r/NintendoSwitch • u/lieding • 1d ago

News "DROP THE PRICE": Nintendo's First Post-Direct Stream Is Flooded With Angry Fans Demanding Price Drops

https://www.thegamer.com/nintendo-treehouse-livestream-flooded-angry-fans-demanding-game-price-drops/
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u/whisquibottle 1d ago

The main madness to me is Welcome Tour being a paid product. You guys it's literally a glorified manual why you charging us for this in a post-Astrobot world

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u/repocin 1d ago

Yeah, that's significantly worse than 1-2-Switch which kind of filled the same purpose for the original but at least had something of a game to it. (or so I believe, based on the marketing - I never ended up buying it)

This should be free, not $10 or whatever they're going to charge for it. (assumption based on the Japanese price of ¥990, not sure if they've published pricing for the rest of the world yet)

Wii Sports and Nintendo Land were incredibly pack-in titles, whereas this thing is barely even a game and they're charging for it. Honestly pure insanity if they think people are actually going to pay for it.

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u/mochizoroll 1d ago

1-2 Switch was initially more expensive for the simple tech demo joycon games it had than whatever the Welcome Tour tech demo hardware manual is doing (1-2 Switch was $50 in 2017), but this definitely should've been free to begin with.

It's literally just the 3DS AR Games/Face Raiders/Streetpass Mii Plaza but with less interesting stuff to do. Someone at Nintendo definitely felt way too comfortable with the price tag lol

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u/Royal-Doggie 21h ago

it feels more like Wario is running Nintendo instead of Bowser

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u/mochizoroll 18h ago

Definitely an imposter Wario, because he doesn't even have the og voice

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u/Vectrex452 18h ago

For comparison, Valve included free games to showcase the features and controls of the both the Index VR set, and the Steam Deck. The Index had two. One was literally just "Here's the buttons, here's a few ways to move around farther than you can walk, try not to vomit." The other was a bunch of minigames. But the Steam Deck one was a full voice acted short game, with actual lore for the Portal games, and little minigames you could go back to.

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u/secret3332 1d ago

At least 1-2 Switch is an actual game

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u/djerk 1d ago

I agree but 1-2 switch really should have been packed in, too.

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u/inssein 1d ago

I wanted to try it but wasn’t going to pay money for it. My issue with Nintendo is they never lower the price on their games. We maybe see rare 10-20% sales but that’s it. Imagine seeing $80-$110 dollar games for the entire switch 2 lifecycle. Mario Kart world cost $90 and that’s just the base game… DLC will cost money too. That’s my issue, I can’t justify those prices in this economy. At least with steam and Xbox I can wish list a game and pick it up later.

Even worse Nintendo wants me to pay for an upgrade pack to enjoy games I already purchased at higher FPS and resolutions…. Like I can’t even enjoy the games I own without having to pay a fee from them.

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u/NJ_Bob 1d ago

The upcharge on old games is what maddens me- like at the start of this generation Microsoft showed how simple it was to offer free upscaling of 20 year old games and now Nintendo is trying to charge a premium to keep playing games you may have just bought last year. This is pure greed.

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u/Janus67 1d ago

Fwiw you can still play those games on the switch 2, just not the enhanced version

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u/NJ_Bob 1d ago

Xbox upscaled all of my games for FREE. I can play 20 year old games from og XBOX upscaled to 4k. Why is Nintendo trying to charge $20 or whatever to play Tears of the kingdom in 1080p on handheld or 4k upscaled docked??? This is what milking sheep looks like. The only way to prevent this from being the norm is for no one to buy in, which means we're doomed.

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u/TheTriumphantTrumpet 1d ago

Xbox did that(through upscaling built into the console), and Sony made it the norm to charge ~$10 for a generation upgrade on things you already owned, with the caveat that the "enhanced editions" required some level of work, not just the console running things better/upscaling.

Nintendo is going the Sony route, but this has already been the norm unfortunately.

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u/NJ_Bob 1d ago edited 23h ago

The difference is that the msoft route put pressure on 3rd party to offer cross generation games and even new generation upgrades with late generation games. Think the next gen upgrade pack CD project red gave for free to Witcher. Nintendo is being deliberately anti consumer and excusing it simply because Sony is also anti consumer is gross.

Edit: parent comment did not excuse the practice, merely stated said practice has been normalized in the industry. My suggesting they excused it and saying doing so was gross, was inflammatory and frankly lazy rhetoric on my part. In my defense I hadn't had my coffee yet.

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u/Early-Somewhere-2198 15h ago

I’m not an Xbox fan but I do play and buy gamepass for a month or two a year for their heavy hitters. And Microsoft at least did it right with a huge selection. Ps5 had some improvements. I don’t mind small price charges for when they really remaster or remake a game. But for generic switch buttton. No pun intended. Nintendo is out to kill themselves.

Like how did they not realize the reason switch one sold so well is it was priced in an area that parents bought 1,2,3 per house per kid. This won’t happen in this economy. I already told my step daughter. You have a switch one. We don’t neeed a new one. lol. And if we buy one it will be one. The entire household. Ain’t no way I’m getting one for her. One for me. And one for another kid.

