Digital Nintendo-published titles to be cheaper than physical releases going forwards

JayPea · Mar 26, 2026

I really hope that the reason Cuntendo cut manufacturing by a third, recently, is because the Casuals perception of the console is that all the Switch 2 games cost $80 just because they've saw or heard that MK was. That would be amusement of the highest order.

DiscostewSM · Mar 26, 2026

Moogley said:
Yes, that's true. But when games go on 50% discounts 4-6 times per year, you can't say that shop has the same consumer ethos as one where they go on 50% discounts 0-0 times per year.

$70 Sony games gauge streamers, reviewers, and impatient FOMO chasers. I've NEVER paid full price for a Sony game. $70 Nintendo games gauge everyone. The only way to save money is to buy used physical copies.

But it's been shown that most purchases of games on any platform are within the first month or so. Only evergreen titles manage to break that concept, but those are generally few and far in between. Games on sale only apply to a small group of people by comparison because by the time a game goes on sale, the purchase of said games has slowed down tremendously. Physical tends to get the deeper discounts, and sooner, because retailers have limited shelf space and need to clear inventory for the next games.

Good for you on waiting for the sales, but you are part of the minority, not the majority.

Moogley said:
Oh, and they just created a $10 incentive to have fewer physical copies in the wild, didn't they. How about that.

This is the spin folks are talking about, trying to change this from positive news to negative news. Beyond the fact that this change is only about to hit US markets when it's been done in other regions long before, this is also ignoring how Macronix is pushing to outsource the production of more cards. If Nintendo was trying to curb people into a digital-only future, they would not have done this.

JayPea said:
I really hope that the reason Cuntendo cut manufacturing by a third, recently, is because the Casuals perception of the console is that all the Switch 2 games cost $80 just because they've saw or heard that MK was. That would be amusement of the highest order.

Look at the name of the author, and realize it's the same person that has been making false claims for a long time, including one where Nintendo had to call them out (regarding the 4k Switch). This one in particular is being called out by more reliable folks. The article itself is using old data that isn't even relevant now.

It's unfortunate that folks are falling for this.

JayPea · Mar 26, 2026

I didn't fall for anything. I hoped a buncha stuff but thanks for the response.

Taleweaver · Mar 26, 2026

I know I'm late, but... How is this news? I've seen the usual - 705% off games on a ~~steam~~ Nintendo sale on the switch 2. No, not exactly first pay titles (is that the news?), but eg that rabbids crossover is usually 75% off. I don't see physical stores match those numbers.

Edit: nevermind... It's about Nintendo's own published titles. Misread thread title

DiscostewSM · Mar 26, 2026

JayPea said:
I didn't fall for anything. I hoped a buncha stuff but thanks for the response.

You hoped for something based on a claim like it was a fact, when it is not.

Moogley · Mar 26, 2026

DiscostewSM said:
But it's been shown that most purchases of games on any platform are within the first month or so.

That's true. I forget sometimes that I'm in a small minority.

However, games on Steam for example are MSRP $60-$70 too when they're big games. You can't honestly say that Steam and the Nintendo eshop are interchangeable in the discussion of pricing. The difference is that when Nintendo makes a change to MSRP, that's a change to what all their games will always cost.

What I'm really pushing back on is the idea that discussing this involves "hating on Nintendo." They're not equivalent practices. There's more distinguishing them than the logo.

DiscostewSM said:
If Nintendo was trying to curb people into a digital-only future, they would not have done this.

I didn't say they were trying to achieve a digital-only future. I was saying they're trying to squeeze the used physical market to create artificial value. If physicals go on Nintendo Selects for $19.99, you can't do this crap with the $59.99 "savings" on digital. You can only get away with this by treating customers poorly from the moment a game comes out.

DiscostewSM · Mar 26, 2026

Moogley said:
However, games on Steam for example are MSRP $60-$70 too when they're big games. You can't honestly say that Steam and the Nintendo eshop are interchangeable in the discussion of pricing. The difference is that when Nintendo makes a change to MSRP, that's a change to what all their games will always cost.

3rd-party games on Steam. Those developers choose the price of their games on Steam just as they do on the eShop.

Moogley said:
I didn't say they were trying to achieve a digital-only future. I was saying they're trying to squeeze the used physical market to create artificial value. If physicals go on Nintendo Selects for $19.99, you can't do this crap with the $59.99 "savings" on digital. You can only get away with this by treating customers poorly from the moment a game comes out.

Ah, I see what you mean by copies in the wild. Not sure what you mean with the Selects stuff though when both digital and physical get scaled down.

