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I'm sure it'll be fun, but I'm not thrilled about Nintendo bumping the price up to $80 even before paid DLCs inevitably get added on top. Plus if the last Mario

I'm sure it'll be fun, but I'm not thrilled about Nintendo bumping the price up to $80 even before paid DLCs inevitably get added on top. Plus if the last Mario Kart is any indication then the price will barely get reduced over the entire lifecycle of the Switch 2.

hombre_fatal 1y ago
$80 today is still cheaper than paying $60 a couple decades ago. https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm Also games have only become more expensive to make since then and gamer expectations have only increased.
- op00to 1y ago
  Games are more expensive, but the market of gamers is larger. We can do this back and forth all day! The clear fact is that when consumers are getting squeezed, there will be backlash against price raises like this. I have never missed a Nintendo console since the Wii. I won’t be buying a switch 2.
  - gjsman-1000 1y ago
    > Games are more expensive, but the market of gamers is larger. Actually there's been studio bankruptcy after studio bankruptcy, due to a massive contraction post-COVID, and the rise of mobile gaming eating away at casual gamers. Even Ubisoft earlier this year was having some people giving 30% odds of bankruptcy. As stated elsewhere, games have literally never been cheaper. Even at the launch of the Nintendo Switch, a $60 game in 2017 is the equivalent of $77 today. The launch price of Mario Kart World, in real purchasing power, is completely identical to what Mario Kart 8 launched at. The complaints, therefore, scream entitlement over logic - games must always be bigger, larger, better, and unaffected by 3 decades of inflation. Or it's anti-consumer, as though Nintendo put a gun to their head forcing a purchase alongside toilet paper. (In my opinion, a luxury good not in any way necessary for a good life by definition cannot be anti-consumer, or otherwise Gucci would be the king of anti-consumer practices.)
  - hombre_fatal 1y ago
    Super Mario Kart for the SNES cost $55 in 1992 ($128 in today's money). If it was worth it then, then surely a much bigger game for 60% of the price is an even better deal. The complaints don't really seem based in reality.
    - charcircuit 1y ago
      >If it was worth it then, then surely a much bigger game for 60% of the price is an even better deal. Whether a game is worth it is different for different people. When you expand your audience beyond enthusiasts then people will not be willing to pay as much money for a game. Saying that enthusiasts will see it as a good deal when most of the audience are notenthusiasts. does not mean too much.
    - whoisyc 1y ago
      The complaints are likely coming from heavy gamers who are more exposed to game prices because they buy more games and are also way more vocal online. Nintendo sold 151 million switches but only 1,391 million games [1], meaning on average a Nintendo switch user bought less than ten games. I doubt spending maybe an extra $20 a year would be considered unacceptable by the average Nintendo customer especially considering these games are never cheap to begin with. [1] https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.htm...
    - op00to 1y ago
      The pricing of games aren’t based in reality. The marginal cost of producing additional copies is almost nothing, especially for digital distribution. Looking at pricing changes due to inflation doesn’t make sense for digital goods.
  - weberer 1y ago
