Nintendo of America has announced today that a special limited time Nintendo Switch bundle will come with a $35 Nintendo Switch eShop voucher. You’ll be able to use the code on any title available on the eShop which is preferable to some than having a pack-in game. The bundle will be available on the 15th of February.
Whoa… Giving people a ticket which probably can’t buy a single 1st party game without paying extra… And let’s face it; people the most will buy a 1st party title with a new Nintendo console. And it won’t cost Nintendo a dime to let you download one of their games. They’ve all breaked even by this point, so by “giving” 35$ you actually just gave a console with a game that cost 15-25$. I can’t even–
Then again, they don’t have to do even this much.
That money is more than enough for some smaller games, really good games, like Dead Cells.
Or can be used to buy year of family online subs.
And most, still buy that 1 game physically as they buy the console.
“They don’t have to do even this much.”
Do much is called consumer friendly. And yeah, some people will buy lots of indie games, but come on. I don’t believe that the majority won’t buy a Nintendo exclusive game as the first thing they do on a Switch.
I just got chills down my spine for that poor kid who bought Switch Online with that giftcard, and is stuck with nothing else.
It’s an incentive to ditch physical tripple A games, but they still can’t let you get a free game for that incentive. I respect you for your opinion, but my cynical mind find this a half-baked attempt of trying to appear “kind”.
I would hope that poor kid learned his lesson, if he was stupid enough to buy a console with only online subs.
But maybe he just wanted the NES games that come with it? Who are you to tell him how to spend his gift card?
Sadly, the goal of a business, is to make money, not give it away.
You might think the gift card is nothing, just free for Nintendo.
Lets say you buy Minecraft and some other third party game with that gift card Nintendo gave you, no big deal, just 35$, just some code on a paper.
But after you break it down, that gift card does cost them in taxes and cut they need to pay for the developer/publisher.
So after they gave you money 35$, the actual cost for them might go as high as 60$ after all is said and done.
I’d say they would have been better off bundling their own game as a code.
But then again, those games are all pretty much selling well, so it is better for them, if you buy their game on eShop and have to put down some “real” money on that purchase.
But anywhore, I wish gaming was rid free of investors, and the need to make more and more for those investors, that is why EA is the shit it is now.
They’re making money, alright. They make profit from the console itself(said to be 40$ per console at 299$), and if people use those 35$ on 1. party (majority will and this is calculated from Nintendo’s side) those 35$ is just a copy paste command for them. Lost revenue in form of not entirely buying a game (still the consumer have to pay 15$+ which is net win for N), but still no actual loss for giving you 35$. It’s just a illusion that you’re getting anything. Unless you buy a newly released 1. party game that flopped; then the 35$ would have in theory have cost Nintendo something, but… the likelihood…
If you on the other hand are getting a third-party game, the money will go to said publisher. But Nintendo will probably take around 30% of the income from third-parties, so 24,5$ will go away to said third-party. (Unless there’s a clause every publisher have to agree on that giftcards aren’t considered income, but I doubt it). I bet the console profit (40$) will cover the 24,5$ loss more or less.
Just like insurance companies that calculate that more people are paying compared to what they have to compensate customers, Nintendo knows that the big majority will go for a 1. party game. They even recommend using the card Mario Bros. U Deluxe, which shouldn’t be a 60$ game to begin with, and paying 25$ for that would be extremely profitable for Nintendo :P
Long reply ftw!
And I agree on that investor-thing. It’s always about short-term profit for them. Always. If a game doesn’t sell to its expectations, they just lay off studios and employees to keep the investors piece of the cake big enough. It’s sick!
This goes against what certain others have said but Microsoft isn’t the cancer of gaming: EA is!
Microsoft just tried to replace Internet with MSN back in the days lol. But I like MS a lot more than EA, yeah.
Clever Nintendo, very clever! Clap. Clap. Eshop promotion by means of freebies is a nice move. Count me in!
You can buy Minecraft with that money
Just another way of confirming Steve is in Smash
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just cut the price its been 2 years already…
I’m guessing you are not running a business?
You do not cut prices when your product is selling.
Cuts come when sales slow down.
Switch is tracking as one the fastest selling console for time period.
I falsely predicted they would “cut” price by bundling a game last holiday season.
They actually were so ballsy, that they released the bundles with the games price added to price tag.
But, if nothing radical happens this year, I would think they would release the bundles to replace base models for 300$.
And maybe base models will get replaced with cheaper handheld SKU.
If you can afford to sell a Switch bundle that has a 60 dollar digital game with it for a limited time, you can afford to do it with a 60 dollar eShop voucher. So I’m actually gonna call Nintendo cheap with this Switch bundle because I say it’s a fair assessment.
And sure, you could defend Nintendo & say they don’t have to do this at all (and you’d be right) but companies do things like these for, as Kantenstain said, to be consumer friendly.
It’s also to entice (or manipulate) potential new customers to buy their own system so it’s not like there isn’t an ulterior motive for why companies do things like these every now & then. All companies do it.
Why stop at 60? Why not 300?
From every dollar they give you, they still have to pay sales taxes and devs/publishers cut.
So them giving 35$, does not mean that is all they lose.
With this, they would at least make some money if you put down 25$ money yourself to buy their own 60$ game.
And still you would practically get that 60$ game for 25$.
Plus you get those gold points to use towards your next purchase, sure, that is consumer friendliness while trying to maximize profit, nothing wrong with that.
But made me chuckle when I got more points from my travis trikes again DLC voucher, than I got from the physical game itself.
It is really not a defense. Switch is still tracking as one of the fastest selling consoles, so they literally do not have to do any offers, deals or cuts.
So even by doing this, they are showing that consumer friendliness you people talk about.
It might not be as much as some people would want, but would that really be about Nintendo not being generous or people being greedy?
Eh, still cheap since they have given away 60 dollar games in Switch bundles before. Least this way people can choose the 60 dollar game they want from the eShop instead of it coming with a game they may not want.
The cold truth is someone being generous and/or consumer friendly can still be cheap. Like giving people store brand cereal instead of something like Lucky Charms.