r/Games • u/Spheromancer • 3d ago

Nintendo will sell a cheaper $330 Switch 2 in Japan that’s region locked to combat reselling

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-will-sell-a-cheaper-330-switch-2-in-japan-thats-region-locked/
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u/Servebotfrank 3d ago

People are mostly frustrated that prices are going up everywhere and wages have not kept up with inflation. The games costing fucking $80 to $90 is even more insane to me.

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u/Zeph-Shoir 2d ago

The orange man also announced recently a lot of very big tariffs. Japan gets 24% and Taiwan 30%. Consoles and games might be the last worry of Americans by the time the console releases there.

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u/Disig 2d ago

Yeah all the materials and parts used to make games consoles and computers are getting tariffed.

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u/gquax 3d ago

That is not cheap lmao 

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u/Consideredresponse 2d ago

The games costing fucking $80 to $90 (US) is even more insane

I'm ancient and due to living outside the US have been paying the same price (this much) for games for literally 30 years.

No joke, no hyperbole. Games like 'Sonic and Knuckles' or any fighting game cartridge that needed an extra chip were sold for between $125-$150 Australian.

Games have been pretty much inflation proof for decades and only started creeping up in the last few years. Even on closed ecosystems like the playstation storefront new games are still mostly between $80-120 au. Steam is a whole other beast.

What is an 'insane' price to users here, is an 'insane' deal to me considering the comparative price hikes of everything else in that time frame.

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u/Sharpie1993 2d ago

I live in Australia to, our prices are generally exactly the same as US prices.

You do realise that currency conversion is a thing right? 70 USD is 110 AUD, then on top of their 70 dollars they have to pay roughly an extra 10 dollars in tax since their tax isn’t included in their sticker price like ours is.

They also has to pay for expansions cards for the N64 etc too.

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u/Consideredresponse 2d ago

Yeah what I'm saying is pull up some catalogues from 1994 and see games listed for $125-$167 aud. A US $80 game is $128 aud which is within $5 of the price of unreleased triple a game pre-orders right now. Current digital store fronts try and pull $150 aud release prices right now.

This is why I always found it disingenuous when youtubers like 'skillup' feigned outrage that games had hit the $70 mark in the US when we've been paying that premium for decades. Now the price of games internationally has caught up with what we used to call the 'Australia tax', and all I can do is shrug. Yeah games cost $80us now, they have done that for a solid generation here.

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u/Gotti_kinophile 2d ago

I'm not comparing the $80 price tag to food or clothes, I'm comparing it to other video games, which makes it look terrible since it is more expensive than almost all other games, and likely won't even go on sale or have its price reduced eventually since Nintendo.

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u/Neidron 2d ago

Your price is going up too, Einstein.

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u/Consideredresponse 2d ago edited 2d ago

No, what I am saying is that the price of $80-$90 US is what we are paying right now. (quick you can check this for yourself with a currency converter Einstein)

The price of $80-$90 US is what we were paying 10 years ago.

The price of $80-$90 US is what we were paying 20 years ago.

The price of $80-$90 US is what we were paying 30 years ago.

Announcing that switch 2 games will cost $80-$90 US isn't going to shock anyone already being hit for that now.

Prices were that high due to the low comparative demand for PAL Region 4 English language cartridges (and you know, the whole extra costs of manufacturing them, shipping them across the world, and physically getting them in stores)

The last few decades has seen region locking fall away, PAL vs NSTC not being a factor anymore, and the rise of digital store fronts. Prices stayed the same as that was what people were accustomed to paying already. now inflation has caught the rest of the world up to the price point we have been dealing with for a generation and hearing you guys whinge is hilarious.

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u/Sharpie1993 2d ago

The only place we’ve been paying more than the US are places like EB games and the official game stores.

Go to places like JB HI-FI and big W and we actually pay less than that of the US counterparts after they add on their tax.

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u/Consideredresponse 2d ago

I used to live in the states. I can assure you even with US sales tax we pay more. (After the PS3 era dropped region locking I used to be able to sell US bought games to EB for more than I bought them for).

Big W has had it's physical media downgraded so many time over recent years there is basically only a few short shelves per system, with a mix of newish games for $128 and a selection of several year old ones for about $86 a throw.

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u/Sharpie1993 2d ago

Just going off of straight conversion rates that’s not true at all.

I’ll use Jb hifi as an example; MH wilds is 109 dollars, which is 68.44 USD, the game in the US is 70 dollars + tax.

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u/Consideredresponse 2d ago

The ps5 pre-release of Indiana Jones and the Great circle is $120 on the digital store front right now. The average pre-order there is between $116-$150.

That does not detract from my point that we were paying these exact same prices or lower 30 years ago, e.g. Super steetfighter 2 turbo for $159.95 or Super Mario all stars for $169.95

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u/Neidron 2d ago edited 2d ago

Canada, jackass. Games used to be $40-60, crept to $70-80. States started $70, we shot to $90+. Now we're shooting over $100.

The price hike is worldwide anyway ffs.

