Recent Posts

81

TalkBack / Re: Pauline To Be Partner In Donkey Kong Bananza?

« Last post by TurdFurgy on April 05, 2025, 11:33:08 AM »

Could this be a little inspired by Wreck it Ralph?

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack Adding Switch 2 Exclusive GameCube Library

« Last post by Luigi Dude on April 04, 2025, 01:57:53 PM »

I would be very interested to see if Nintendo suddenly remembers they own Eternal Darkness when it comes to adding GameCube games to that service, not to mention several other obscure GameCube 3rd party gems like Lost Kingdoms 1 & 2.

Based on some of the stuff they've put on the N64 service, I'd say weird, obscure **** is probably also on the table here.

Yeah the Gamecube will have a lot more stuff to choose from as well since it had much better third party support.  Lots of crazy stuff from that era from niche franchises that died after that generation, so getting the rights shouldn't be too expensive for Nintendo either.

Like think about a company like Capcom who published a lot of stuff on the Gamecube, but has only remastered RE Remake, RE Zero, and RE4 since then.  I wouldn't be surprised if all 3 Viewtiful Joe games, Gotcha Force, Mega Man Battle Network Transmission, Mega Man X Command Mission, P.N.03 and Killer 7 all find there way on here since Capcom isn't doing anything with them.

Actually I wouldn't be surprised if all the Gamecube Resident Evil games show up on here.  They've put the original version of the Turok game on the N64 app despite them having remasters also on the Switch.  I have to imagine at the very least Nintendo will work out a deal to get Resident Evil 4 on here since they know it's literally one of the most popular games on the system, especially for hardcore crowd that's paying for the expansion pack in the first place.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Preorders In United States Delayed Due To Tariff Impact

« Last post by Luigi Dude on April 04, 2025, 01:40:07 PM »

I assumed the high Switch 2 price was in anticipation of tariffs.  So even if it was, did they underestimate what they would be?

Oh I can guarantee they did.  After Trumps tariffs back in his first term, Nintendo moved a lot of their production from China to Vietnam in part to avoid any future tariffs on China.  They probably thought at worse Vietnam might get a 10-20% tariff so raising prices on games $10 to $20 would easily offset that. 

Well now Trump literally slapped Vietnam with a 46% tariff.  That is far beyond any worse case scenario they could have planned for and one of the reasons they invested so much in Vietnam this last generation in the first place.  There's no way a company like Nintendo is going to eat that cost.  So yeah the hardware is about to get a major price increase in America.

Either that or it's a small increase in America and they do a small increase in the rest of the world to offset it.  That could get messy though since they've already been taking Pre-Orders in other countries already.  Maybe they might have to delay the launch as well in a few weeks to replan things.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Switch 2 Launches at $449.99 USD, £395.99, ¥49,980, and 469,99 €

« Last post by Luigi Dude on April 04, 2025, 01:20:46 PM »

Publishers can set the price to whatever they want. When people can’t afford that price, no one benefits. Anecdotally, I rarely buy games at full price due to my LOL gaming habits. Still, I get why people are mad about this because it isn't just about me, and it reaches way farther than video games. I don't think it's healthy to live in a world as a wage slave where you don't get to unwind and relax.

That said, gaming has not always been “a rich person’s hobby”. You have Neo-dodge a lot of things to get there.

Maybe the word rich was too extreme, but it's always been a hobby the average person finds too expensive to buy large amounts of games for.

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html

The average attachment ratio Nintendo systems

Home Consoles

NES - 8-9 games
SNES - 7-8 games
N64 - 6-7 games
Gamecube - 9-10 games
Wii - 9-10 games
Wii U - 7-8 games

Handheld Consoles

Gameboy - 4-5 games
Gameboy Advance - 4-5 games
Nintendo DS - 6-7 games
Nintendo 3DS - 5-6 games

Hybrid

Switch - 9-10 games


The average consumer of Nintendo consoles has never bought more than 10 games on a system.  When you realize most of Nintendo's systems last for 5-6 years, that means on average most people who buy Nintendo consoles are only buying about 1-2 games a year.  Even the handheld consoles that had cheaper prices to be more appealing to kids, only had parents buying a handful of games for them.

Now the question is, what is Nintendo's true motivation here?

Actually when you realize that the more expensive Nintendo systems have had higher attachment rates then the less expensive, it's no surprise they feel they can get away with raising the prices on Switch 2 games.  Remember how back in 2017 a lot of people thought the Switch price tag would be too expensive to appeal to their traditional handheld audience.  There were some back then that said because the Wii U failed, but the 3DS did good, there was no guarantee the Switch would appeal to the 3DS userbase because of the increase in pricing. 

