Nintendo’s first post-Switch 2 Nintendo Direct Treehouse livestream is being flooded with angry comments from users calling on the company to “DROP THE PRICE.” https://bit.ly/42jFSOx
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I will buy the console, I definitely will, but I won't buy first party gamye until they go on sale. And yes, it will be a while before we see them on sale but I'll play the upgraded games in the meantime. I will never pay $80 for a video game. Nintendo is taking advantage of the Switch success.
some new video games cost $80 in the early 90s. the inflation on games is surprisingly low if you look at historical pricing structures. I dont like it, but count our blessings tbh
I agree and think that games have been pretty insulated from higher prices in the economy. I would add that games production costs probably rose more, compressing margins. Nintendo is at least keeping the quality high and not selling unfinished products or charging for early-access beta testing.
If you are angry about this, then maybe you should complain to the government stooges who are lobbing a 54% tariff on this. It's no wonder that Nintendo made the JPN Switch 2 $100 cheaper than the rest of the world
To be clear, I'm not happy about the game prices. But the new game prices are generally in line with inflation. The actual problem is people's wages are absolutely stagnated. Everything is getting more expensive, but people's disposable income isn't increasing even remotely proportionally.
Careful now you might get called out of touch or privileged for speaking sense. The other problem is people view video games as a necessity instead of a luxury which is what video games are if we are being honest.
Right, $80 is rough, but it's really only $50 if you're also getting the only console you can play the game on. And as a luxury purchase, $80 for something that you'll get hundreds of hours out of over the next decade isn't as big of a deal as people make it out to be.
Exactly and if you cant afford it then save up for it and of you cant do that then it isnt for you. I would love a mansion but thats out of my reach but am I crying about it no.
In the US wages have grown faster than inflation across all income levels since 2019. So unless you're an extreme outlier your wages have increased more than 26% price increase since 2019.
You appear to be right. I don't wanna "move goalposts" but things are nevertheless more complicated
I dunno I know this is a personal anecdote but more than half my income goes towards rent, and then most of the rest of my income goes towards bills and groceries https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/28/business/economy/inflation-wages-pay-salaries.html
We should absolutely do something about that. We've had a housing crisis in most of the country for a decade and transportation costs are catching up. It's really bad and nobody in the current administration even seems to care, but I just don't think that $10 more on switch games is the problem.
It's a $20 price increase or 1/3rd since 2020. $60+CPI since 2020 is $74.20 so $80 is slightly higher than that, but it's easier to change prices at the start of a new generation.
Games became $60 in ~2005. $60+CPI since 2005 is $98.40.
im not paying $500 to play a mario cart. switch 2 is more expensive than an intro steam deck and has a fraction of the features. with teriffs the system could end up being $600+
Not everyone has loads of disposable income to compensate for this. And it's a $20 increase if you like physical media because physical copies of games have been $70 for the past couple of years. Plus, non-digital Nintendo games never go on sale so I think people have a right to be upset about this.
It's a $10 increase on both digital and physical games. Switch 2 physical games are listed at $80 USD in the US. How many brand new full price games are you buying that it would bother you this much? I'm genuinely curious.
People like you are why gaming is a dystopian microtransaction hellscape. Zero class solidarity, zero critical thought, just a drooling lapdog begging for more scraps from the table of executives who think you’re a joke.
Gaming is a dystopian micro transaction hellscape because base game prices haven't kept up with costs. Nintendo games don't fall in price and they have little to no microtransactions. That's my whole point. It's 1 price, up front, out in the open.
Your entire argument is corporate propaganda masquerading as 'consumer logic'. $30/year for cloud saves (a free feature everywhere else) $50 “expansion passes” for ROMs they didn’t even upscale.
Nintendo doesn’t need microtransactions, they just charge you 3x the price upfront for less content.
The only thing more pathetic than a corporation exploiting gamers is a gamer licking the boot and calling it ‘consumer choice.’ Keep coping. Meanwhile, the rest of us will actually fight for fair pricing instead of gargling Nintendo balls.
I prefer paying $10 more on the 2-3 full price Nintendo games I buy every year vs the predatory micro transactions and 8 different special editions that are the alternative. The industry is in a bad place and keeps base prices so low leads to bad business models.
Right? Like with Nintendo especially they are usually always about quality and it shows in their games way better than immense micro transactions in mediocrity.
You're not some enlightened centrist, you're a mark. A hollow-eyed consumer cultist who confuses Stockholm Syndrome for 'brand loyalty.' Keep pre-ordering those 'games' maybe they'll finally send you a 'Good Boy' certificate to hang next to your amiibo shrine.
I literally never pre-order games. There's zero reason to loan companies that money. And I don't like collecting plastic statues. What I do like is not paying microtransactions or buying loot boxes to offset the cost of modern development.
