Publishers want to imitate the Nintendo 2 80 Games switch

Nintendo did not offer a price for its Switch 2 During his time showcaseS Instead, customers learned through the vine that the console would cost $ 450. But for many real ones Eye surprise was the price of the start title Mario Kart World at $ 80. This is the most nintendo who has ever asked customers to pay, but more than that is a message to the world: stop expecting cheap games. From here it will become more expensive.

The switch 2 complete with the new Mario card It costs $ 500, but only the most of the touch Lucille Blles of the world would not find it expensive. We have had Handmore with a few matches Switch 2including Mario Kart WorldAnd we are already in love with his chaotic energy as a multiplayer of 24 players, but it’s not just games with massive multiplayer options that have increased. Almost every game with a first country switch will cost you more than in the past.

A few exceptions, such as Donkey Kong BananzaHe will ask for $ 70 at the start, but the older titles also cost $ 70. If you want to buy a Switch 2 updated version of the original Switch Launch title title Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildwill give you back $ 70. Both Super Mario Party Jamboree– a game that costs $ 60 on Switch 1 when it started late last year – and Kirby and the forgotten land They will be sold at $ 80 for $ 80 (although they must have additional features and modes thrown at). The same applies to the Switch 2 edition The legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and the new Mario Kart WorldS

Given the more games and the bigger part of the new editions will go for $ 80, this is the new Nintendo standard. This means that Nintendo will now be the barometer about whether gamers will take $ 80 games, not the standard $ 60 set by AAA games in the last few years. Karl Kontus, co -founder of Analytics FIRc Insights InSights (which was recently acquired by Sensor Tower) told Gizmodo by email that “there is a world in which it will harm sales of Switch 2.” However, Nintendo rarely makes discounts on his games, and his legion from fans “is not so sensitive to prices,” he said.

He suggested that it was more likely to see games at many different price dots ahead. This can also cause gamers to be more selective in their purchase habits. All those games you might call “just good” will suffer if they fail to find a price that users are willing to pay.

Numerous analysts we talked to, the publishers mentioned adhere to the choice of Nintendo prices. Digital Media Analyst at Wedbush Securities Michael Pichter earlier to Gizmodo that the industry is waiting for Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto VI To push the price point of $ 100S Nintendo’s $ 80 -dollar games “drastically increase the likelihood of $ 100 GTA VIS He is now “75%” sure what will probably turn out to be the biggest game of 2025, for both sales and gamers’ portfolios. Nintendo opened the floods for the pricing of the game and unless the console bombs are likely to not go back.

“This may be the catalyst that other publishers are waiting (tied to the GTA VI Price Point) to follow fast and also to pass $ 80 as a standard price,” Kontus said. “Historically, it was very difficult to increase game prices compared to any other form of media or consumer items, so I am sure that publishers would jump when they were able to do so.”

The price extraction could not come in a worse time for gamers. On the same day as Switch 2 reveals President Donald Trump hosted his longtime “Liberation Day” that led us to a A massive check of tariffs At practically any large production base used by technology companies. Report from Financial times Last week, he quoted analysts who said Nintendo’s hardware was made in Vietnam and Cambodia. Trump’s tariffs now place 46% respectively and 49% tariff for both sides. This would potentially increase the cost of Switch 2 significantly.

Nintendo may have planned for US tariffs some time ago with the price of Switch 2 of $ 450, but it seems that a little could be prepared for a nearly 50% of imported goods taxS According to MST financial analyst, David Gibson, seeing the flames on the horizon, Nintendo may have already delivered 383,000 units to the United States, but that won’t be almost enough to search.

If the hardware becomes more expensive, the software will surely follow the example. Still, Nintendo’s price impetus is in the work much longer than Trump’s tariffs. Publishers from all over the industry have groomed for the price of games From the 90s. The main title from the first country such as the Super Mario 64 started for $ 60 in 1996, adjusted for inflation, which is the equivalent of $ 124 by February this year. Publishers resisted the desire to ask for more than fear of the player’s uprising.

Beyond inflation and tariffs, the reason for the increase in the price of the game is to the increasing cost of development from titles with a large budget with the latest graphic fidelity and sufficient features for filling 120 GB of storage. Nintendo avoids the Pixel industry’s obsession to press while leaving the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 Peacock around with its 4K, 60 FPS capabilities.

Things are changing now. Switch 2 can make 4K on some games when it comes on, its display has come across 720p to 1080p. Carry a traditionally graphically intensive title as Cyberpunk 2077S Some shift gates 2 games are so large that they will now use “Game Cards,” which are essentially empty cards for playing Switch 2 with a connection to download the digital version. The Switch 2 ecosystem begins to feel more like that of other large consoles.

Former PR leaders for Nintendo, Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang suggested in their Last podcast that Nintendo may feel the pressure of increasing costs with its impetus to higher resolution games. “They move to this type of 4K era, in which the games are bigger, cost a little more to make and take more time – in some cases maybe much more,” Elis said. “Will this change the types of games (Nintendo) will be ready to invest resources?”

Meanwhile Jason Shreyer on Bloomberg noted Increasing costs for the development of the game are exacerbated by the management of nothing. He cites several examples in which bosses leave workers to retain unproductive weeks while publishers are thrown at projects. This is obliged to increase costs.

Nintendo insists forward with what has long been in the industry that is sticking. This does not make it easier to swallow. Is the world of Mario Kart worth $ 80? We still don’t know, we haven’t played it completely yet. But does every game cost $ 80 or – a hill – $ 100? The only thing the users have left are their portfolios and that has to talk.