Otherwise, it might be too late, especially if you’re in the United States and other countries because it is first come, first serve outside of Japan. We’ll get into that. We also have some uh news about Sonic Crossworlds, the new racing game coming up and more. So, buckle up, folks. It’s going to be an interesting video. Before we get into it, I want to remind you we are giving away two games of choice right now. What does that mean? any game you want for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, or PC as long as it is a standard version of the game. We are giving away two copies of whatever game you want to choose. So, two winners. Uh all you got to do is go down to the link in the pin comment or the description to enter. We’ll be drawing the winners in the month of August. And without further ado, let’s go ahead and dive in. First off, going over some game deals. You can see this over at Dooka Deals. Uh, No Man’s Sky for Nintendo Switch 2 or in the Switch 2 section specifically is on sale for $23.99. Obviously, the sale applies to other platforms as well. Squeakodin one and two HD remaster gate rune and Dunan Unification Wars that is on sale for $39.99. And yes, Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition is also seeing a small sale here. The lowest price ever for Switch 2 at $62.99. So, just want to let people know about those sales. It’s always nice to see some of the big launch games at least uh get some sales this early in the generation. Uh it’s obviously not Nintendo games cuz Nintendo and sales don’t go together for like five plus years after a game comes out. That being said, we also have some new content getting added to Mario Kart Tour. And normally I wouldn’t cover this, but the content is due to Mario Kart World. So, nothing new happening in world on Switch 2, but new stuff happening. Well, in tour. So, this is the video that they dropped. And look, I don’t really play Mario Kart Tour anymore if I’m being completely honest. I do still have it on my phone, but they announced that they were done adding content to it a while ago and then they just started adding content to it again. It’s almost like they went against their own decision and now they just keep bringing new content, which is all fine. Obviously, if you’re going to keep supporting the game, bringing in some costumes and some support from well, Mario Kart World does make sense to like bring this over and get it in with the Sunshine Tour here. That’s what they’re advertising. But I just personally don’t care that much. Uh I don’t know that that’s just me. I would rather see some new content, some free content added to Mario Kart World itself. Uh maybe some Mario Kart Tour content came over or something else. But hey, uh at least they’re using Mario Kart World, I guess, to push the mobile game. I or maybe they’re trying to use the mobile game to push World. I guess maybe that’s the idea here. Uh because there could be people playing Tour, obviously, that don’t own a Switch 2, which is highly likely that there’s people that don’t own a Switch 2 uh playing Mario Kart Tour because after all, uh Tour is well a mobile game and has a much bigger install base than the Nintendo Switch 2. Now, we got to get into a very interesting thing Nintendo’s doing here. The Nintendo Switch online play test. It looks like you could do this on Switch or Switch 2. I would be using it on Switch 2. But remember that game back in October that nobody was allowed to talk about, but everybody talked about anyways and it leaked all over the internet. It’s going to leak even worse this time and Nintendo still doesn’t want us talking about it. But hey, at least more of us get an opportunity to play it. Here it is about the online Switch play test program. We will perform a test called the Nintendo Switch online play test program related to a service for Nintendo Switch Online. You must have an active Nintendo Switch online plus expansion pack membership to apply. If you are accepted, you must have a Nintendo Switch online plus expansion pack membership or a Nintendo Switch online membership. So, you have to be an expansion pass member to apply. But then at the time of it, if you’re just an NSO member and not an expansion pass member, you’ll still be able to participate. Kind of a weird a weird moniker there. Whatever. This is a test of the same service for which we performed a test in October of 2024. So, anyone who thinks this is for anything other than that game they play tested back in October, Nintendo’s coming right out and saying, “No, this is the exact same game.” Now, participants will need to download exclusive software to their own Nintendo Switch 2 system or Nintendo Switch system. That’s why I said you can use it on either or. Please review the application guidelines below. So, the play test period is going to be Monday, July 28th, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific time to Sunday on the 12th of August or 10th of August, sorry, 10th of August, 2025 at 5:59 p.m. Pacific time. So, you’re going to get about 13 days with the game. You must have an active membership uh as of 717. So, as of yesterday when they announced this, you must be at least 18 years of age as of Thursday uh July 17th. Your Nintendo account must be registered in one of the following countries: Japan, United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Brazil, or