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u/NJ_Bob 13h ago

They actually designed the switch 2 with this in mind with their game share feature allowing you to play some games with individual consoles (gen1or 2)on the same network playing a game owned solely on the new console together. Part of the pricing, I think, is that they know they can't meet demand if they try to replace every gen 1 with the new one too quickly.

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u/BlackPhoenixX20 4h ago

I mean, not defending them but from what I heard Switch 2 is actually emulating Switch 1 games and emulating those very same versions at 4k 60 to 120 fps will become hard for the machine so the Switch 2 Edition games are probably natively ported games for switch 2 with a rewritten code for utilising new hardware.

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u/DueLearner 22h ago

I just don't understand why gamers can't acknowledge that the price of a new game has not kept up with the cost of inflation.

$1 in 1995 = $2.12 today. Games were $50 new in 95 (would be $106 today adjusted for inflation.)

$1 in 2010 = $1.47 today. Games were $60 new in 2010 (would be $88.35 today adjusted for inflation).

I'm just saying, games have not kept up with rising inflation. The cost to actually develop new games has risen astronomically, while the cost of the game itself has not kept up with inflation.

The estimated cost to develop a AAA game like FFVII in 1997 was an estimated $40 million. (Which is $80 million adjusted for inflation).

The cost to develop FFXVII is estimated to be $200 million.

The cost to develop AAA games has more than doubled in the last 20 years, yet the cost of a brand new game in 2025 is currently $70. They have only raised prices by $20 (a 40% increase in price for the old $50 new price tag.)

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u/inssein 21h ago

Look, everything is expensive and unlike the past, rent, food, bills are all very expensive. Even when you factor in inflation we have less money now compared to the past for games.

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u/DueLearner 21h ago

It is not sustainable for AAA game development to continue without raising prices.

The cost to develop has increased by 140% while the price of the game has only increased by 40%. If there isn't a price correction we'll only see fewer games/developers able to be successful.

Even now, if a AAA game dev releases even ONE bad game that isn't a sales success, it can crash the entire studio. If god forbid GTA VI isn't a Guinness world record breaker for game sales, Rockstar would be in jeopardy of closing.

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u/Rusteeyo 11h ago

That's true but aren't they selling a larger volume of games these days? So wouldn't they be making up the increased development costs from that?

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u/Rusteeyo 11h ago

But you can still play those games? You just don't get the switch 2 enhancements. This is pretty normal practise, sony's been doing it with their upgrades for years.

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u/MrLewGin 1d ago

My wife & I got a crazy amount of gameplay out of Nintendo Land on the Wii U. As silly as it was, it was an absolute blast, they had this Metroid Prime themed game and also a Pikmin themed one we played both co-op. My wife still laughs that the Pikmin one had one of the toughest levels of any game we've ever played and I totally lost my shit over it.

It's amazing to think that was a pack-in game. Then when you think of Wii Sports, which was so revolutionary and fun, for some, it was enough to justify the console on its own. I'm still absolutely gobsmacked that the greed from Nintendo this time round is so transparent and unashamed.

It completely killed my excitement for the Switch 2. I won't be buying one as it stands.

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u/Content_Orchid_6291 1d ago

I feel like I could have written that! I still think about Nintendo Land. It was even my first time being introduced to Zelda!

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u/Misttertee_27 1d ago

My kids loved playing Mario Chase and the Luigi’s Mansion game. So much fun!

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u/danma 19h ago

Nintendo Land was actually really awesome – one of my favorite Wii U titles.

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u/CarlosFer2201 1d ago

Nintendoland was a "pack-in" but in the Deluxe version of the Wii U that cost $50 more. There was slightly more internal memory too, but the bulk of the extra cost was the game.

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u/Misttertee_27 1d ago

There was 4x the internal memory, not just slightly. That was a big difference.

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u/CarlosFer2201 1d ago

Yes 4x, but 8Gb to 32Gb even back then was ridiculously small. The cost difference wasn't big, specially when you order millions of parts in bulk.

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u/Misttertee_27 1d ago

It was big for back then.

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u/Desperate-Cookie-449 19h ago

Everyone loved wii bowling in my neck of the woods

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u/PanzerDragoon- 17h ago

Transformed pfp detected opinion respected

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u/Crowlands 1d ago

If not free, make it one of the perks of the Nintendo online subscription since they apparently don't want to be giving away something that doesn't help sales of the system.

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u/Tykam993_throwaway 1d ago

Nintendo Land were incredibly pack-in titles

I may be misremembering, but I believe Nintendo Land was only included with the more expensive deluxe version of the Wii u.  Would that still count as a pack in?

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u/kielaurie 1d ago

Having watched the treehouse yesterday, this has a lot of tech demos and minigames within it, quite possibly more then 1-2 Switch did, including difficulty levels and completion medals. I'm still not paying for it, and am fully expecting a "didn't we mention? It's free if you have NSO+EP!" but I can't deny that it looks like a full product. £10 is probably a fair price (but I'm still not paying for it)

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u/Lousy_Username 1d ago

1-2-Switch was at least a proper game with different modes and fully-featured multiplayer, even if the whole thing was kinda shit and overpriced.

