Nintendo president Doug Bowser has talked a little more about the pricing of first party Nintendo Switch 2 software. Bowser reiterates that the company will continue to use variable pricing based on factors such as “the depth and the development time” and also “its longevity.” It will be interesting to see how many other Nintendo Switch games will retail for £74.99 like Mario Kart World. Here’s what Mr. Bowser had to say about Switch software pricing:
“We’re not trying to set a fixed price for all of them. We look at each one and determine the price based on the depth, the development that’s gone into the game and its longevity.”
“For example, here in the US the price we announced for Mario Kart World was $79.99 but Donkey Kong Bananza is $69.99. That’s a variable price point and we’ll be looking at it as we go along.”
Game pricing shouldn’t be fixed. Developers should start recognizing that the true value of a game comes from the experience it offers to players, not just the cost of large teams or poorly optimized products. When players enjoy through good gameplay story, mechanicns, that’s where the real worth lies. i hate to say it, but that’s why some ( and i mean SOME) games from nintendo can keep the prices over time, because they understand this.
for example, i purchased twice mario kart 8 ( wii u and switch) after 11 years, me and my family still have a blast playing it.
Y-you are not serious with this right?!
You do understand that everyone has different experiences when it comes to games? I don’t care that you and your family put a lot of hours on Mario kart 8 that doesn’t excuse an 80 dollar price point just because you think it’s worth it.
People should have the opportunity to buy new games without thinking about skipping meals for a month, you are allowing greed to do whatever the hell you want with the economy of the industry, by your logic many indie games should cost around 90 or even 100 due to their immense impact and replayability, and you know this for a FACT, that incredibly garbage and mediocre games are going to have that 80 dollars tag thanks to Nintendo? And why you want this? Because Mario kart world is actually worth it? You do realize that Nintendo has been making timeless masterpiece for ages now without milking your entire wallet? But sure. Go ahead and increase the price point, it’s not like we are living in a crisis right now.
What a stupid thing to say.🤨 If someone has to “skip meals for a month” just because they bought a game for $80, something’s fundamentally wrong in this persons life.
…it was…it was an exaggeration…
Speaking from a place of privilege I presume… not eveyone lives in the U.S. or Europe, dumbass.
Are you replying to me? If yes, THIS is an even more stupid thing to say.
To be fair, gaming is a luxury. If you don’t have enough to eat, game prices should be the last thing you should be concern about.
Yes its like putting food on the table.
Exactly. I’m not even going through a hard time but I know times are getting harder so I’m passing up on so many games and I’ll definitely be skipping the Switch, at least for now. This lunatic in charged has made a huge mess of everything, that o rather be prepared if something happens.
Who are you talking about?
Your daddy
That’s like saying movies are a luxury. Entertainment is a human need, and the example was OBVIOUSLY an exageration, do you people don’t know what an hyperbole is? what Tentri is saying is that, we went from being able to comfortably afford games alongside our basics needs, to now having to think twice if we even want to play a game.
And it’s perplexing so many of you are ok with that, and it’s not like you people are just “understanding” the reasons for the price but disagreeing with it, but straigt-up thinking it’s not only fine, but something that should be encouraged. Do you people realize that the value of something like a videogame is heavily subjective? do any of you actually think ubisoft games are worth 70/80? because ubisoft does, and thanks to nintendo, they have all the justification to sell their games at a higher price, because ANYONE can say “yeah, my game is worth 80 dollars”, and you wouldn’t know until you play it, and that means that either you got your money’s worth (unlikely), or you just spend 10/20 more than before for a game of the same quality as the previous 60 dollar ones.
At least with a standar price, paying for a game doesn’t feel like a commitment, but with this “variable price” nonsense, it’s just free reing for publishers to charge you whatever they want, and what’s worst, dlc and microtransactions are still going to be a thing, so you will pay even more for the same thing, and the funniest part of all of this, is that Expedition 33 just came out, a game that got raving reviews from both critics and players alike, without charging you an eye and a leg for it, so there’s no justification, only excuses, and it’s sad that you people agree with it, since having standar prices is more beneficial to someone like you, than siding with companies wanting to charge you more.
