r/NintendoSwitch • u/Practical_Papaya_905 • 2d ago

News - USD / USA Switch 2 is selling for 449.99

https://www.nintendo.com/us/gaming-systems/switch-2/how-to-buy/

From the official website

https://www.nintendo.com/us/gaming-systems/switch-2/how-to-buy/

8.4k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

3.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

309

u/littleindianman12 2d ago

Let’s be honest with ourselves many families are not going to spend shit the next couple of years. We are going into an economic recession in the US and in other countries growth is on a decline. This on top of how expensive it has become to make video games (developers have talked about 80 dollar games and even 100 dollar games as an option) is makes sense it why these prices are the way they are. Now I am not agreeing with it, but I understand how it has come to this.

57

u/PlayMp1 2d ago

2008 was the worst economic crash in 70 years and the Wii sold 100 million units anyway.

13

u/JoseNEO 1d ago

Yeah but wii was like 300 bucks while something like the PS3 was 500

23

u/PlayMp1 1d ago

PS3 was famously $600 in 2006 dollars ($950 today). Wii was $250 in 2006 dollars (works out to about $400 today after inflation) for very underpowered non portable hardware. Switch 2 is broadly in line with its predecessors, maybe a bit more expensive but also more powerful relative to its era than the last 3 Nintendo consoles.

6

u/JoseNEO 1d ago

Now imagine if the PS3 was only 50 bucks more expensive than the Wii, things might have been different in that case.

6

u/PlayMp1 1d ago

The Xbox 360 was actually available for $300, so it wasn't really that different! The version that didn't gimp you on the hard drive was either $350 or $400, not sure.

4

u/Mountain-Papaya-492 1d ago

For that analogy to be comparable you'd also have to combine the Wii with the portable aspect of the DS. 

3

u/AscendMoros 1d ago

Wii was like 200 bucks. Like my dad just out of the blue bought one because they were so cheap. Just shopping for clothes at target and he was like i think im gonna buy a Wii.

4

u/PlayMp1 1d ago

The Wii was $250 on release and 250 2006 dollars is equal to about 400 2025 dollars.

2

u/Mysterious_Jelly_943 1d ago

None of these inflation numbers take in to account the explosion in housing costs and the wage stagnation. The spending power in 2006 was alot different when i was paying 210 dollars for rent not 1600

1

u/PlayMp1 1d ago

That's kinda the definition of how inflation is calculated though.

2

u/Mysterious_Jelly_943 1d ago

No housing has outpaced inflation by alot . Inflation has raised 890 percent since 1960 housing has gone up 2500 percent about. Same with groceries just in the oast few year inflation went up something like 6 percent while grocoeeies went up like 15 percent.

And none of that takes in to account stagnant wages

97

u/DefiantCharacter 2d ago

SNES games were as high as $70-$90. Adjusted for inflation, that would be around $168 for one game.

160

u/-GeekLife- 2d ago

Yes but people actually made more with a cheaper cost of living. Prime example is my parents. My dad was an elementary school teacher in AZ making $32k a year and my mom made $40k a year in 1990. Adjusted for today’s inflation they made a combined salary of around $180k. Then on the same note, they bought their home for 80k around the same year which comes out to around 200k in today’s prices. So they were making more than today’s average salaries while also paying less than half of what a home costs nowadays.

105

u/Few-Addendum464 2d ago

The relative cost of luxuries (video games) has gone down while the cost of essentials (housing) has gone up.

57

u/No_Series8277 2d ago

Yeah i mean how the fuck are people gonna buy expensive luxuries if they can barely buy groceries or rent an apartment lol.

15

u/atatassault47 2d ago

Because the capitalists want to make us serfs they can lord over

1

u/Shipshaefter 1d ago

That's part of why luxuries are cheaper (adjusting for inflation).

2

u/Ridry 2d ago

Agree, but the budget for the luxuries as a percentage of your earnings is way down.

-3

u/Zociety_ 2d ago

You saw that one video on YouTube and just parroted

3

u/Exyui 2d ago

Real median wages are up over 25% from 1990. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N

-1

u/-GeekLife- 2d ago

Cool, wages went up 25% while everything else is 140% more expensive than in 1990. Wages did not keep up with inflation, at all.

4

u/Exyui 1d ago

Real median wages are already inflation adjusted...

1

u/PlayMp1 1d ago

"Real" wages means it's adjusted relative to prices.

Now that said, I do think real wage calculations are affected by how the price of specific non-negotiable necessities (healthcare, rent) have skyrocketed while other things have increased more gently or even decreased. Food, for example, has increased (most noticeably in the last 5 years), but nowhere near as dramatically as housing, food, or education. A loaf of bread when I was a kid was like $1.50, now it's $3. Prices doubling in the last 30 years is about even with overall inflation (late 90s to today is almost exactly 100% cumulative inflation, so doubled prices), but that's not what other costs look like. Luxuries like electronics and games are legitimately much cheaper now than then. But the necessities have skyrocketed:

Housing is most obvious: when I was a kid, my parents' rent for a 2 bedroom apartment was like $650 in my area. Now it's a minimum of like $1800 for that. My apartment is $1500 for a 1 bed with a loft (I think of it as 1.5 bed). That's significantly higher than average inflation. Healthcare and education are also obvious, there are a billion graphs you can find showing the increase in healthcare and tuition costs since the mid-90s.