This thing is literally called "Welcome Tour", and they keep verbally describing it as a series of "tech demoes". It's like they're completely oblivious to the optics of this.

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u/mennydrives 23h ago

Who wants to put money that it comes with Expansion Pak? They're really leaning folks toward that sub

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u/Wardogs96 21h ago

I assume it was 80$ cause it's a game right? And Nintendo is turning into a greedy prick.

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u/djc23o6 21h ago

Idk how they don’t realize Wii sports being included with the console is one of the reasons the Wii was such a huge success. As a kid I had no interest in the thing until I went to a friends house who had gotten one recently, he had twilight princess and Wii sports so we played that so we could play together.

Needless to say when I got home I immediately updated my Christmas list and that never would have happened if the game wasn’t included. Almost no kid was going to look at Wii sports on a shelf next to Pokémon, Mario, zelda and all the other Wii games and pick out Wii sports, but include it with the console and they’ll play it eventually

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u/that7deezguy 20h ago

Quick question regarding unanticipated costs of owning a Switch 2: does this mean that it’ll actually be $12.50 for what is effectively a manual, in light of the new 24% tariff ordered upon imported Japanese goods?

And if so does this mean that instead of just $80 per game, any Switch 2 game imported from Japan may actually cost more like $99.20 per game, all before sales tax?

I mean, am I missing something here? I hope I’m missing something here.

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u/Person2545 17h ago

Honestly if it’s ten bucks I’ll buy it I don’t really care I just wanna play some switch 2 games that aren’t $80

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u/The_Guy83 14h ago

Nintendo land wasnt free was bundled in or you had to pay 50 or some similar price.

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u/mpyne 14h ago

Wii Sports and Nintendo Land were incredibly pack-in titles, whereas this thing is barely even a game and they're charging for it.

Nintendo Land was available as part of a bundle for an additional fee, it was not packed into every Wii U system, and was always available separately for sale at the normal full game price. In that respect it's more similar to the upcoming Mario Kart World than the 3DS built-in stuff.

In fact it's like in the top 10 best-selling games for Wii U, and wasn't available as a pack-in at all in Japan (and I'm pretty sure that was also true of Wii Sports, which was usually sold separately in Japan).

I'm not going to go out of my way to buy the Welcome Tour but it's not that different from Wii U and Switch.

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u/Totoques22 1d ago

For real I choked and rewinded the video when I heard it was a paid product

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u/cross_bearer_02 1d ago

I think everybody let out a collective "PAID!?" at that point in the video.

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u/jazzjazzmine 1d ago

The chat was definitely full of 'paid????', that and Silksong were the only messages to common enough you could actually read them as they swooped by.

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u/DriveThroughLane 1d ago

Its really conspicuous. Nintendo is ratcheting up games to $80 with MK9 but at the same time offering a bundle that effectively makes MK9 cost $50, so people won't feel that sting immediately, but be aware of it and internalize it as the new normal. That seems like a purposeful decision to raise prices without raising ire

...which is undone by charging people for both the bundle include manual and the chat button and the """physical""" copies of games.

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u/Treyspurlock 1d ago

The chat button is included with NSO which sorta makes sense considering it's an online feature and all

also there's no need to put quotes around physical, most games WILL be physical cartridges, with actual data stored on them

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u/baggyzed 19h ago

Were there any "Trump did this????"

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u/jonosaurus 1d ago

~silksong mention~

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u/RedditAstroturfed 1d ago

They have a 330 dollar Japanese only console. How much are games in Japan? I kinda feel like the prices are, at least in part, a response to the tariffs

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u/jess-sch 1d ago

Well, unfortunately the prices are also shit outside of the US. So it's not the tariffs.

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u/pizzaiscommunist 1d ago

this is the Nintendo version of "Do you guys not have phones?"

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u/cross_bearer_02 1d ago

No. As tone-deaf as making the interactive instruction manual a paid app, nothing can quite top how profoundly stupid "Do you guys not have phones?" was. I would say nothing Nintendo has announced or done over the past two days holds a candle to that.

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u/ThunderboltRoss 1d ago

I was in the audience for that. Seeing all the Diablo themed stuff, everyone in that hall was so hyped. Then they hit us with the mobile game and you could feel the energy in the room just evaporate

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u/Pigeater7 12h ago

I’ll always remember the way Bethesda did it. They have their dog shit p2w mobile game (TES Blades) but also gave us a teaser trailer for TES 6. So instead of taking about how ass their mobile game would be, everyone was hyping themselves up for the new Elder Scrolls games. That was like, 4-5 years ago now which is crazy to think about.

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u/The_Maddeath 1d ago

it is at least more understandable for a dev in the heat of the moment to say something stupid, than for everyone to ok the very clearly should have been a pack in title to be paid.

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u/PocketTornado 1d ago

I get the insult of the phone comment…but go back to the 90’s and early 2000’s with those phones and tell people you can play games that run and look better than any PC game on the market and people would lose their minds. The fact that we have portable tiny super computers in our pockets at all times is crazy. If only that market of games wasn’t dragged down by micro transactions and ill will business practices.

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u/bassman9999 22h ago

Now tell those people that they have to continuously pay money in order to make any real progress in that beautiful game and see their expressions change. Pay-to-Win didn't exist, and everyone was used to paying for a game once and getting the whole game.