‘But no loot boxes!’ isn’t a flex when you’re paying $80 for a Switch 2 game. You’re not avoiding exploitation, you’re just getting scammed with extra steps.
Nintendo has largely stayed away from the predatory pricing models and microtransactions the rest of the industry adopted and I think the high price of their games is part of that. So yeah, $10 more doesn't bother me.
If you can easily ignore what happened the last time a price increase happened in the game industry (and in this case defend a multi-billion dollar publisher) then we are cooked.
Complacent folk like you are the reason companies do this. I’ll never understand defending price increases.
Be a smart consumer then, don't buy multiple games per month if you're budget is tight. If you don't think you're going to get $80 worth of enjoyment over the course of many years and hundreds of hours of gameplay, well, go find a new hobby.
Legitimately ALL of my switch 2 hype went out the window with the pricing. The console is way expensive and the games are a real kick in the pants. It went from "pre-order" to "I have a steamdeck and that's good enough"
I'm not going to defend or criticize the price of Mario Kart World, but I do think the reactions are overblown.
If you could point to a Nintendo game with lots of replay value that will get a decent amount of playtime for the life of a system, then this one is a strong contender.
Because it actually is all cheaper in Japan. Mario Kart world is around $61 USD in Japan, and the system itself is a whole $130 USD cheaper in Japan (and region locked) than in the rest of the world. By charging more outside of Japan they help Japan’s economy. Here is a good explanation:
But it is. Because why is Japan’s economy so bad right now? Because of the tariffs. Why do they feel like they need to help their own economy instead of the rest of the world? Because of the tariffs. It’s literally just a console being release during a trade war 🤷🏼♂️
the prices of the new mario kart has people upset everywhere, this isnt only americans bein upset lol. the price of mario kart world is 90 euros ($87 USD) the trump administration has nothing to do with this
the ign post was about people in general being pissed at the prices, you said that it was because of trump which just isn't true. idk what you expected
I’m getting the Mario kart bundle so I can just pay the $50 for the game. I want the new Donkey Kong game but I’ll wait till it’s on sale. Voting with my wallet.
They can charge what they like. I know what I’m willing to spend. The tech in the Switch is not on par with a $379 ps5 no disc console. And that game pricing, especially for physical vs digital, how do parents explain that $80+ for Kirby to kids lol. Love my Switch n Switch lite but I’ll pass.
The unfortunate problem is that games are just getting more expensive to make. As graphical expectations increase, the amount of technology and man hours required increase, which costs money. To anyone reading this, don't blame Nintendo for making games more expensive.
None of the games they showed look more graphically advanced than a Switch game, they just run better. Also no one asked these people to keep making games more expensive.
Trust me when I say, they absolutely are, undeniably. Lighting systems, massive worlds, custom render tech probably, Nintendo values ultimate artistic control and that is admirable. But I mean, that's not that I study, I do animation. So think about what that costs. Around 30 unique characters that-
Two of the biggest games in the world are Roblox and Minecraft. None of these massive $500 million AAA open world slopathons manage to sell as much as Luigi’s Mansion 3. People do not give that much of a shit.
Roblox works off of child exploitation, and Minecraft started as an indie game, that just so happened to get really popular. And Luigi's mansion, though stylistically cartoony, was absolutely not simple to make and industry annalists guess that the game had a AAA budget.
Something of note, cartoony animation is very often much more cost intensive than realistic animation in the AAA world. With realism, you at least have the benefit of motion capture looking alright. Not so for cartooniness, you need everything to be hand animated or it looks like Sonic Adventures 2.
all need a unique suite of animations. Animations for steering, for looking around, for reacting to the position of opponents, for using items, for transforming vehicle types, for winning or loosing or just doing ok, for all of the stuff not in game like select screen animations and expressions-
and you kinda understand, right? And remember, all of these characters have unique personalities and unique ways of moving and unique models and rigs. You simply can't share animations between these characters. And now the artists have to worry about an open world and just a thousand new ways for-
the players to interact with the world? and none of this can be done easily or for cheap, this is hundreds, thousands of hours of dedicated human labour, labour that recquires money and sick days and whatever whatever. Not to mention all of the costumes which probably have their own animation weird-
Support indie games, titles that manage a microscopic budget compared to Triple AAA games while being dramatically more fun. Tell companies that we are fine with worse graphics if it means we get better, cheaper games. I just got the game Haste by Landfall, and holy shit is it so much better than-
Part of the issue is that there are people who need those hq graphics. I see a lot of reviews in the cozy genre - a personal favorite with a huge indie presence - where they complain about that.
yeah agreed, it was one of the first things I mentioned. I'm a fan of Extra Credits, and a rather common point on their channel is how games are getting smaller because of just how much every piece takes to make nowadays.