    >backlash against price raises like this There's really not much backlash. At the most, just some impotent complaints online toward random companies, and nothing at all toward the federal reserve. If people really cared, we would have seen a lot more politicians like Ron Paul.
    - op00to 1y ago
      This is just a story, but when the switch two pricing was released weeks (months?) ago it was a topic of conversation at my local cafe. None of the people there are gamers, but some of them do own switches. Everyone agreed they would not be paying inflated prices, and were fine sitting this out. It seemed like $65 was the maximum they’d expect to pay for a game.
- echohack5 1y ago
  Make the price of houses $250K instead of $500K and I will gladly buy an $80 game.
- moralestapia 1y ago
  *sigh* Could we please stop pretending that corporations do not wish to extract as much money as they can from our pockets?
jablongo 1y ago
Does the price have to do w/ tariffs?
- weberer 1y ago
  Its entirely because the value of the dollar has gone down. Inflation has happened for decades, but we've seen a noticeable, sharp rise post 2020. $50 in 2005 is worth as much as $82 today according to the inflation calculator. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
  - jablongo 1y ago
    I know there has been quite a bit of inflation, but didn't Nintendo even delay the release because of the tariffs? Its hard to see how a 24% tariff on goods from Japan would not affect Nintendo's choice in setting prices.
    - weberer 1y ago
      >didn't Nintendo even delay the release because of the tariffs? Nope, they did not. They're sticking with the original release date >24% tariff on goods from Japan There are currently 10% tariffs in place for baseline goods, such as the Switch 2. The 24% rate was announced, but "paused" for 90 days. The USA and Japan will likely come up with some sort of trade deal before that pause ends. Also keep in mind that the prices have risen in the EU as well. Games are also rising to 80 euros despite VAT being constant at 25% for decades. This is because the Euro has seen heavy inflation since Covid as well.
StopDisinfo910 1y ago
> I'm sure it'll be fun, but I'm not thrilled about Nintendo bumping the price up to $80. At that point you can live a perfectly happy life only playing games that are years old and buying them deeply discounted or second hands for peanuts. It’s a mystery to me who spends 80 bucks on a game which is approximately the same than the previous one itself the same than the one before.
- TimorousBestie 1y ago
  Unfortunately, Nintendo doesn’t really do sales. Not at the same scale as Microsoft, Sony or Steam.
- bee_rider 1y ago
  It is actually kind of surprising to me that the convention of dropping prices after a couple years has persisted in games. I mean, it made sense in like 2005. Back then, an older game looked much worse and every game was bumping up against the limits of what was possible on the hardware/in the engine. Nowadays a game from 4 years ago looks ~about the same as a current one, might have the same gameplay, and doesn’t suffer as much from the constant progress in monetization strategies. Plus you know if a community will grow around it. And, relatedly, mod support has developed if it ever will. The only reason to play a game that just came out is if you are into a specific pseudo-competitive scene; the “recently released matchmaking game” genre (and, it should also be noted that this isn’t the real pro-competitive scene, that’s MOBAs and Counterstrike).
godzillabrennus 1y ago
This is why physical games are so important. The circular economy lets folks buy these experiences second hand.

