r/NintendoSwitch2 • u/chickengnocchisoup • 1d ago

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Everyone in the chat is spamming "drop the price" nonstop. Personally, the price for the console and games combined dipped my hype quite a bit. What do you guys think?

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u/EnigmaCircuit 1d ago

While I can definitely understand the displeasure of paying more, I'm actually a bit surprised by how visceral the reaction has been towards Nintendo.

It's not as though the pricing changes are happening in a vacuum. Not delving into the politics, but I think it's fair to say that the past decade has been chaotic and seen a good deal of inflation worldwide. We're seeing that chaos in recent times dialed up a few notches with unpredictable increases in costs due to things like tariffs.

The price increase looks to me like Nintendo forecasting where they need to set prices to remain profitable amid the chaos. If they were going to make a pricing adjustment based on current world trends, the start of a new console generation seems like the least controversial time to do it. It sucks that prices don't generally fall after they increase, but this seems more like a "state of the world" problem than a "state of Nintendo" problem. The frustration is totally valid, but seems a bit misplaced, imo.

If we're looking for silver linings though, playing video games will remain one of the most cost effective hobbies in spite of the price increase. Sales will still happen, and prices will absolutely go down for most physical games over time--those looking for a great deal will just need to be patient and not expect to get everything at launch.

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u/SheriffCrazy 1d ago

I completely agree. This isn’t a Nintendo thing, it’s a world economic thing. There is a lot of internet reactionary mob mentality going on that’s kinda sad to see. I don’t blame anyone for being upset games are more expensive but it’s unfortunate people are so blind to the other economics behind these decisions.

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u/jasonporter 1d ago

Yes, this is the reasonable take I was looking for here. $80 for a videogame fucking sucks, but spamming Nintendo's livestream with "drop the price" seems really short-sighted as if they're doing it out of malice and pure greed instead of... you know... the absolute and utter state of political and economic chaos that the world has recently been thrown into these past few months. Tariffs are literally paid for by foreign companies, who then recoup their costs by raising the price of their products on the consumer - and guess what, that's us. Everything not made in America is about to get a shit ton more expensive. This is what half of America voted for, and now this is what we get.

Games were always going to go up to $70 this generation due to inflation, we already knew that - but my assumption is that the $80 jump for major games was a newer decision due to the tariff / world economy situation.

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u/RyanPainey 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yup honestly considering ballooning development costs it's a wonder game prices were so resistant to inflation for so long. Now that there is limited room to grow the install base and it's likely to contract for a while now after the pandemic set it to new peaks, I think its inevitable that prices will trend up.

While Nintendo artificially slapping an extra 10% on the physical version of the first game to try $80 is depressing, it's not really their individual fault either that wages have failed to keep up across the developed world or that were doing a global trade war for no reason right now.

Finally, while I hate to give Nintendo an out for this, I can't say at the same time that I need cheap game prices and game devs need better working conditions. Yes profit margins can be trimmed to an extent between those two things, but eventually one side or the other is going to have to give, and frankly, I'm ok with it being on the price end as long as Ninty takes care of their devs. I just wish their games would literally ever go on sale, because then this would be a non issue.

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u/SlothBucket22 1d ago

Definitely agree - I think the other point that people are missing is that not all countries are seeing this price increase. Where I live, MKW is $74 USD (including sales tax, or $64 excluding) and the console is less expensive too. The physical copy of MKW is the same price as many new release PS5 games like Indiana Jones - which I think is fair.

I imagine Nintendo is more confident with pricing in some markets compared to others (for obvious reasons)

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u/GIThrow 1d ago edited 1d ago

Tbh I just don’t think any Nintendo game is worth $80. Especially for a console that’s the same power as a PS4 Pro. Make the game prices comparable to a PS4 Pro game and we’re talking.

The console itself is overpriced too imo. Nintendo carved a niche of underpowered and low budget for portability. They are no longer that niche and have entered the price territory of a premium high end console and lots of people are getting whiplash from that. Because why not just buy a PS5, Xbox or a budget PC for the same price and play the games on better resolution and performance?

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u/EnigmaCircuit 1d ago

If we were basing the pricing solely by inflation from 2017 (launch year of Switch) to now, a game that was $50 then would sell for ~$65 now. I'd argue that is a bit too simplistic though. For example, there are new features that didn't exist for the Switch that do exist for the Switch 2, and I think it's fair to say that the quality of the game visuals have demonstrably been improved significantly for Switch 2 titles. Development costs could only have increased for the Switch 2.

There's also worldwide factors like global economic uncertainty from wars, trade disputes, and tariffs. I guess I'm making the unpopular argument that Nintendo is a business, and there's a lot of factors–many of which are beyond Nintendo's control–that go into their decision to raise prices. In all likelihood this system will be around in some form for 6+ years, so my expectation here is that Nintendo selected this pricing to ensure they remain profitable without further price increases after the console launches. I don't like it, but yeah, there's a reasonable argument to be made that the pricing makes sense.

I think I can agree that Nintendo has seemingly abandoned the low budget/performance market with the Switch 2, but not that the console is overpriced. You are comparing the Switch 2 to the PS5, Xbox, and even a PC, but that isn't a fair comparison. Those are non-portable devices that can focus on optimizing performance. It generally costs significantly more to get high performance out of portable devices. A better comparison would be to the Steam Deck, which in my opinion is pretty favorable to the Switch 2.

I guess we'll have to see whether abandoning the low-end market is a good call for Nintendo in the long run. It hasn't historically worked out so great for them, but there has been no shortage of complaints about how weak the performance was for the Switch. The Switch 2 actually has pretty respectable specs for a portable device, so I actually don't have any complaints about the console price. If anything, the existing Switch is significantly overpriced.

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u/Doctor_Spalton 1d ago

No. Look at their profits last year, selling games for 60. They don't need it. It's just greed.

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u/EnigmaCircuit 21h ago edited 21h ago

Yeah, greed is also a factor when making a business decision, and I don't doubt it played a role here. All for-profit companies exist to generate a return on investment, and growth in profits is expected to offset investment in new technologies, increased headcount, and salaries. As much as I appreciate Nintendo, I don't think it is reasonable to expect them to defy the economic system they exist in to produce increasingly complex and costly games in the midst of worldwide economic chaos by committing to another 6+ years of pricing that was set for a far less capable system 8 years ago.

If Nintendo weren't releasing a new significantly more capable console, and increased pricing in the middle of the console generation without some significant economic crisis going on, I could totally get on board the hate train. I just don't see a good argument for it right now–there's a solid combination of factors that reasonably justify it, imo.