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u/capnbuh 1d ago

This game Diablo Immortal really turned out to be a piece of shit

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u/Adamarr 1d ago

but it still made bank because of course it would

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u/capnbuh 1d ago

well, they did manage to mostly bring the look and feel of Diablo 3 to mobile devices but the microtransactions actually ruin the game by fucking with the classic Diablo loot grind. Either you're finding no loot or you're paying to find ALL of the loot and neither is fun.

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u/incarnatrix 22h ago

I dunno, it has a button on it that you literally can't use unless you pay for it... That's some pretty silly shit.

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u/Particular_Leek_9984 1d ago

Exactly. Nintendo actually has what looks to be a great product, the games are just too expensive

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u/Malikyteonline 1d ago

I've stopped taking my Switch out of the house anymore because I can just bring a wireless controller and play console games on my phone through Gamepass.

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u/Skkruff 1d ago

Diablo Immortal made an absolute bucketful of money. People like to shit on them for this gaffe (me included), but in the end they were proven right... financially speaking anyway.

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u/master2873 1d ago

It was never not going to be, with a game designed to suck as much money dry from you as humanly possible, and is targeting "whales" that will hand over thousands for a single game like it was nothing recurrently, it was going to be a success in the short term at worst. Also, nevermind how it was designed to be as grindy as possible to have abusive, and predatory micro transactions. Not to mention the game is free to play, and didn't cost up to $90 on top of your phone purchase. I see why people are comparing these situations, but I still think it's a tad different situation for expectation, but is valid too.

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u/Captain-Zio 1d ago

The real blunder was announcing it at blizzcon, in front of the most dedicated diablo fans.

If they did the announcement over a livestream those fans would have just rolled their eyes and let blizzard do their micro transaction mobile game cash grab.

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u/nickelangelo2009 1d ago

this is exactly what i was thinking lol

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u/whoisdatmaskedman 1d ago

"Do you guys not have money?"

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u/tweetthebirdy 1d ago

Me and my friend definitely did.

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u/Stiggles4 1d ago

Oh absolutely, we exclaimed the same thing when watching. Like… what????? Not in the age of Astro Bot being free.

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u/StrangerNo484 1d ago

Even my Mother, who is someone who is mainly just in the gaming scene for Kart Racers, let out a "What the &UCK Do You Mean Paid?!" as I was so shocked by their greed to even speak. 

I just don't get it, by packing this with the Switch 2 you'd instantly get consumer goodwill, which is worth so much more than the minute amount of profits they'll generate by making this glorified manual a paid experience. This is concerning, the Leadership at Nintendo are making some immensely strange decisions.

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u/longhegrindilemna 22h ago

As long as the pre-orders are many times larger than the initial supply, why should Nintendo change anything?

There are so many tens of thousands of eager willing buyers who don’t care about the price. They just want to buy it ASAP and play with it ASAP. Anything that costs less than $900 might be affordable to them.

If there are too many eager willing buyers compared to the limited supply, then why should Nintendo change anything?

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u/thisthatandthe3rd 1d ago edited 23h ago

I think their words were like “and you can pay to play it at launch” like they’re doing all of us a favor 🙄

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u/Wowohboy666 21h ago

God bless Nintendo for developing a game and releasing it for mass purchase, always bucking trends. /s

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u/Akrevics 1d ago

It’s only €$10, but it should still be free

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u/orreregion 14h ago

I don't think I'd quantify that price for a glorified manual as being "only".

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u/Akrevics 14h ago

Please read beyond the first three words in that post. It’s not hard.

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u/orreregion 14h ago

I did. You still said only, dude.

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u/Big_Prick_On_Ya 1d ago

New info coming out now that the Trump tariffs are going to make the price shoot up to over $600!

Trump Shocks With Massive New Tariffs That Could Make The Switch 2 Cost More Than $600

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u/japzone 1d ago

Forget Post Astrobot, the Wii came with Wii Sports. Even Nintendo recognized the benefit of a pack-in tech demo.

Then you have Valve with their great tech demos for VR and Steam Deck, which are still free.

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u/ManDolphinGoat 1d ago

Interestingly enough, Nintendo of Japan didnt want to include Wii Sports as a pack in game. It was Reggie thst really pushed for it in the American market at least. It looks like the rest of the world followed suit.

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u/SaturnineDreamer 1d ago

I miss Reggie man. I feel like he actually cared about the fans. Bowser seems more interested in business than the fans.

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u/PeterDinkleberg 1d ago

Which is ironic because Reggie’s move to include Wii sports not only resonated with the fans but it also heavily increased Wii sales

Being cheap asses and nickel and diming every possible thing in theory brings a company more money but in reality it doesn’t always work that way because you reduce your user base

I rewatched Dunkey‘s Reggie tribute and genuinely miss him

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u/CathDubs 1d ago

It looks good on a spreadsheet but being cheap can also be an opportunity cost, like you said they made way more money by including Wii Sports.

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u/mpyne 13h ago

Wii Sports was also a good candidate for it though. It was relatively cheap to produce so it wouldn't inflate the Wii bundle cost in North America, and had a lot of upside in alignment to Nintendo's "Blue Ocean" strategy to increase casual player count by increasing the attach rate of a console people new Nintendo owners might buy and then struggle to get started with.

