Cliff Notes – Games Inbox: Is Nintendo justified with its Switch 2 prices
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The pricing of Nintendo Switch 2 games has sparked debate, with some arguing that while £70 seems steep, it remains relatively reasonable compared to other Entertainment costs, such as theatre tickets and concerts.
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Despite the high price point, Nintendo’s strategy of maintaining game value contrasts with platforms like Steam, where prices have significantly dropped, leading to altered consumer expectations.
- The release of Mario Kart World at £74.99, slightly higher than Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, highlights a trend in gaming where prices have remained consistent over decades, despite inflation and rising production costs.
Games Inbox: Is Nintendo justified with its Switch 2 prices?
Mario Kart World is more expensive than Black Ops 6 (Nintendo)
The Friday letters page is unsure how much of a success the Nintendo Switch 2 is going to be, as one reader asks if the new Pro Controller is worth it.
Devalued classic
To people complaining about the price of Switch 2 games – you do know the price hasn’t increased with the budget of modern games, don’t you? They cost 10 times what they used to but we’re still only paying, what, 80% more than we did in the 16-bit era? SNES games were routinely £50 in 1993.
Go see a musical in London and it’ll cost you £60, a stadium concert is £100+, and each offers only a few hours’ experience versus these huge 100-hour games.
So, while £70 feels like a lot I don’t think it really is in the grand scheme of things. Rather, it’s Steam and co.’s fault for allowing prices to race to the bottom. When modern classics are £4.99 it changes everyone’s expectations. No, Nintendo ain’t cheap but I applaud them for always preserving the value of their games. At least this way you’ll really play them.
Owen Pile
Cause and effect
I know Matt said that he couldn’t see any justification or defence of the price increase of games, but he kinda gave one himself.
‘This at a time when bills are soaring. They want people to pay over £70 per game.’
Those two things are not unrelated.
Still, it is hard to justify paying what still feels like a lot – particularly when there are so many excellent cheap or free games still kicking around (I’ve only just finished Dragon Age: The Veilguard in last month’s PS Plus offering, with RoboCop: Rogue City next up!). It’s odd: games are both too cheap, and too expensive!
Other Matt (he_who_runs_away – PSN ID)
GC: Dragon Age is on PS Plus because it was a flop and now there’s probably not going to be anymore, because no one bought it.
Same as it ever was
I’m not excusing Nintendo for its RRP of £74.99 for Mario Kart, but the RRP for Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 was only £5 cheaper at £69.99. Street Fighter had a RRP of £60 on SNES 23 years ago. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was released on the same day as the N64 and was £70. The game didn’t even have a battery back-up, so you couldn’t save the game unless you spent another £30 on a memory card!
Then, of course, there was the Neo-Geo console released in 1990. The games cartridges were £130 to £200 each! Just saying.
Tim Keeling
Five’s the charm
I’m lucky enough to have been invited to pre=order the new Switch on the Nintendo Store but, as it’s looking quite expensive, I was wondering if you could advise me on whether the new Pro Controller is worth investing in?
I already have four for the Switch but I’m not sure it’s worth £70 for a new one (especially seeing as the ‘C’ button doesn’t interest me). Your thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Lord Crump
GC: It’s very similar to the original one. The only major differences seemed to be the ‘C’ button, an audio jack, and two new programmable buttons on the back.
Video game-esque
This is not exactly game-related, but I feel compelled to tell anyone who might listen about Scavengers Reign, that I’ve recently been watching on Netflix. It’s a sci-fi animation that follows a small group of survivors stranded on an alien planet and depicts how they strive to stay alive when literally anything can kill them, often in unpleasantly sticky and icky ways.
It features some fantastically grotesque and imaginative alien wildlife and a really oppressive, unique world. I think it would be of particular interest to those with a gaming mindset who, like me, play games to explore and experience a sense of discovery. Also, some game developers may benefit from taking influence on how to create interesting alien lifeforms and planets!
woodylfc1976
Not cheap enough
Have just been doing a little shopping on the CeX website. Put a few DVDs and games in my basket. All good. Clicked view basket, £49.95 so far. Yeah, good pricing. Went to the next page, couldn’t get all delivered to the shop for free. Oh well, £3.95 delivery. Seems reasonable. Look at the bottom and the total jumped to over £70! They were charging £3.95 per item. Are they having a laugh? Maybe £20 for a heavy console and a pile of games but not 4 quid per game.