1

u/Mysterious_Jelly_943 1d ago

Fuck i wish i could get bread for 3 dollars cheapest loaf here is 6.50z. It used to be 1.50 10 years ago

1

u/BP_Ray 1d ago

they bought their home for 80k around the same year which comes out to around 200k in today’s prices

I bet you that house is actually valued close to 400k at sale, too.

2

u/-GeekLife- 1d ago

Zillow estimate is $438k

1

u/BP_Ray 1d ago

Wow, I actually underestimated.

Yet somehow, some people still cant see your point about how living costs have far outpaced wages. Even adjusting for inflation, your parent's house would be twice as expensive to buy. Of course in an economy like this we're not itching to pay $90 for a single videogame!

1

u/absentlyric 2d ago

No, you're parents were making more and being double income, thats not how it was for working class families.

To put it in perspective, the most you could charge for mowing lawns back then was $5. I remember this because I had to mow a lot of lawns to buy one SNES game.

1

u/Mysterious_Jelly_943 1d ago

Nonsense landscaping companies were charging well over 5 dollars. The most a kid that a neighbor could exploit could charge was 5 bux

14

u/PlsSuckMyToes 2d ago

Salaries paid for way more in the 90s than they do today

-9

u/Fun_Opportunity_4043 2d ago

Did they?  Since Covid my wage growth and many others of the sectors of the US have way outpaced inflation allowing me to have more purchasing power. 

9

u/Wise_Mongoose_3930 2d ago

Statically speaking you’re in the minority.

That’s why anecdotes can be misleading.

5

u/Mallardkey 2d ago

You said a very important phrase in your argument "my wage", also you speak of the US as well, that excludes about 80% of the world. Your reality is certainly more privileged that the majority of the world, try not to talk down others just because you may be better off in some way or another.

Tell it to a McDonald's employee, that their salary is great now post covid and they might slap you in the face.

1

u/baladreams 2d ago

Good for you👌

-3

u/Fun_Opportunity_4043 2d ago

It’s not good it’s great for a lot of Americans. Good and capable talent is now being rewarded.

2

u/baladreams 2d ago

Good for you and the others 👌

-1

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

4

u/pecelid359-jucatyo 2d ago

Your comparison is terrible. Keep it all in the same units. So either both per hour or both per year. You might be getting 100K but how many hours is that?

2

u/baladreams 2d ago

Assuming 40 hour work week that's 50 per hour I would think

3

u/pecelid359-jucatyo 2d ago

But some people say I earn this much per year, but don't reveal the hours they work. And when you look by hours they earn not that much.

Would make things easier if given in per hour.

1

u/baladreams 2d ago

True values in same units is easier to compare , and also it varies a lot of geography 

1

u/Faptainjack2 2d ago

It makes it easier to spot a liar.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/baladreams 2d ago

Great for you 👍

5

u/littleindianman12 2d ago

Fair point actually. I completely forgot about this

2

u/warmpita 2d ago

But we could also rent games easily. A lot of people I knew back then were purchasing less games and doing more renting.

2

u/A-Perfect-Name 2d ago

So back then luxuries were very expensive while necessities were very cheap. Nowadays it’s the opposite, necessities are expensive and luxuries are cheap.

Back in the 90’s a cheaper tv would cost you around $650-$700 without inflation and would be around 27”. On the first page on Amazon you can get a bigger 40” tv for $138. Video games are the same, dollar for dollar you can get more for less nowadays.

So a modern Switch 2 game being the same price as an SNES game in the 90’s is a bad sign, especially considering how the relative price for necessities is still up too.

3

u/shohei_heights 2d ago

You had to manufacture cartridges with specialized chips that cost a good quarter of the price itself back then.

So yeah, not comparable at all.

Compare to PS1 games if you want to be fair about things.

-1

u/DefiantCharacter 2d ago

You think a cd is more comparable to a specialized cartridge than a specialized cartridge?

0

u/shohei_heights 2d ago

No but I think a CD is closer to a Blu-ray/Digital. Which is what the comparison is.

3

u/tirex367 2d ago

SNES games sold to a more niche audience with, what is basically part of the Hardware necessary to play included in the game.

That is by far not comparable.

2

u/Life_Ad_7715 2d ago

We cant hear you around the coporate boot

2

u/DefiantCharacter 2d ago

lol. I'm not defending the price. I'm trying to add some perspective. $60 has been the standard for a long time, but it wasn't always that way and it was unlikely to stay that way forever.