Reecey · Mar 26, 2026

Been the case for uk since launch..Resident Evil Generation Bundle was an extra £10.00 £84.99 on eshop over Amazon uk £74.99 for the physical

DiscostewSM · Mar 26, 2026

Reecey said:
Been the case for uk since launch..Resident Evil Generation Bundle was an extra £10.00 £84.99 on eshop over Amazon uk £74.99 for the physical

Well, that is 3rd-party who chooses their own prices. This news is specifically about Nintendo's own games in the US, which has already made the separation in other regions with physical being more than digital.

Hadrian · Mar 26, 2026

They've been cheaper digitally in the UK since the Switch 2 launched.

Desconocido90 · Mar 26, 2026

10$ is better than nothing

rudras · Mar 26, 2026

Desconocido90 said:
10$ is better than nothing

No sometimes nothing at all is better...

ChronosNotashi · Mar 26, 2026

DiscostewSM said:
Look at the name of the author, and realize it's the same person that has been making false claims for a long time, including one where Nintendo had to call them out (regarding the 4k Switch). This one in particular is being called out by more reliable folks. The article itself is using old data that isn't even relevant now.

It's unfortunate that folks are falling for this.

I've long accepted that this level of dumbness is a symptom of the low intelligence of your average pirate and anti-Nintendo grifter. Many of them lack even some of the most basic levels of reading comprehension, and trying to get them to see pattern recognition regrading misinformation tailored towards their low intelligence is like trying to give a feral cat a bath.

Better to just point at them, laugh at or mock their foolishness, and move on.

DiscostewSM · Mar 26, 2026

ChronosNotashi said:
I've long accepted that this level of dumbness is a symptom of the low intelligence of your average pirate and anti-Nintendo grifter. Many of them lack even some of the most basic levels of reading comprehension, and trying to get them to see pattern recognition regrading misinformation tailored towards their low intelligence is like trying to give a feral cat a bath.

Better to just point at them, laugh at or mock their foolishness, and move on.

The thing is, that particular author doesn't only target Nintendo. They targeted Sony too.

ChronosNotashi · Mar 26, 2026

DiscostewSM said:
The thing is, that particular author doesn't only target Nintendo. They targeted Sony too.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the author includes Sony purely to present to readers the appearance of not being biased beyond all reason against Nintendo (like a lot of grifters these days). Sony "hate" or misinformation is rarely ever genuine enough for people to keep it going for more than a few days, a week at most. Many genuinely believe that Sony is one of the "good guys" who released their games on PC out of the goodness of their hearts (and not the true purpose of countering losses from poor PS5 console/game sales, at least prior to Valve's Steam Machine becoming a potential threat to Sony's bottom line and future plans).

orangy57 · Mar 27, 2026

Interesting way to word the title, should be something like "Nintendo is making physical releases more expensive than digital moving forwards"

It's not saving, you're being charged more for the physical copy while they charge the expected sale price for the digital version

DiscostewSM · Mar 27, 2026

orangy57 said:
Interesting way to word the title, should be something like "Nintendo is making physical releases more expensive than digital moving forwards"

It's not saving, you're being fleeced for the physical copy while they charge you the normal price for the digital version

We had confirmation that it isn't that, even to the point of saying that the cost of physical is not changing. Going from $70 to $70 is not making it more expensive. It's making digital cheaper. $60 being the "normal" price for digital hasn't been a thing for years as proven by the other platforms.

orangy57 · Mar 27, 2026

DiscostewSM said:
We had confirmation that it isn't that, even to the point of saying that the cost of physical is not changing. Going from $70 to $70 is not making it more expensive. It's making digital cheaper. $60 being the "normal" price for digital hasn't been a thing for years as proven by the other platforms.

I guess it's just because I didn't see Yoshi and the mysterious book as a 70 dollar game. I thought all the non-flagship S2 games were going for 60. Just noticed that Kirby air riders was 70 dollars DAYUMMM I've been out of the loop. Even mario TENNIS is 70

DiscostewSM · Mar 27, 2026

orangy57 said:
I guess it's just because I didn't see Yoshi and the mysterious book as a 70 dollar game. I thought all the non-flagship S2 games were going for 60. Just noticed that Kirby air riders was 70 dollars DAYUMMM I've been out of the loop. Even mario TENNIS is 70

Well, we found out before this that Yoshi was going for $60 digital, but had no such confirmation of what it would cost physically. The thing is, this wasn't some last-minute decision to make this split change. This was probably planned weeks, if not months in advance. Other regions were already doing the split since launch. Personally, as I noted in this thread already, I think tariffs were the cause of the initial higher digital price, that instead of letting physical take the brunt of it, they chose to do it to digital to balance it.

raxadian · Mar 27, 2026

Lumstar said:
Indies sure. Those limited print "boutique" publishers charge more than digital.

They do have sales,even Microsoft and Sony do it. Sega usually puts discounts mere months after a game release.

Nintendo? They keep seven year old games or more at the same prize.

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