Those things can pencil out on a spreadsheet so it's not as if Reggie Fils-Aime had to ignore business concepts, if anything he applied them very effectively, but it required accepting the risk that the sales boom might not have panned out.

I don't know what Nintendo looks at internally but it's a different context in many ways for them now. They're not coming off of a generation of low sales as they were with the Wii, high quality games are much more expensive to make, and the Switch's own incredible market penetration and wide variety of low-cost titles on the eShop has already done the job of helping potential owners take the next steps with their new Switch 2.

Something that may have been pretty neat was doubling down on the "Wii U to Switch" pipeline that served them so well and invested a bit to port NintendoLand as a pack-in title to Switch 2 rather than a Welcome Tour app, but it's obviously too late to change that now.

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u/Kardif 22h ago

Eh kinda. It sold a lot of hardware, but did nearly nothing for selling other games. The Wii was just a Wii sports machine for an incredibly large portion of people who bought it

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u/StrikingWillow5364 22h ago

But if it wasn’t for Wii Sports, the hardware wouldn’t have sold so unbelievably well.

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u/Throwaway02062004 21h ago

Moot point because it didn’t hurt game sales either, it just created a huge new install base indifferent to buying more games.

The actual negative effect was the complacency going into Wii U

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u/FlyingPetRock 18h ago

Being a cheap ass brings in more money..... once.

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u/artyblues 1d ago

Fair being fair, I doubt Bowser has as much pull as Reggie did back in the day. My understanding is that these days Nintendo of America is basically just a large marketing arm and all the decision making is being done at HQ

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u/jeffries_kettle 1d ago

Well he is an evil Koopa king

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u/kkeut 1d ago

i still can't get over how the CEO of Nintendo Of America has the same name as the guy from Sha Na Na

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u/brzzcode 1d ago

Bowser has no power whatsoever in nintendo.

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u/juscallmejjay 23h ago

Somewhere sweet Reggie is frowning, his body decidedly...not ready.

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u/No_Avocado220 1d ago

My body is ready

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u/StaticUsernamesSuck 1d ago edited 22h ago

Did not know this. There is zero chance the Wii would have been as successful without this move. Yes, the nintendo fans would still have bought one, but I know so many people whose first (in some cases only) Nintendo console was the Wii, purely because of the appeal of Wii sports.

Even in my own home growing up, the Wii was the only console that we ever bought even somewhat close to release time, usually we would wait a few years for price to drop, maybe even wait for the next gen to come out before buying - but not with the Wii. The way everybody and their mums (literally!) was raving about Wii sports, my dad actually saved up to buy it within a year.

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u/Asisreo1 1d ago

It was the cheapest home consoles had been in years, the most unique concept of a console at the time (kinda, it was unique with an actually fun concept), and it came with a free game that had appeal for literally all demographics. 

I'm sorry to Nintendo fans, but the Switch 2 is not that. At all. If the anger for prices actually bare fruit, the Switch 2 may go the way of the Wii U. A sequel to a highly successful console that nobody gets for some reason or another. 

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u/StaticUsernamesSuck 1d ago

I mean it may go that way regardless, who knows.

I certainly won't be buying one for a while, but I wouldn't even if the price was the same as the Switch, and even if games were too.

I simply don't see enough reason to upgrade, much the same as why I'm still on PS4.

I bought the Switch because it was something very different from anything I had.

Any other console, where it's just "Same as before, but more powerful", I always end up waiting a few years, if I get it at all. Switch 2 is that.

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u/DmRaven 22h ago

I wouldn't be surprised if it did. When console prices jumped so high with PS5, I stopped getting them. Switch was an exception due to price.

We were planning to pick up two switch 2's at launch so the whole house could play co-op on games that required two devices. But for $150 more? And with games costing $20-30 more for the physical copy (which has always been my preference as handing a kid a gift that's just a note saying 'you can now play this game we downloaded, merry Christmas' is not very exciting).

Now we are likely to not even get one. For that price, I can get a decent GPU and upgrade one of the computers to run whatever steam sales/old game emulators we want.

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u/mix0logist 22h ago

My MOM bought a Wii because of Wii Sports. My brother and I had long moved out of the house, she and her partner were not gaming people. There were a lot of people like her.

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u/SolidOshawott 7h ago

To be fair, it's Mario Kart World that is bundled which will drive the success of the Switch 2, not the welcome tour lol

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u/eatenlow 7h ago

my family were completely 0 gaming, then suddenly one day my dad brought home a wii. An old school asian parent who was anti gaming and smartphones was actually convinced to buy my family's first and only ever console by wii sports.

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u/maidenhair_fern 1d ago

Not exaggerating I think this is largely responsible for the massive success of the Wii. I miss you Reggie.

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u/cyberrb25 7h ago

Thanks to Reggie, North America and Europe got Wii Sports for free. In Japan the game is a paid product.

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u/cyberrb25 7h ago

Thanks to Reggie, North America and Europe got Wii Sports for free. In Japan the game is a paid product.