I remember back then people saying the Pokemon audience might not be willing to go from paying $40 for the 3DS titles, to now $60 for the Switch games.  The price jump between the DS to 3DS Pokemon games was no where near that extreme, that might scare away a lot of parents.  And yet Pokemon Sword and Shield went on to sell 26 million units at $60, which is 10 million more than X/Y sold on the 3DS at $40.

So technically you could make the same point with Mario Kart.  Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has sold close to 70 million copies and Mario Kart World is looking to be a massive improvement with 24 character races and being turned into an open world experience as well.  They're offering a Mario Kart experience that has never been done before, and if the majority of their audience before the Switch was willing to go from paying $40 for 3DS games to $60 Switch games, they want to see if they can get away with jumping another $20 for a major title like this.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Preorders In United States Delayed Due To Tariff Impact

« Last post by Ian Sane on April 04, 2025, 12:29:17 PM »

My brother suggested a rather amusing idea.  Nintendo takes the systems they allocated for the US and put them into Canada and Mexico instead at a reasonable price point.  There is no tariff to import the hardware or physical games into those countries.  The idea is for American buyers to take any tariff hit by importing the system themselves, either through the mail or if they live near the border, crossing to pick it up themselves.

I think the US is far too large of a market to essentially sacrifice in favour of everywhere else but it's a funny idea.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Switch 2 Launches at $449.99 USD, £395.99, ¥49,980, and 469,99 €

« Last post by Ian Sane on April 04, 2025, 12:05:10 PM »

Question for my Canadian friends. Are the increases from US$ to CA$ consistent with cost of living and other costs or is this specific to Nintendo products?

All my life the general trend is that Canadian MSRPs are higher than the US.  Videogames have actually been better at matching the USD than other products.  During the Wii years the two currencies were about even and our game prices matched.  It was during the time that games increased in the US from $50 to $60 but for us prices went down to $60.

Video Games Plus is a Canadian website I often buy games from and they recently opened pre-orders for some games that are on both the Switch 1 and 2, like the new Rune Factory and Story of Seasons.  The Switch 2 versions are $70 USD and $100 CAD.  Now their policy is that if you pre-order at a lower price they'll stick to that price if the price increases.  Do they know the true MSRP or are just predicting high so they don't have to take a hit if they guessed too wrong?  On their social media accounts there is, as expected, some outrage from customers, though not really towards the store itself since it isn't their fault.  But it presents an interesting situation.  The Switch 1 versions are the typical price, $20 CAD cheaper than the Switch 2 ones.  So unless the Switch 1 version has serious performance issues, why would you get the Switch 2 version?  A $20 increase better result in a much better version.  Usually when you have games appearing across two generations at once there isn't a major cost difference between the two, if any at all.  I think I paid the same price for the Wii U version of Breath of the Wild.

Oh and all my favourite stores that sell physical games might have just been ruined by the price hike.  Physical games are going to die eventually so it was inevitable but you figured it would be a slow process not an overnight change.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Preorders In United States Delayed Due To Tariff Impact

« Last post by Kairon on April 04, 2025, 11:50:54 AM »

As much as I hate it as a physical game buyer, I think they have to price digital and physical games differently.  Most of the outrage about the price has been over the game prices.  Tariffs don't affect digital sales.  Make the digital versions lower and at least a customer only has to deal with a high price for the hardware.

I'd hate this as a physical buyer, but I'm starting to be afraid you're right. If physical is driving up the game prices due to tariffs AND manufacturing costs, and their principle of not undercutting their retail partners is trapping them in this awkward situation, there is the easy option of simply... breaking their promise (to themselves? to retailers?) that there will be price parity.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Preorders In United States Delayed Due To Tariff Impact

« Last post by Ian Sane on April 04, 2025, 11:46:16 AM »

I assumed the high Switch 2 price was in anticipation of tariffs.  So even if it was, did they underestimate what they would be?

As much as I hate it as a physical game buyer, I think they have to price digital and physical games differently.  Most of the outrage about the price has been over the game prices.  Tariffs don't affect digital sales.  Make the digital versions lower and at least a customer only has to deal with a high price for the hardware.

Or do they play chicken?  The launch is in June.  Will these reciprocal tariffs blow up in America's face fast enough that they'll be repealed by then?  The average American citizen is not going to notice the prices for a videogame system that hasn't been released yet but they will notice if their grocery bill goes through the roof.  So is that going to happen and if so, how soon?

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Preorders In United States Delayed Due To Tariff Impact

« Last post by Kairon on April 04, 2025, 11:45:21 AM »

My dream of spending less on the Switch 2 launch than I spent on the Wii launch is over.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Preorders In United States Delayed Due To Tariff Impact

« Last post by Lemonade on April 04, 2025, 11:14:06 AM »

Who is ready for a $650 USD Switch 2?