At what point do we accept things have increased in price globally. Everything is more expensive from labour to food to luxuries to utilities. Back in the SNES era variable pricing was a thing and games varied from £29.99 up to £49.99. No one wants to spend £60 to £80 on games obviously but there will always be price increases. Even the consoles are ridiculously expensive, £500 to £800 now. We live in an expensive world unfortunately
Bro is over here skipping a months worth of meals over a $10 price hike. It’s $10 dollars!!!! In today’s economy that’s like $4.
You say you don’t care if his family experienced years of fun on MK8. But I say I don’t give a shit about you skipping meals for a month. Shut of matter of fact I hope it does you in. We don’t need people like you in the community.
Nintendo is gonna higher up the price of the games by 10 dollars every year and this dude will be like “JUST 10 DOLLARS HIGHER BRO ITS NOT THAT MUCH BRO 120 FOR A GAME IS ACTUALLY NOT THAT BAD!!!!!”
Yeah aight man, Nintendo is not getting greedier and paying their stuff full price will not give them support for their anti consumer decisions.
True but it’s the consumer themselves that are greedy for lower prices it’s just Nintendo trying to make money and that’s is business.
The consumers are greedy for asking the same price as always?????? What are you talking about?????
You make a lot of assumptions that are all worst case/negative. What part of Nintendo history ever makes you say with they will raise the price $10 every year?
“It’s $10 dollars!!!! In today’s economy that’s like $4”
In what kind of magical world are you living?
Cause if open up the news right now, I’m gonna see people the majority of the people struggling living paycheck to paycheck.
Year after will be 20 then 30 then 40 get my point? Don’t enable such behavior.
People like you are funny, it’s like, rather than supporting something that benefits you entirely, such as standar game prices so you can buy and play more games, you are more concerned on consuming and not missing out, that you are willing to justify spending more for less. Really wish people like you couldn’t afford any of these things so maybe then you would get where are others comming from, and why it’s such nonsense to have “variable prices” based solely on what publishers THINK their game is worth, not if it’s actually worth it.
So sad to see such a waste of space and time like you and some of the others in the comments. We don’t need people like you in this or any other community.
Well, first of all, i did say that just Some games followed this rule, not all of them, second, that you have to understand that prices were never meant to be foxed in the first place. As far as i remember games have been more or less on the same price range and they were never a cheap thing. Yes, i can agree with you that a game that charges me 60$ plus microtransactions and DLC is pushing too far, but historically speaking, the big nintendo games are a conplete package and never asked me for more money in order for them to feel complete.
Also, Chill.
Games being complete should be a standard for the industry, we should not pay more because the game is complete, that should be the bare minimum for a game.
Yes i think you are right. I agree with this
I can agree with that statement.
I am absolutely fine with this. I’d rather pay a little more for a more extensive game over in app/game purchases every few months. I don’t mind DLC when it’s something they have developed after the main game development has been fully implemented, similar to the breath of the wild.
Problem is, we were already paying a little more. Now we are paying A LOT more.
Nintendo could make you pay 150 dollars for a Mario game, and you guys would be like “you know what, if you think about it…I think is worth it at the end of the day”
Just a quick question: Did you rage the same way, when Sony raised their prices for games with the PS5?
No cause I dont like PlayStation. I like Nintendo?
Quick question Michael, are you ok with Nintendo becoming more corporate and greedy like PlayStation?
Unlike you, I understand companies need to be “greedy”, or else they want make any money and eventually cease to exist. 🤷♂️
And based what you can read about salary of Nintendo executives, Nintendo (in comparison to other companies) isn’t really that greedy.