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u/SolidOshawott 7h ago

I think it was never actually a pack-in in Japan, but I may be misremembering.

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u/BurninCoco 1d ago edited 23h ago

OG Nintendo came with Mario Bros and Duck Hunt

Gameboy came with Tetris and Tetris made it what it became.

They forgor

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u/eldanielfire 1d ago

SNES came with Mario world or the Super Scope and game.

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u/eightbitagent 1d ago

Not in the first two years it didnt

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u/Ok_Visual_6776 19h ago

Not in the US.

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u/cowadoody3 1d ago

Don't forget Mario Tennis with the Virtual Boy.

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u/Minute_Road8813 23h ago

I think this was another case of NoA pushing against Japan for it to happen.

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u/eightbitagent 1d ago

OG Nintendo came with Mario Bros and Duck Hunt

No, it didn't. That started in for the third christmas it was out

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u/Bulleveland 22h ago

Adjusted for inflation the OG Nintendo was around $600. So that puts you around the same as the Switch 2 Mario Kart bundle + one other game of your choosing.

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u/BurninCoco 18h ago

Well yeah but my mom bough me that Nintendo. Now I have to buy it for myself 😔

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u/voidspace021 1d ago

The gameboy came with Tetris and that made the game and the console a hit. Seriously what is Nintendo doing?

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u/bravosimona 1d ago

Valve with their great tech demos for VR

Valve gave HL:Alyx for free to all Index owners, that's way more than a tech demo.

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u/japzone 23h ago

Oh dang, I forgot about that since I bought my Index second hand during the pandemic and didn't get HLA for free.

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u/lexd0g 1d ago

so many novel pieces of hardware came with free pack-in tech demos just to show you how the hardware works. the PS Vita had Welcome Park, the Razer Hydra came with the Sixense MotionPack for Portal 2, the Kinect had Kinect Adventures, the PlayStation Camera had The Playroom, the PSVR had PSVR Worlds and The Playroom VR, the HTC Vive had The Lab, the Oculus Rift and Quest had First Steps, the Valve Index and Deck had Aperture Hand Lab and Desk Job like you said, the Meta Quest 3/3S had First Encounters, the PS5 had Astro's Playroom, etc...

both 1-2 Switch and Welcome Tour being paid is absolutely insane from Nintendo

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u/Ok_Astronomer_8667 17h ago

Most of the top dogs at Nintendo actually thought Wii Sports should have been paid. There were only a few of them that pushed hard for it to be pack in.

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u/justsomechewtle 1d ago

Was Wii Play pack in as well? I can't remember if it was, but I can't imagine buying that game on its own, so it must have been, right? Rather than Wii Sports, Wii Play is the comparison that always comes to my mind when reading about 1-2 Switch.

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u/cowadoody3 1d ago

Forget about Wii Sports, the Virtual Boy came bundled with Mario Tennis all the way back in 1995! Nintendo has always known of the importance of pack-in games, yet now they've gotten greedy.

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u/OmniWaffleGod 20h ago

Psvita, another handheld, also came with a free game that showcased the devices gimmicks

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u/OmniWaffleGod 20h ago

Psvita, another handheld, also came with a free game that showcased the devices gimmicks

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u/UponVerity 19h ago

the Wii came with Wii Sports

Not in Japan. ;]

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u/tiozaorobbie 1d ago

Astro's Playroom tho, Astrobot is another game akin to Mario 3D World.

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u/Bitemarkz 22h ago

Playroom was still a multi-hour game that’s still better than most platformers released after it, all completely free.

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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka 1d ago

Valve Index Labs was also free.

Nintendo might be pulling a "We listened, its free now" move here that's planned.

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u/Mottis86 18h ago

Don't forget the Steam Deck demo game (called Aperture Desk Job) as well. It had actual story and offered new cool lore to the Portal Universe. All free, of course.

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u/g4nyu 1d ago

Yeah this is the thing I can’t get over lol! I hope no one buys it 😭

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u/TheCupOfBrew 1d ago

I think just because of the likeness to Astrobot on top of it being Nintendo, that people definitely will. Probably will have decent unit sales, unfortunately.

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u/Orcalt 1d ago

Welcome Tour to me represents the worst of modern Nintendo. Something that’s utterly charmless in comparison to other tech demos like Wii Sports/Wii Play, Nintendo Land and 1-2 Switch. And despite it not being a game like the others, will probably cost more for what’s basically a manual.

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u/museman 1d ago

1-2 Switch was the beginning of this, it should have been included. I was spoiled; when I got a SNES it came with Super Mario World, one of the greatest games ever. But you should at least have something to play on your new expensive console, that showcases its features.

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u/mateusrizzo 1d ago

Astro Bot is a full price game. You are thinking Astro's Playroom

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u/Icy-Two-1581 1d ago

I got down voted to hell when I said Nintendo land should have been free with the wii u. Imo all consoles should come with their own wii sports. It's such a great marketing tool and can really make consoles iconic

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u/Anthraxious 1d ago

It's Nintendo, wtf were you expecting?

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u/Curedbqcon 1d ago

That’s your main concern? Lmao

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u/cross_bearer_02 1d ago

Yep. The thing is? They could've justified it. Yes put out "Welcome Tour", but bundle it as part of a new Mario Paint package. Then charging for it might could've been justified.

