Let's talk about the price of Switch 2 games
Since the price of Switch 2 games were quietly announced after the April 2nd Direct, the internet has been whipped into a frenzy. For those who have been happily living their lives under the safety of a rock, let me fill you in on the basics. Mario Kart World, the flagship launch title for the upcoming console, is set to cost £75 in the UK. That’s $80 in the US and €90 in the EU. At the time of writing, this is the only game in the launch lineup with this high a price, with others ranging from £35 with the Bravely Default remaster to £67 with Donkey Kong Bananza.
Bill Trinen has pitched this variable pricing in an interview with GameSpot, saying that it’s based on “just how robust the experience is”, but this isn’t the company’s first rodeo with the model. Looking at first party titles on the Switch, we saw Nintendo’s standard pricing for games fall at £50, with the expansive Zelda titles Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom sitting as outliers at £60. There were also some more experimental retail titles targeting a lower price point, with Sushi Strikers and Miitopia coming in at £40, though at the time I did comment myself that the price for such games might still be too high for people to give them a shot. Going even further we do see the odd retail game come in lower than that with Metroid Prime Remastered standing out at £35, though this is just as much an outlier as the two Zelda titles. Much of what we had on the Switch seems to be present in the Switch 2 game pricing, albeit with a higher ceiling. What may come as a pleasant surprise to some is the fact digital games do see a small discount when compared to their physical counterparts, something I’ve thought would’ve been sensible for years. I wish it wasn’t presented alongside higher prices as a whole, but it’s better to have it than not.
Nintendo fans have, as far as I can see, come to terms with variable pricing. When people saw the two Zelda games being £60 they weren't over the moon, but there was something of an understanding that these higher price tags are limited in number, and easier to justify in terms of the game you're getting. Now that higher price point is becoming the norm, it's not hard to understand the frustration. Especially with it being pushed even higher for a game that doesn't have that same scale and depth as we've seen from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
A £34 game when compared to its £75 RRP almost seems too good to be true.
Coming back to Mario Kart I really just find myself confused with its pricing as a part of a bundle. Mario Kart World is the sole major first party launch title, I don’t think it’s overstepping to say the vast majority of people picking up the system day one would be buying it anyway. The question of value shifts to whether it’s worth £34 as opposed to £75, and suddenly it doesn’t seem so dramatic. I genuinely cannot fathom why Nintendo would choose a path with so much backlash while also not charging the price they've opened themselves up to backlash for. If we were going to fall back onto the tried and tested line of corporate greed, the offering of a reduced price bundle just doesn’t make sense. Even assuming this was a ploy to make the bundle seem like a better value package to drive sales, it’s really not as though Mario Kart World wouldn’t have leapt off the shelf as a standalone £50 or even £60 release. Mario Kart 8 stands as the highest selling game for both the Wii U and Switch after all, fans have been wanting a new release for years.
An opinion I’ve seen floating around is that this is Nintendo’s first real push towards a more digital-focused ecosystem, and I can see value in that thought. Where Microsoft and Sony asked consumers to go all in with specific digital-only console variants, Nintendo instead opted to have the same console and capabilities with a little nudge here and there. Between Virtual Game Cards to simplify playing across multiple systems, the slightly reduced prices mentioned earlier, and this huge cut for Mario Kart World, I will be genuinely interested to see how physical sales are impacted on the system. How consumers act now is almost certainly going to have a impact on what follows the Switch 2 down the line, and though I don't believe this is necessarily the beginning of the end for physical releases, it is something worth watching.
I feel like there’s a lot to discuss on this topic, but instead of trying to say it all myself, I wanted to put the question out to the larger community. What would make a game worth £75 to you? If it’s a question of how many hours you’d play, what pound per hour ratio do you think is reasonable? If you feel it’s a question of world size, how big would it need to be? Would you just be content if this higher price point demonstrably resulted in higher quality and more complete games out of the gate? Let us know your thoughts below.