Unlike I understand that we are getting poorer and poorer and companies are getting richer and richer, but sure, keep believing that putting Mario kart world at 60 bucks would have put Miyamoto under a bridge buddy. OH and do me a favor Could you please buy that 10 dollars switch 2 guide tour game? I heard that if that game sells poorly Miyamoto will have to sell his kidney to maintain Nintendo afloat, and i would HATE to see that!
Yes no kidding and the rich people are going to keep getting richer and richer.
People like you are really pathetic and know nothing else than whining and complaining. 😑
And yes, I will buy Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour for 10 bucks, thank you. Because I can afford it and if I can not afford something, I’m either saving money for it, or don’t buy it at all. But I don’t rage and whine about, how bad and greedy everyone is.
Purely out of curiosity, why do you want to buy Welcome Tour? I technically could afford it, but I do not see any value in buying the application. It barely looks like a game to me, and I’d only spend probably an hour at most messing around in it. I just want a different perspective than my own, if you wouldn’t mind sharing it.
If a game is more expensive to make than another, then I could see the value of charging more for the product. What I would appreciate the most is that Nintendo would be up front about that if it’s the case rather than using corporate speak that’s vague enough to mean anything. I don’t want to interpret the correct answer from them; I just want them to say in plain text what they mean and why they think one game is worth more than another.
Oops, sorry, this was supposed to be a reply to Sofiana, not you, Michael. My apologies.
“STOP COMPLAINING” no. I don’t like Nintendo’s new decisions. Deal with it.
No you just rage and whine and complain about other people not being able to afford something due to corporate greed. Makes you seem like worse than a child.
Too bad you know that isn’t how it’s going to go. More and more of their games will come out with dlc that originally would have been in the games.
Yes but no, people, the price of games is not fixed like that at all…
It depends on a (very) large number of factors: the time, the number of personnel involved, the tools used (using a third-party 3D engine or developing one is very expensive too..) etc etc…
I have mentioned the main ones, but it is a real ecosystem
It’s not for nothing that many indies release games in an old-school way; It’s cheaper, so they sell cheaper and can hope to make it profitable quite quickly.
If a game is more expensive to make than another, then I could see the value of charging more for the product. What I would appreciate the most is that Nintendo would be up front about that if it’s the case rather than using corporate speak that’s vague enough to mean anything. I don’t want to interpret the correct answer from them; I just want them to say in plain text what they mean and why they think one game is worth more than another.
FYI this is already the way most Console games are priced in Japan. So japanese people already accustomed to variable pricing. The bigger scope and more polished the games the more expensive it will be priced.
When I look at the pricing, including the paid console demo, I’m really wondering if they’re not gonna be selling Switch 2 with big loss. Maybe it’s just fat too expensive for them to manufacture, so they raise the games prices instead of releasing a 800 dollar console. I mean, selling consoles with loss is nothing new (Switch, 3DS, PS3…), but maybe this time it’s significantly bigger.
The price of games has nothing to do with the price of a machine, let’s not forget that the world economic situation means that all prices have increased. and it’s not about to stop, I don’t know the cost price of the console but it’s very likely that Nvidia has sold off its components for Nintendo, which is a “chance” if I may say so, Sony and Microsoft have just increased their price again, it doesn’t bode well for the future nevertheless
But otherwise, the switch was not sold at a loss… unlike the Wii U, as for the 3DS, before its price drop, either
At then end of the day, Nintendo is the only company taking care of their employees and avoiding mass layoffs. They’ve also taken huge strides on their environmental impact. No crunch being reported from devs. Only company RUN by game developers. Mario Kart will give me waaaaaaaay more than $80 worth of fun. Just like earthbound, which was $80 in the nineties did.
Too bad that’s subjective and quite a lot of people won’t get anywhere near the $80 value..and earthbound actually cost the company a lot to develope at the time, where they’re still paying the employees making the newer games roughly the same amount as over 20 years ago
Oh my goooooooood… this is looking GRIM MAAAAN.