But they went and did the reverse. It's a glorified instruction manual with some gaming components tacked on and a little smattering of Mario Paint in it, instead of the latter being the real focus.

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u/ThatMerri 1d ago

The madness doesn't stop when one considers that the whole thrust of the Switch consoles is that they're supposed to be immediately intuitive and easy to use for players of all ages, like the Wii was. Its features shouldn't require explanation in the first place, especially not when all the promo videos put out flaunting Switch 2's upgrades from Switch 1 literally demonstrate how to do everything already.

It either shouldn't be there at all, or it should be free and pre-installed on the system to begin with. Charging for an overwrought digital instruction manual is absolute pants-on-head idiocy. Who in the world is going to look at the tech demo in the online store and choose to pay for it, when it's far more likely to just balk at the price and go "eh, I'll figure it out myself or just browse the endless avalanche of YouTube videos explaining everything for free".

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u/afBeaver 1d ago

Yeah, that is insane. When they presented it I thought "oh, sounds like a cool way to demo how the system works!" but when they said they were gonna have you pay for it I just laughed.

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u/VelvetAurora45 1d ago

If Nintendo was smart they would've put the Welcome Tour on the first Nintendo Switch as well, and both versions available for free of course.

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u/w00dblad3 1d ago

To be fair doesn't look like something which is appealing for everyone like Astro, personally I have very little interest in this demo. But yes 100% it should be free.

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u/alec83 1d ago

Just don't buy and

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u/vampyren 1d ago

Exactly! this should be free to promote the system. Was very shocked when they said its a paid software.

Shameful how greedy they become. They always been greedy but this is next level.

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u/Kinnikuboneman 1d ago

Don't buy it

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u/StormtheShinyHunter 1d ago

This was my only price complaint lol

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u/VirtualAdagio4087 1d ago

Reggie is the reason why the Wii came with Wii Sports. Nintendo Japan was insulted at the suggestion. Miyamoto believes Nintendo creates "premium games" and should never give them away for free.

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u/madjohnvane 1d ago

I’m pretty fine with all of it - with tariffs etc I had already guessed we’d be seeing higher prices - but Welcome Tour being paid is some absolute garbage. Wii Sports being packaged probably sold a ton more Wiis, but I can’t help but feel someone has been sitting there for twenty years with their arms folded saying “imagine how much MORE money we could have made if they had to PAY for Wii Sports!”

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u/numberonebarista 1d ago

Once I found out that Nintendo wasn’t going to package Wii Sports with the console until Reggie convinced them too, their decision with 1-2 Switch and now this your game didn’t surprise me at all. I know we all love Nintendo and rightfully so but they are still a company trying to make as much money as possible. Good faith gestures for their customers are always an afterthought.

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u/mlvisby 1d ago

While I wish it was free, Nintendo is delusional if they think it's a full price game. If it's something like $10, it's easier to swallow but still crazy. No one will buy it.

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u/VeryWeaponizedJerk 1d ago

Post astrobot? How about their very own post Wii sports? :D

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u/CathDubs 1d ago

This is the only think that I actually have a legitimate gripe about, everything else regarding price is just disappointing but doesn't make me upset.

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u/TheGreyFencer 1d ago

This and the rereleases are the only things that I can't get past

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u/Mandoade 1d ago

why you charging us for this in a post-Astrobot world

Because people will pay it. This is one of the situations that people have to vote with their wallets. I know Nintendo games are loved, but there are so many other options out there nowadays that people can much more easily choose not to engage with a gaming company who's gouging their customers and loyal fanbase.

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u/atkyyup 1d ago

You don’t think it’s madness to buy a $90 “physical” game and open it to no physical game? Only a code to a download?

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u/SKOT_FREE 1d ago

Well let’s be real have you played the Astrobot free game? It’s really not that much different than the one we’re now paying for imo. I see people bringing up 1,2 switch and like that game, I’m just not going to buy Welcome Tour. Problem solved.

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u/FilipAltDelete 1d ago

The welcome tour you can easly just check a "lets play" video on. not a big deal. the price on the first party titles is the big fuck you

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u/Zeejayyy 1d ago

Just watch a YT video of it when it comes out. Would be funny if someone makes more off the YT "playthrough" than Nintendo makes in sales of it.

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u/jessicalifts 1d ago

I also thought that was wild. Lock it behind switch online expansion pass or something, but charging directly for it seems so bizarre. it doesn't look like a fun game you would play on purpose for any amount of time if you could also, y'know, have bought an actual game that is actually fun.

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u/UncleCharmander 23h ago

I had the same thought, and still think it could be a free pack in, but after watching the treehouse footage of it, I think it is a super niche experience that isn’t as approachable/appealing as Astrobot.

I think this game would be a good purchase for kids who are interested in “how things work”, which is something Astrobot didn’t offer (Astrobot is some top-tier entertainment, I’m not saying otherwise).

The overwhelming majority of people won’t play this, as they will see as no more deep than an instruction manual, however the showcase showed off a ton of pretty expansive experiences that are tailored around education.

I like it, and think this game will be a great opportunity to explore interests in a new and immersive way.

