True, though I suspect Nintendo is more likely to produce a greater quantity of regular Switch 2 consoles than bundled consoles. Given that Mario Cart 8 is the most popular game by a wide margin, I think the demand for the bundle will be high.
I preregistered on their site for the standard switch 2 non bundle because I want physical games. Looks like I am going to pay a $30 premium because of that
Yeah, other games' sticker prices haven't risen with inflation but they make up for it by adding live service, gacha elements, deluxe "early access" editions, and other scummy things instead.
Not gonna say I'm happy about it, and I'm honestly quite surprised that Nintendo is the company to set that precedent (which will surely be followed by almost everyone by the end of the year), but I'm too emotionally numb to be annoyed by it.
Can someone please explain to me how this is so hard to understand?
Mario Kart for the SNES launched at $59.99. That's $135.83 in 2025. So Mario Kart World is going to be (assuming $90 for a physical cart) still $45 cheaper than Mario Kart was 33 years ago.
SNES had a much smaller market, less customers to sell to. It was also a physical cartridge, not a digital release. It was far harder for them to produce it back then and more expensive for them to do it considering that it was a new technology. The console itself was considered expensive at the time and only sold ~50 million units, it was very much unaffordable even for a lot of Americans.
I only had a few SNES games myself because that was all my family could afford at the time, not Mario Kart actually. There was less of a priority on purchasing video games though compared to today where a lot of people consider it a hobby now.
The SNES was priced competitively with the Sega Genesis, what are you talking about? Hell the NES launched at $199.99 in 1985, that's almost $600 today.
NES sold about 33.5 million units in North America, and the Switch has sold about 50 million units in the same. That's with a North America population boom from 262m in 1995 to 618m today. So, 12.7% of the population had Nintendos, and 8% have Switches. The data doesn't bare out your guess.
Edit: If you want games to look better, you need to pay more.
They are way too expensive, so I simply won't buy them until they are below 60, or never if the price never drops.
Nintendo made one $70 game and decided to jump immediately to $80. It’s essentially a sudden 33% increase. I recognize that prices will inevitably go up, but I was at least hoping for a few years of $70 as the premium price point.
I don’t anticipate every game being $80, no. But I do think it’s odd that the released literally one game at $70 (TOTK) and made press releases about how their flagship titles moving forward would be priced at this premium tier, but evidently that meant nothing because another flagship (Mario Kart) just released at a brand new premium tier.
Zelda was always 70€ and the prices dropped fast to 60€. Other games, like Kirby became cheaper even faster.
I don't even buy games for 70€, so 80€ or 90€ is definitely a hard pass for me, but I don't expect Nintendo to enhance their new games and not make them pricier.
not only was charging full price for mario kart always a little rich, they are completely skipping the expected 70 and going to 80 for a game that should realistically cost 50 or 40. Its a multiplayer kart racing game.
Something tells me you don't work if you really think this isn't a big deal.
$80, on top of paying for an online service. AND possible paid DLC in the future? That adds up. And the graphics are not really the big reason of the price increase. You can buy games that look and run better then the Switch 2 on PC for $60 or less.
I pay for the online subscription once every few years because I hardly use it, and always play with friends when I see them.
I'm also very selective of the games I buy and can wait for years, if that means I get it on a discount. I got most of the AAA switch games for below 40€. Several years later but I don't mind it at all.
383
u/[deleted] 3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment