Topic: Nintendo Announces Changes To Pricing Of Switch 2 Games, Ends Price Parity

[Shaymin]

For some of us this is a long time coming.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/74915/nintendo-announces-changes-to-pricing-of-switch-2-games-ends-price-parity

Digital-only buyers of exclusive Switch 2 first party games are about to get a break.

Nintendo of America has announced that starting with Yoshi and the Mysterious Book preorders (now available), digital pricing and physical pricing will be different for Nintendo-published Switch 2-only games. In the case of Yoshi, the digital version is listed with an MSRP of $59.99 while the physical copy is $69.99.

NoA has traditionally maintained price parity between digital and physical copies, going so far as to honor the price drops for games in the 3DS and Wii U era "Nintendo Selects" line digitally as well. It seems as though cross-platform releases such as Pokemon Legends: Z-A or Metroid Prime 4 will remain under the current policy, though there are no announced first party Switch 2 Edition releases beyond tomorrow's Super Mario Bros. Wonder expansion.

[Adrock]

[Ian Sane]

This is a very logical idea but, man, Nintendo is rather blatantly trying to steer things towards the all-digital future.  If I ever get a Switch 2 I already figure that I'm going to have to increase my digital purchases significantly unless I want to just miss out on tons of great games.  Now it will be a question of whether it makes sense financially to not do that.

Now how is this going to affect Game Key Card prices?  Are they going to be the higher "physical" price?  Ironically that seems like that would kill the format.  You can imagine physical game enthusiasts willing to pay a premium but why would anyone pay extra for what is essentially a digital version?  But then if GKCs die to push people towards digital purchases they accomplished their goal.

Of course the true result of this is that physical media is outright killed.  Then the prices go up.  Then games you "bought" become rentals.  I feel this has always been inevitable.  It's just unfortunate that Nintendo is so aggressively putting their thumb on the scale after the Switch 1 was actually a very good system for physical releases.

[M.K.Ultra]

Still no preorders?

[Evan_B]

This is a very logical idea but, man, Nintendo is rather blatantly trying to steer things towards the all-digital future.  If I ever get a Switch 2 I already figure that I'm going to have to increase my digital purchases significantly unless I want to just miss out on tons of great games.  Now it will be a question of whether it makes sense financially to not do that.

Now how is this going to affect Game Key Card prices?  Are they going to be the higher "physical" price?  Ironically that seems like that would kill the format.  You can imagine physical game enthusiasts willing to pay a premium but why would anyone pay extra for what is essentially a digital version?  But then if GKCs die to push people towards digital purchases they accomplished their goal.

Of course the true result of this is that physical media is outright killed.  Then the prices go up.  Then games you "bought" become rentals.  I feel this has always been inevitable.  It's just unfortunate that Nintendo is so aggressively putting their thumb on the scale after the Switch 1 was actually a very good system for physical releases.

As someone who just recently picked up my first GKC, I can’t imagine that format will exist for much longer with this idea in place.

Also, it sounds like this is the last generation I will be able to own video games and I’m resigned to that fate.

[broodwars]

Looking forward to those digital prices going right back up as soon as Nintendo's finally killed off physical media altogether. Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for Nintendo to put out a game worth $70 aside from DKB.

[Kairon]

This sucks for retailers, but honestly I think rising costs for manufacturing physical media was dragging prices for digital releases higher than they needed to be. Finally making the choice to break parity will give Nintendo more room to offer digital games at lower prices, in this case a return to last gen's $60 pricepoint, if they feel they need to react to consumers shying away from higher game prices.

Oh, and I did just finally understand why I saw someone calling this the Switch 2 version of the Voucher system. Two Switch 1 games would cost $120, but vouchers let you get them digitally for $100, $10 off per game as long as you committed to the bundle and bought it digitally. Now, two Switch 2 games would normally cost $70, but with the Digital drop you can get two games for $120, the same discount of $10 each per game. EXCEPT now you don't have to buy it a year in advance, and you can get the discount for just one game, not have to commit to buying two.