I miss you Reggie so…SO MUCH.
M
It’s obvious that Doug is the corporate voice of Nintendo who won’t fight to make any meaningful changes for Nintendo unlike Reggie. Man I wish we still had him, but I can understand him leaving if he had to constantly fight with Nintendo over things like this
Too many mother 3 fans to deal with…
Damn, Reggie left Nintendo because of me… my bad!
Nintendo & Bowser keep talking about variable pricing, but when Nintendo games never go on sale, that seems pretty fixed to me.
1st party and 2nd party have always had a similar pricing structure. Some games in the past, like the N64, had to deal with producing expensive cartridges, so the prices would go up to $100+ at some times. Nowadays, the biggest concern is games becoming exponentially more expensive to produce.
The reason this happens is because of the chase in graphics, which is what Nintendo is doing now. If they were still making handheld-only systems right now, games would be cheaper, but Switch 2 is looking to be a more higher fidelity experience like what Sony and Microsoft is doing.
Did I just really hear him say that pricing is based on its longevity? So is he stating that because a game is popular and is played for many years it should cost more? So Nintendo is trying to fund its Server usage off of the initial purchase of a game versus using a Nintendo Online Subscription to fund it. When I buy a COMPLETED game, I am not paying for longevity factors. If tou want to account for longevity factors then you need to account for that with paid DLC or Online Subscription Services because not everyone plays a game for years and years. I rarely every play my Mario Kart on Switch but the 1st few months I did.
Stop pricing everyone for longevity thats a nonsense excuse.
FACTS!
Shocked that some Americans are living so well they can’t imagine a world where $80 is out of someone’s budget. Instead of appreciating their position, they take the time to write out a comment defending corporate greed.
Thankfully I’m only interested in Botw3. The price drop will happen before that.
Maybe Nintendo should give you all their games for free? 🤷♂️
Since when having games at 60 means they are giving it for free? 60 ain’t cheap, but it’s also not too expensive, if anything, had nintendo kept the 60 dollar price tag, the userbase would grow exponentially, as not only will they have the trust of the consumers, but also it will incentivice players that would usually prefer the competition, to consider owning a switch 2 just because the games aren’t as overpriced as the competition.
Nintendo can easily keep the 60 dollar price tag and it would pay itself off just by the sheer ammount of people that will prefer them over the competition on the game price alone, and honestly, it benefits people like you, so why do you defend the idea of paying even more? nintendo already made polished games before this price increase, so clearly, price was never an issue for them to deliver quality content.
Maybe they should give you a brain 🤷♂️🤷♀️
Fully disagree. It’s completely subjective, a game 100 hours of gameplay doesn’t mean all those hours are filled with worthwhile content, good chunk of the time is just filler stuff, and it’s also saying that a game that has less hours of gameplay is not worth as much, when a 6 hours long game can easily be much more fun, and have much more replayability than a long game, so it should be “worth more”. I have replayed Bayonetta so much, I can easily say I have accumulated almost 100 hours of gametime in total, and I can beat that game on 3 hours easily, but it’s that much fun. In contrast, I got tired of Elden Ring quite quickly, and easily prefer something like bloodborne of sekiro over it, so despite being longer and bigger, I didn’t found it to be better, in fact, I just kept thinking how much more fun it would’ve been if it was shorter and more linear.
Also, mario kart 8 is kind of a bad example because there was no new mario kart on switch, it was the only option, and it just make sense to get the latest version instead of playing the one from a console that was pretty much dead by the time the switch came out. The “worth” of a game is so insanely subjective, that a standar price makes more sense for the consumer, than publishers deciding how much it’s worth. A game like mario kart is fun, but it’s the basic type of fun, and world doesn’t look like an 80 dollar game at all, especially if it ends up having less tracks, less modes and an open world that’s mostly filler stuff that can easily be part of a “mini-game” mode.