I like CeX normally but I’m gonna be dumb if I were to pay that. Surely, they can bundle all of the items up and ship them to the store I selected. Even scummy Sports Direct only charge you once!
Less game having, due to excess postal practices.
Bobwallett
PS: the games were: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Gears Tactics, and Evil West.
GC: Isn’t it likely they’re all coming from different stores?
Uncertain future
Have enjoyed the fans back and forth since the Switch 2 reveal. It’s interesting to see where gamer sentiment is starting to fall in the days since.
Price is obviously the big sticking point and I think both sides of the argument are kind of right. It is very expensive to get set-up on Switch 2, but it is also probably worth it in the long run when you look at the last machine and its first party support. If you already have a PlayStation 5, and can play third parties as intended, I can understand the caution and I’m with you, but if you’re a Switch-only gamer… It is a good deal.
Looking at the costs. You’ve got the console, a couple of first party games (preferably on cartridge since this is Nintendo after all), the Pro Controller, the camera, a new ‘express’ memory card, paid updates to older games, old third party games that will be full price releases and a fiver for the instruction manual. This starts to add up very quickly, even if you don’t get everything at once, and that should be acknowledged even if you think it’s good value rather than calling out people for complaining, as some have.
I’m interested to see how it lands after the initial run of early adopters wanes and the unfolding economic situation starts to bite. Will we see a 3DS repeat? Will Nintendo re-evaluate and take the hit after it becomes apparent the market won’t take the initial prices? I’m not sure I see cuts if sales are sluggish medium term, but this has to be a mega hit for Nintendo, as all their eggs are in this basket. The units need to get into the hands of gamers no matter what. Maybe some more imaginative trade in scheme for OG Switch owners could work?
Marc
Evil weekend
I’ve spent my whole weekend gaming and watching films (Heaven) but I’ve got back into Resident Evil 5.
It’s in my top 10 games of all time. I’ve played through it about 20 times, and it has the nostalgia with the Lickers and great gunplay. It just came out after Resident Evil 4 so was always compared to that game, whereas I think 5 is more fun.
Chris Roidfield is just a legend and everyone loves Sheva – hopefully they do remaster the game.
Simon
Moderately hyped
Well, the Nintendo Direct definitely got me interested, not super hyped, despite the Switch 2 looking pretty special and possibly more powerful than I hoped to imagine. But it was helped by a rather decent looking Mario Kart World game, which pretty much was exceptionably more than I expected.
A world of courses and connected within a larger world, which in all honesty I did not see coming! Though it’s not something I’ve been trying to find information about, as I haven’t played racing games of any form for a long time.
The amount of vehicles and courses is commendable but even more game modes was nice to see. But free roam is pretty interesting and to explore the countryside between races is a nice idea. Definitely one of my favourite games shown.
Loving the feel of Donkey Kong Bananza’s comic style of gameplay and definitely need to see more of what this game can do, and please have a great soundtrack to accompany it. The first three Donkey Kong soundtracks on the SNES are still the greatest ever, in my own opinion, for this franchise.
Not too surprising news about the two Switch mainline Zelda games getting remastered, with some extra locations and dialogue with new scenes possibly. But all good stuff and the same with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.
The Duskbloods and Tarnished Edition of Elden Ring was another surprise and Bloodborne vibes happening in The Duskbloods is enticing indeed. Gothic vampire worlds are up my street, especially if FromSoftware are behind it.
Although my current Switch has been used for mainly third party indie titles, apart from Zelda, the Switch 2 does show some good ideas for the core Nintendo titles. Switch 2 looks like a sound console for sure and I’ll definitely be looking forward to the reactions of gamers and critics to the new guy on the street.
Alucard
GC: The Zelda games aren’t getting any new content.
Inbox also-rans
Do we know if Switch 2’s GameCube library will use the new screen’s bells and whistles or is it just retail games? I’d very much like to experience F-Zero GX at 120fps and I doubt I’m the only one.
ANON
GC: They didn’t say anything about frame rate, but it’ll be higher resolution and have online multiplayer.
I read that Nintendo really were thinking of calling it the Super Switch. I get why they didn’t (what if there’s a Switch 3?) but I wish they had.
Watson
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