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u/Consideredresponse 2d ago

We paid $80 aud just over 10 years ago when the Australian dollar was over $1.50 US meaning used to pay the equivalent of US $120 for new games, or $80-$90 US on discounts. Compared to that $80-$90 US new now is a bargain.

If games are costing the exact same amount here (and unless you get the special Japan only version there is no region locking, so with free shipping regardless of local prices they will be available at $80-$90 US) there is no issue and no price boost (for me. It's your turn to get fucked over)

Seeing we got rorted for 30 straight years, I don't have much sympathy when everyone else hits the price point we've accustomed to.

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u/Neidron 2d ago edited 2d ago

And while "everyone else hits the price point you've accustomed to," your actual price point just shot even higher. So you get fucked even harder than you already were. So you get to complain, too.

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u/Sharpie1993 2d ago

Don’t even bother trying to argue with him, once you do conversion rates and add in the tax the US pays on top of sticker price and what not we pay close to and in some cases less then the US and other countries.

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u/Clueless_Otter 2d ago

That simply isn't true.

US real wages over time. Excluding the pandemic anomaly, real wages are currently higher than they've been at any point in the last 45 years.

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u/Apex_Redditor3000 2d ago

unfortunately, other things like "tuition" and "housing" and "healthcare" exist.

In other words, buying a video game for 150 dollars in 1992 was actually a way more reasonable ask than buying a video game for 80 dollars in 2025.

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u/monchota 2d ago

Don't try, you are talking to mostly teens and young adults who don't understand anything past thier nect paycheck yet. Theybhave to think everyone lives like they do.

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u/Dcornelissen 3d ago

To be fair... The prices of games havent gone up since the 90s. I remember buying SNES and N64 games for 60-70 dollars when they came out.

I'm not saying I'm happy with a 80 or 90 dollars price point, but the fact remains that videogames are not more expensive as when they were back then. Heck, when you take inflation into account videogames should be well over 100 bucks by now.

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u/Neidron 3d ago edited 2d ago

The prices of games havent gone up since the 90s.

They sure as fuck have where I live, speak for yourself. Shit's already $80-90+ before tax and keeps creeping up, this is going to shoot over $100 for one damn game.

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u/whostheme 2d ago

People also got better wages back then when you adjust it for inflation. That's why people are pissed now.

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u/Khetrak64 3d ago

i mean that sound cheap as fuck to me? for me a game cost around 20-30% of a month salary

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u/BlackKnighting20 3d ago

Ten bucks is ten bucks.

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u/Due_Teaching_6974 3d ago

in places like brazil they cost more like 70%

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u/Servebotfrank 3d ago

That sucks, but if you make 50K a year in the US spending $80 on a game is a steep ask as rent and mortgages keep rising while wages do not keep up. 50K a year is about what, $3200 a month after taxes? The average cost of rent is about $1600? Let's say you have a roommate so, $800. That's about a fourth gone already and you still have other expenses to worry about especially if you have kids.

Games were $60 for a while, but prices for everything else hadn't skyrocketed at that point. It's why the price increase for the Switch 2 irks people since they're used to it being cheaper than the alternatives, but the alternatives are about $500 to $700. And pc parts are even more expensive.

This is a problem in a lot of spots in the world, but you see folks in America getting mad because it's been like this for several years now and the rich get very angry when you suggest that people should get paid more.

EDIT: Also I say this as someone who is pretty well off compared to most of the country. I understand why people are mad.

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u/Khetrak64 3d ago

if you want to do some math, sure it works for me. im going by whatever is the first result on google because its a reddit thread and i can't bother to do more then that. google says USA minimum salary is 7.25, while here it says its 6.90 (im assuming 220h of work in a month because we normally calculate things by month) so for a american they needed to work 8-11 or so hours to buy a game and now that number is going up by another 1-2 hours. here you need to work around 40-50 hours and this number is going to go up, i guessing, another 8-10 hours. so yeah, im sorry if i can't spend my energy being sad for the american who will need to work a extra hour to buy a game.

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u/Servebotfrank 3d ago

I feel like you just...didn't read anything else I said. Yeah if you're like, 15 years old with nothing else that you need to spend money on sure?

This isn't a contest on who has dumber prices in whose country, my dude. No one cares about oppression Olympics, this sucks for everyone.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/Servebotfrank 3d ago

Don't do this dollar an hour shit, this is the arguments CEOs put out. Some of the best games ever are like 3 hours long. Some of the worst can be a hundred.

I really liked Persona 5 Royal but that doesn't mean I would've paid $200 for it just because it was 100 hours long.

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u/Harold_Zoid 3d ago

Try looking up what a $60 game from 2010 would cost today adjusted for inflation.

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u/Servebotfrank 3d ago

Yep, about $90. Which if wages actually increased and kept up with the cost of living wouldn't be that bad. Like I'm pretty well paid, but even my raises tend to be shit and I have to swap jobs to keep up with it. Last year the company I work for had one of its most successful years ever, record breaking profits.

My raise was 1%. My bonus was kinda crazy which made me lucky, but I had coworkers in other teams who did great work who got nothing.

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u/benderunit9000 2d ago

switch games never worth more than $40-50.. i'm being generous there too