90$ games do suck, don't get me wrong. But we got comfy with having 60$ games for way too long, because people haven't recognized just how much goes into modern game development. consequently, this is also why we're in loot box hell, as companies needed to find a way to squeeze more money out of-
consumers, and loot boxes worked really well. They still would have probably been made even if prices increased earlier, but I would suspect that they wouldn't be as popular as they are now.
To be sure, nothing I say is an attack on anyone. You're totally within your right to be annoyed.
Just, please consider the bigger picture for a moment. You aren't wrong, this is just me saying "yes and." Yes, these new prices suck, and, we can do something about it.
Who else seen this coming? 10-15 years from now, games will be so expensive that I'll have to sell a kidney just to get a game I can't physically own.😂
Not that I was going to ever be able to buy one on day one anyway, at the current price point for the games I will not be investing in one at all it looks like lol.
some new video games cost $80 in the early 90s. the inflation on games is surprisingly low if you look at historical pricing structures. I dont like it, but count our blessings tbh
Yea I made the mistake of believing what was spreading. I checked and at least in usd the game is nowhere sold for 90 bucks. I can't speak for other countries after conversions but I know now that there's a ton of misinformation for the US retail pricing.
1. Buy the Bundle and get it for $50
2. Buy the download for $80
3. Don’t get Mario Kart at all and get DK for $70
4. STFU and realize you’re paying $90 for a game you will play for 100 hours, which is $1.50 an hour.
Kinda have to disagree, based on current evidence. Im not saying it wont get worse but as of now, the systems cost about as much as ever, and the games cost less than they used to (accounting for inflation)
Except devs sold like all their games to video stores mike blockbuster hollywood video and mom and pop video stores. And even if the prices were higher rent/groceries was more manageable for people then. Now rent is high af and everything else.
I just all those “drop the price” commenters will actually stick to not buying the console instead of just pretending to care online but will still buy everything at launch
Comments
Keep screaming at them, boycott them and let them know this is no longer tolerable.
They know they can milk their fanbase.
I dunno I know this is a personal anecdote but more than half my income goes towards rent, and then most of the rest of my income goes towards bills and groceries
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/28/business/economy/inflation-wages-pay-salaries.html
Games became $60 in ~2005. $60+CPI since 2005 is $98.40.
In that perspective $80 seems fine to me.
Nintendo doesn’t need microtransactions, they just charge you 3x the price upfront for less content.
No one thinks you’re cool
No one things you’re edgy
You’re weird
Being mad at consumers for not wanting price increases is a weird hill to die on though. Do you have stock in Nintendo?
Nintendo has largely stayed away from the predatory pricing models and microtransactions the rest of the industry adopted and I think the high price of their games is part of that. So yeah, $10 more doesn't bother me.
Complacent folk like you are the reason companies do this. I’ll never understand defending price increases.
They'll slap Mario on some shit and you'll buy it. They could charge 100 bucks a game and we'd pay it, and they know it.
Nintendo is not your friend.
So unless the game is giving you less than 8 hours enjoyment it's a far better value.
YOU might think a theme park is a waste. I might do it once per year with my family and form fun memories.
And that's before going into the SNES and N64 era where games were way way more expensive adjusted for inflation.
If you could point to a Nintendo game with lots of replay value that will get a decent amount of playtime for the life of a system, then this one is a strong contender.
Goes on to defend the price
A repetitive slogan intended to draw fire away from the ones really responsible? 🤔 Botty.
And my family was stoked by the NDirect!!
Mario Kart World (& Switch 2) are both much more ambitious in scope than we expected, too.
Want lower prices?
Sort out "Making All Gamers Angry"
SUCH A RIDICULOUS PRICE.
SO THEN ITS NOT THE TARIFFS
Jackass.
But if they didn't bake tariff numbers into the price before, they most certainly won't be entertaining a drop in price now. So good luck with that.
Splitting the community like that is untolerable.
People are suffering, so the first instinct is to blame anyone but the person causing the suffering.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-04/nintendo-delays-pre-orders-for-switch-2-after-trump-tariffs?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_content=business&embedded-checkout=true
To be sure, nothing I say is an attack on anyone. You're totally within your right to be annoyed.
1. Buy the Bundle and get it for $50
2. Buy the download for $80
3. Don’t get Mario Kart at all and get DK for $70
4. STFU and realize you’re paying $90 for a game you will play for 100 hours, which is $1.50 an hour.
The rise of microtransactions and subscription-based models have also allowed up-front game prices to remain relatively low while increasing profits.
https://huguesjohnson.com/features/sears_catalog/
i bought the switch in 2023 bought a single 1st party game before jumping straight to piracy