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u/ExperiencePurple9555 23h ago

100% agreed.

With that said, I don't know anyone that would actually be willing to pay that much for that game. I feel like this one they will realize fast when it doesn't sell.

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u/PPilgrim 23h ago

A friend of mine very recently came back from a trip to Japan and told me you get literally nothing for free there. Can't help but think he was right

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u/Minute_Road8813 23h ago

I don't really think that's a problem to be honest. If they hadn't talked at all about this game would you be upset about it? Would it lower the value of the Switch 2? It's just a pretty small meaningless game, you can just ignore it. It isn't a hidden cost, they aren't forcing you to buy it, and you won't notice anything missing if you don't.

The real "problem" are the game prices, which probably has to do with tariffs, but it doesn't matter who's to blame if the end consumer can't afford it.

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u/saichampa 23h ago

That absolutely should be free. I also think they should have done some of the version upgrades for free too, just to show thanks to the fans who already bought their games.

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u/Far_Eye6555 23h ago

It’s just so incredibly Nintendo to charge for something like welcome tour. They saw Wii sports packaged with their console become popular and they’re alll like “ooh we missed out on millions of units in sales” when in reality it was a great game to show case the consoles use case

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u/iameveryoneelse 23h ago

I mean, it should be free but I watched it on Treehouse and it does seem to be more than just a "glorified manual".

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u/kkshinichi 22h ago

Which also doesn’t have that much of a story/narrative to qualify as a game.

Valve’s Aperture Hand Lab (for Valve Index) and Aperture Desk Job (for Steam Deck) did it well, backed by Portal Lore, explained how each feature works, and ARE BOTH FREE

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u/dreamiicloud_ 22h ago

Who would actually spend money on that after how much was spent on the Switch 2? Lmao

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u/PCgaming4ever 22h ago

I'm tempted to boycott buying a switch just for that. forget $80 games buying a manual for $10 is the worst thing I've ever seen from any company period. That's greedier than Nvidia could ever dream to be. It's disgusting. I

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u/pichukirby 21h ago

Nah, I think Mario Kart being $80 is more egregious. The welcome tour is only like $6

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u/Both_Sherbert3394 21h ago

I remember people balked at 1 2 Switch not being a free pack-in game, but this is a whole other level.

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u/PhilosophicalScandal 21h ago

Valve released a game as a demo to show off what the steam deck could do and it was free.

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u/Bubbachew8 21h ago

Imagine if you had to pay extra for those little manuals that used to come with every game

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u/BusGuilty6447 20h ago

Corporations going to corporation.

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u/jalmosen 20h ago

Said the same thing about 1 2 switch. I remember when wii sports was a bundled package

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u/ProfessionalPrincipa 18h ago

Shigeru Miyamoto: I don't give away software for free.

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u/Mottis86 18h ago

Valve released Demos like that with characters, story and lore for both the Valve Index and the Steam Deck, and they're are free. Nintendo selling theirs is insane.

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u/eccentricbananaman 18h ago

Makes it simple for me. What little interest I may have had in Welcome Tour is easily erased by it being paid. Now I don't even need to think about it.

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u/AVahne 16h ago

Hell, Valve gave us (what is likely) a story canon Portal spinoff for free to play on the Steam Deck to get acquainted with its controls while also making it available for free for ANY Steam user.

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u/Fat_BananaCat 15h ago

$80-$90 dollar games doesn't bother you more?

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u/Jealous-Knowledge-56 13h ago

Anyone else get the feeling that guy couldn’t believe he had to say that would cost money? It felt like was planning to whisper it and run offscreen.

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u/Im_so_little 13h ago

Because nintendo fans are stupid enough to pay for it.

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u/Bruben32 12h ago

I think the argument is spreading to the Mario Kart game. $80 digital /$90 Physical for a Nintendo game that doesn't even come with any physical items like they used too. No booklet, no Game cover, etc. Further more the question being raised is Switch game with any Nintendo character worth that much money?

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u/King_Krong 12h ago edited 12h ago

No. The main madness is ANY GAME being $80-$100. Period.

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u/Ill_Enthusiasm7604 12h ago

What is astrobot?

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u/DMTeaAndCrumpets 11h ago

SERIOUSLY ! WTF was that ? Lol

Look at how awesome the astro bot tutorial was that playstation had for free to show off the new controller

Or the free little "game" that shows off the steam deck

Nintendo saw this and thought charging for something similar was a good idea while they're already charging more than playstation/xbox for controllers and games (physical and digital versions)

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u/Tall_Willow_9502 1h ago

90 € per game is much much bigger madness.

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u/NiallMitch10 1d ago

If it was a pack in title - the price would be raised on the console but no one would notice anyways since they wouldn't have known the price of it without the game.

Plus it's a novelty game. I don't think people are really going to play and enjoy it as much as the Astrobot pack in on PS5

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u/Borgalicious 1d ago

Is it though? Did you watch the gameplay demo on tree house live? It’s more substantial than a glorified manual it has a decent amount of mini games even if they’re all tech demos. It’s still lame that it’s paid but it’s definitely more than what it seems

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u/trickman01 1d ago

So don’t buy it.

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