Mexico. And you can sign up as an individual or as groups. If everyone in the group meets the application qualifications of the four people can apply together as a group. Playable content is the same whether you apply as a group or as an individual. A portion of your save data will be shared among group members on the participation website. We request that you do not discuss. This is the weird part here because 40,000 people are getting in. They couldn’t contain this with 10,000. I don’t know what they think’s going to happen here, but we request that you do not discuss or disclose content from either the Nintendo Switch online play test program, test software, or website with others. If you participate as a group, you may communicate and exchange information as long as it remains within the bounds of your group. Participants from Japan will be chosen via a raffle if there are many Japanese applicants. Participants from outside of Japan will be chosen on a first come, first- serve basis. This play test is expected to accept as many as 40,000 participants worldwide. If you apply as a group, either the entire group will be selected or it will not. Applying as a group has no impact on your likelihood of being selected. You can only apply once per Nintendo account. You cannot participate in more than one application. So, if you’re applying individually, please create your application on Monday, July 21st, yada yada. That is, you know, when you can actually apply for this damn thing. If you are applying as a group, please have a group representative create an application, then send an invitation URL to the other members of the group. If you receive an invitation URL, please log into the Nintendo account and participate in the application process. All group members must fulfill the application qualifications and belong to the same region. So, you can create the application. You must submit it by 7:21. Uh, look, if you don’t get the application in today, I’m just going to tell you right now, the first come, first- serve basis, if you don’t get it in today, basically within seconds of this going live, uh, it’s first come, first serve. You’re probably not getting in. So, if you’re waiting till the 21st, that’s a mistake. Now, uh, it does say, please go through the onscreen steps for participating in the existing uh, application. If you are applying as a group, the group representative should start the application. yada yada yada first come first- serve basis. It’s happening now. Uh they’re going to process it on Monday. So there you guys go. We don’t really know obviously any more details than that. I do know that I believe I believe everyone on the Nintend podcast crew is trying to get into the actual uh thing. Maybe we all get in, maybe we don’t. What I can say is how the coverage of it being handled is we’re obviously going to talk about this on the podcast next week. This is coming back. But uh if we get in, we’re going to be very limited in what we can do. We can’t show footage. We can’t really talk about our experience besides amongst each other. But there is some reason that we all want to get it in. That’s because we do fully believe that this game is going to be a thing Nintendo releases at some point and announces for a release at some point. And once announced, we should have the ability to talk about it. And having hands-on experience with it gives us that unique opportunity for a really in-depth podcast discussion. Now, setting that aside, of course, that doesn’t mean that we can’t talk about things that do actually leak publicly. We could talk about those leaks, of course, but we can’t really dive into our own experience. Also, don’t expect us to ever show images or video. Uh Nintendo Nintendo’s made it very clear that they will copyright strike channels that do that. So, we’re going to stick to Nintendo’s rules, but then also keep that freedom of press we have that anything that actually leaks is something that we can discuss. We can’t just ignore it, but we just can’t go into our own experience with it. We got to stick just to what is actually leaked out there. Cuz look, there was leaks last time. There’s going to be leaks this time. It’s like the worst kept secret. Nintendo’s trying to hide this while also inviting the public in and also having more people than ever. People are going to live stream it. There’s going to be we we know what’s going to happen. The whole thing is going to leak. So, I don’t I don’t know why Nintendo’s even bothering to try to hide it. They should just kind of let us do it. Like, let us just talk about it. Let us stream it. But, uh, whatever. Nintendo’s going to Nintendo. And I guess it just makes the whole situation more interesting. That being said, folks, uh we should probably get into our next story because that’s not it today. Uh we have updated sales from Japan that we didn’t get to yesterday because I was too busy playing Bonanza. Uh right here over at my Nintendo news coming from Famitsu. Software sales. Mario Kart World is still uh number one at 65,853. So it has now sold over 1.3 million units. It’s actually surpassed the physical sales of Mario Kart 8 on Wii U now. So that’s pretty interesting. If you’re looking at how it ranks in Japan, you can see all the other games on the list. The newest game being a Nintendo Switch version of OnePlus 2 Replay by Band Dynamo at number