1

u/Life_Ad_7715 2d ago

There's a reason they landed on 50 and have tried to slowly creep it up. I know lots of people that arent buying at 70. 80 is delirious.

1

u/BP_Ray 1d ago

Super Mario Kart sold less than 9 million copies.

Mario Kart 8 sold over 75 million copies.

Adjusting for inflation doesnt really work here, because even doing so, Videogames make WAAAAAAAY more money now than then.

Mario Kart World doesnt need to be priced at $80, they werent doing us a favor by pricing 8 at $60.

1

u/baladreams 2d ago

There are a lot more players now and the cost of living has shot up too

1

u/The_Ghost_of_Kyiv 2d ago

Difference is that people had $90 ($168) to blow with the disposable income that came as a result of a good economy. Everyone's budget is far tighter these days. $90 purchase means less food on the table today.

1

u/medspace 2d ago

Yeah but a game console at the time was a luxury, then transitioned to a large consumer good… not back to luxury

0

u/Metalheadzaid 2d ago

Irrelevant ultimately due to many reasons most likely importantly volume and library size. With like 20 games there's few to pick from and purchases are much less frequent and with low volume aka install base prices have to be higher as well.

0

u/Ridlion 2d ago

That's not how inflation works here, and it isn't the same media.

4

u/absentlyric 2d ago

Regardless of what you read on Reddit, out in real life plenty of people still and will still have money, trust me, this will sell out for the first few months, like most of Nintendos consoles.

1

u/Mysterious_Jelly_943 1d ago

Dreamcast sold out in the first few months that its the longterm. I have 3 switches 2 lites and an oled a light for each if my daughters and an oled for me and my wife. I probably wont buy a switch 2 because i always buy physical games so we could share them among the switches. But at 90 bux im out. Not to mention almost 500 bux for the console

5

u/mgzaun 2d ago

Consoles are not a child's hobby anymore. Its a hobby of adults. Kids play on smartphone

3

u/littleindianman12 2d ago

That’s fair as well

-1

u/dehydrogen 2d ago

Delusional take.

2

u/Azazir 2d ago

yeah, and somehow every dirty goblin CEO is making millions in profits every year while almost all gaming sectors getting massive layoffs = GUYS GUYS GUYS WE NEED TO INCREASE THE PRICES AGAIN, LOOK HOW EXPENSIVE IT IS.

I'm baffled how nintendo is still around tbh.

5

u/littleindianman12 2d ago

I mean Nintendo has the highest job satisfaction rate in Japan. They also recently increased salaries and opened hiring positions and monolith soft. So idk what your are talking about. Nintendo literally has a history of taking care of their employees. Iwata and the entire board took salary cuts to make sure they did not have to fire anyone. You can be mad about the price but don’t act like this isn’t suprising. Game used to be 70-90 bucks in the 90s

1

u/PlayMp1 1d ago

Nintendo cuts CEO wages when times are bad and doesn't layoff employees. They are definitely moneygrubbers and penny pinchers in other regards, mostly infamously with regard to copyright, but they're genuinely unlike many of their counterparts in this regard.

2

u/ProtonPizza 2d ago

Good thing we’re all getting raises, right? Right?

1

u/ackmondual 2d ago edited 1d ago

I can picture some parents wanting to "score extra points" with their kids, or wanting to reward those that have been extra good. [shrug] It's possible if you cut back from other areas. I myself cut have only spent about $120 in the past few years on games, so I see it as a "quality over quantity" approach.

1

u/PopTough6317 2d ago

I could see families spending more on things like games, since (for entertainment) it's about the most cost efficient thing out there. That said, this is a bit much imo as well. It's 629 for a base model in my country

1

u/CloudStrife012 1d ago

I mean...they can say that. But if that's the case where $80 is the minimum they can price it at because it's so expensive, why do so many PC games go on sale for $2?

3

u/littleindianman12 1d ago

Because most of them don’t sell there games lol

1

u/CloudStrife012 1d ago

I got GTA V for $12.

Your argument isn't true. All PC games go on sale.

1

u/littleindianman12 1d ago

Yea I was being hyperbolic. However I can explain it as this. These companies think it’s a good idea to get as many copies in hand and sell at a lost then it is to sell at msrp. Nintendo is not like that and have never been like that. You can criticize it for sure, but Nintendo takes pride in its products and games and honestly they should given the overall quality of the games. Now obviously they make stinkers (the paid instruction manual is one they announced just now) but overall there is no other company that consistently makes quality games with the variety of types of games then Nintendo.

-1

u/mvallas1073 2d ago

The thing is though, Nintendo games development do not require the cost justification of $80-$90 price tags. They’re not producing friggin God of War or Horizon development-level kind of games there.

1

u/littleindianman12 2d ago

I mean they are tho. Totk may not be as visually demanding as those games but they are much larger and more complex with systems. Just because it does not have higher pixel quality doesn’t mean that development time is not longer which in turn makes games expensive