hombre_fatal 1y ago

$80 today is still cheaper than paying $60 a couple decades ago. https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm Also games have only become more expensive to make since then and gamer expectations have only increased.

op00to 1y ago
Games are more expensive, but the market of gamers is larger. We can do this back and forth all day! The clear fact is that when consumers are getting squeezed, there will be backlash against price raises like this. I have never missed a Nintendo console since the Wii. I won’t be buying a switch 2.
- gjsman-1000 1y ago
  > Games are more expensive, but the market of gamers is larger. Actually there's been studio bankruptcy after studio bankruptcy, due to a massive contraction post-COVID, and the rise of mobile gaming eating away at casual gamers. Even Ubisoft earlier this year was having some people giving 30% odds of bankruptcy. As stated elsewhere, games have literally never been cheaper. Even at the launch of the Nintendo Switch, a $60 game in 2017 is the equivalent of $77 today. The launch price of Mario Kart World, in real purchasing power, is completely identical to what Mario Kart 8 launched at. The complaints, therefore, scream entitlement over logic - games must always be bigger, larger, better, and unaffected by 3 decades of inflation. Or it's anti-consumer, as though Nintendo put a gun to their head forcing a purchase alongside toilet paper. (In my opinion, a luxury good not in any way necessary for a good life by definition cannot be anti-consumer, or otherwise Gucci would be the king of anti-consumer practices.)
- hombre_fatal 1y ago
  Super Mario Kart for the SNES cost $55 in 1992 ($128 in today's money). If it was worth it then, then surely a much bigger game for 60% of the price is an even better deal. The complaints don't really seem based in reality.
  - charcircuit 1y ago
    >If it was worth it then, then surely a much bigger game for 60% of the price is an even better deal. Whether a game is worth it is different for different people. When you expand your audience beyond enthusiasts then people will not be willing to pay as much money for a game. Saying that enthusiasts will see it as a good deal when most of the audience are notenthusiasts. does not mean too much.
  - whoisyc 1y ago
    The complaints are likely coming from heavy gamers who are more exposed to game prices because they buy more games and are also way more vocal online. Nintendo sold 151 million switches but only 1,391 million games [1], meaning on average a Nintendo switch user bought less than ten games. I doubt spending maybe an extra $20 a year would be considered unacceptable by the average Nintendo customer especially considering these games are never cheap to begin with. [1] https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.htm...
  - op00to 1y ago
    The pricing of games aren’t based in reality. The marginal cost of producing additional copies is almost nothing, especially for digital distribution. Looking at pricing changes due to inflation doesn’t make sense for digital goods.
- weberer 1y ago
  >backlash against price raises like this There's really not much backlash. At the most, just some impotent complaints online toward random companies, and nothing at all toward the federal reserve. If people really cared, we would have seen a lot more politicians like Ron Paul.
  - op00to 1y ago
    This is just a story, but when the switch two pricing was released weeks (months?) ago it was a topic of conversation at my local cafe. None of the people there are gamers, but some of them do own switches. Everyone agreed they would not be paying inflated prices, and were fine sitting this out. It seemed like $65 was the maximum they’d expect to pay for a game.
echohack5 1y ago
Make the price of houses $250K instead of $500K and I will gladly buy an $80 game.
moralestapia 1y ago
*sigh* Could we please stop pretending that corporations do not wish to extract as much money as they can from our pockets?

jablongo 1y ago

Does the price have to do w/ tariffs?

weberer 1y ago
Its entirely because the value of the dollar has gone down. Inflation has happened for decades, but we've seen a noticeable, sharp rise post 2020. $50 in 2005 is worth as much as $82 today according to the inflation calculator. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
- jablongo 1y ago
  I know there has been quite a bit of inflation, but didn't Nintendo even delay the release because of the tariffs? Its hard to see how a 24% tariff on goods from Japan would not affect Nintendo's choice in setting prices.
  - weberer 1y ago
    >didn't Nintendo even delay the release because of the tariffs? Nope, they did not. They're sticking with the original release date >24% tariff on goods from Japan There are currently 10% tariffs in place for baseline goods, such as the Switch 2. The 24% rate was announced, but "paused" for 90 days. The USA and Japan will likely come up with some sort of trade deal before that pause ends. Also keep in mind that the prices have risen in the EU as well. Games are also rising to 80 euros despite VAT being constant at 25% for decades. This is because the Euro has seen heavy inflation since Covid as well.

StopDisinfo910 1y ago

> I'm sure it'll be fun, but I'm not thrilled about Nintendo bumping the price up to $80. At that point you can live a perfectly happy life only playing games that are years old and buying them deeply discounted or second hands for peanuts. It’s a mystery to me who spends 80 bucks on a game which is approximately the same than the previous one itself the same than the one before.

TimorousBestie 1y ago
Unfortunately, Nintendo doesn’t really do sales. Not at the same scale as Microsoft, Sony or Steam.
bee_rider 1y ago
It is actually kind of surprising to me that the convention of dropping prices after a couple years has persisted in games. I mean, it made sense in like 2005. Back then, an older game looked much worse and every game was bumping up against the limits of what was possible on the hardware/in the engine. Nowadays a game from 4 years ago looks ~about the same as a current one, might have the same gameplay, and doesn’t suffer as much from the constant progress in monetization strategies. Plus you know if a community will grow around it. And, relatedly, mod support has developed if it ever will. The only reason to play a game that just came out is if you are into a specific pseudo-competitive scene; the “recently released matchmaking game” genre (and, it should also be noted that this isn’t the real pro-competitive scene, that’s MOBAs and Counterstrike).

godzillabrennus 1y ago

This is why physical games are so important. The circular economy lets folks buy these experiences second hand.