three debut. Uh the Switch sales actually cut in about half week over week, a little bit less than half down to 71,885. Now, this is probably because some stock was held back so they could have more for a bigger launch for Donkey Kong Bonanza. That’s what many people are suspecting here because it is still sold out in Japan, but yet they had like a pretty big drop off in sales because they didn’t provide as many units. Now, why wouldn’t they? Again, they probably want to have that big boost for Donkey Kong Bonanza. Make sure people that are excited for DK Bonanza have a slightly better chance to actually get a system for that game. We don’t know launch numbers or anything for that. That’s next week’s sales charts that we’ll get that from. But still really fascinating. You can see obviously behind it is the Switch OLED model, then the Switch Light, then the PlayStation 5, then the Switch, then the PlayStation 5 Pro digital edition, all the Xboxes, the old PS4, etc. So, yeah, uh 1.6 million, by the way. Switch 2 is now crossed in Japan alone. So, sales seem to be going real steady, real well. And then we got to get to this last story here. This is a great story for those of us looking forward to Sonic Racing Crossworlds. Uh we’ll go over to Video Game Chronicle here. Says it will have cross progression. That’s important. and the full game on a cartridge. This is the Switch 2 version. So, the publisher has confirmed that Switch 2 version of the Racer will release digitally first this holiday season, followed by a physical version early next year with a full base game on the cartridge. It is coming to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch on September 25th. There will be a Switch 2 upgrade pack available for owners of the Nintendo Switch version with content and progress able to carry over to the newer console version when it eventually releases. So, it’s coming to Switch before it comes to Switch 2. Alongside the Switch 2 news, Sega has published a new Crossworlds trailer focusing on customization and gadgets right here. Uh, with over 40 plus vehicles, 70 plus gadgets, 100 plus vehicle parts and decals, there are thousands of combinations available for players to customize the ultimate racing machine. In a recent hands-on preview, Video Game Chronicle called Crossworlds a genuine contender to this year’s Carding Crown, going up against Mario Kart World. Carding games on Nintendo formats are usually ranked with a caveat if you don’t count Mario Kart, but Crossworlds has the potential to provide players with a viable alternative that not only embraces some of the features left behind by Nintendo’s latest. The nononsense arcade racing and addition of characters from other series, car customization, but also promises to continually update itself more than Nintendo’s game might, ensuring it could remain fresh for quite some time. Obviously, uh we have some footage here that we’ll play. And look, I don’t know a whole lot about Sonic Crossworld Racing because I haven’t paid super close attention. I know it obviously crosses over multiple IPs and all of that. I have never really been that entertained by most of the Sonic racing games. Maybe I’ll give this one a try when it does finally come to Switch 2. Uh I don’t like that they’re going to release it digitally first before the Switch 2 physical version. Like it coming later to Switch 2 just means the Switch 2 version is not done. So I can understand that. But if it’s not done, then why can’t we just have them both at the same time? Obviously, they’re trying to push digital sales. That’s what I’m assuming. Uh, but they are providing the upgrade path if you do buy it on Switch One. So, I guess you could own the physical Switch One cartridge, but then get the upgrade if that’s the route you want to go. I’m just going to sit back and wait and see what happens. The good news here is obviously the physical cartridge. That’s what matters because none of Sega’s games on Switch 2 to this point have used a physical cartridge. They have all been using key cards. And so why are they going with the full physical? Maybe it’s because it’s their first like newer AAA style game coming that’s not an old game. Although I guess it’s releasing later on Switch 2, which then means it’s technically an old game because it already came out on other platforms. But yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, you catch my drift. I my inner heart hopes that Sega’s just gotten feedback from low sales on their key card games to decide, hey, we should probably start using cartridges, but that’s more like a innerium. It could just be that it’s Sonic. They think Sonic will sell well. They think it can justify a cartridge due to the price or whatever the case might be. I personally just hope that this is a sign that more and more games from Sega will be going with the full version here on Nintendo Switch 2 on a cartridge moving forward. One can only hope uh we’ll see as more and more Sega games do eventually come to Nintendo Switch 2. All right, guys. That’s going to do it. That’s what I got for you today. I want to thank you guys for being here. You guys are always welcome to talk about these topics down below. Do you agree with me? Do you disagree? Uh did you enjoy the news? Any feedback? all that stuff. Always looking to improve the show and I will catch you guys in the next video. [Music]