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It’s crazy, because I have been with Nintendo through thick and thin and owned near-enough all of their systems. Nintendo has been a constant presence in my life. But the Wii and the Wii U left a sour taste in my mouth which made me apprehensive about buying a Switch. And because I had Mario Kart 8 and Breath of the Wild on Wii U, I had no real incentive to buy a Switch early on. And then there was the Joy-Con drift issue which was a thing from the very beginning. But by the time the Switch had blossomed into this great system with a fantastic library of games, I figured ‘I’ll just get the rumoured Switch Pro when it drops’. Of course I knew this probably wouldn’t be the name, but I was adamant that a revised version of the Switch would release at some point and hopefully Nintendo woulda fixed them damn Joy-Cons. System redesigns mid-way through a console life cycle has just become a standard, even if Nintendo traditionally have never done it with consoles. But the Switch was different, because it is basically a handheld. And one thing Nintendo gon’ do is release a revised version of their handhelds. As suspected, it did happen. Kinda. We got the Switch OLED. But it wasn’t enough of a jump for me. And the Joy-Cons were the exact same. Then more time passed and I thought ‘Well, at this rate, I may as well buy the Switch successor’. And now here we are, two mere months out from the release of the Switch 2.
Nintendo were tight lipped about the existence of a Switch successor, but everybody knew the Switch was at the end of its cycle and that a Switch successor was due. After years of speculation, alleged leaks about what the Switch 2 would be, what it would feature, and when we would see it — Nintendo finally announced it on the 6th of January and then lifted the lid on it with a Nintendo Direct on the 2nd of April. Everybody was excited to finally see it in full, to see it would be arriving in a mere couple of months and that it was launching with a brand new Mario Kart game.
I was watching the Nintendo Direct with a smile on my face the entire time. Nintendo smartly chose to build off of the Switch and not give us something entirely new. We were getting a new Mario Kart. A new Donkey Kong game. Optimised versions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. They actually gave the Switch the graphical kick it needed to remain competitive. The third party support was insane. Bitch. Final Fantasy VII: Remake was releasing for this damn thing! The entire time I was watching the Direct I was just blown away at how Nintendo managed to tick every box and deliver everything we all wanted from a Switch 2. I was sold. Day of release. Gimme. But once the Direct was done, I asked myself ‘Wait a minute. How much does it cost? Did they show a price in the Direct? Did I miss it?’. I headed over to the cesspool formerly known as Twitter and the YouTubes, to see that I hadn’t missed the price. It was left out of the Direct. And then the price was put out — basically hidden by Nintendo like Korok seeds. And suddenly, all of that feel-good energy from the Direct dissipated upon seeing what Nintendo was trying to pull.
| US | UK | Europe | Japan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Switch 2 | $449.99 | £395.99 | 469,99 € | ¥49,980 (Japanese) ¥69,980 (Multi language) |
| Mario Kart World | $79.99 | £74.99 | 89,99 € | ¥9,980 |
| Welcome Tour | $9.99 | ? | ? | ¥990 |
Crack is in the green pipes in the Mushroom Kingdom. Has to be.
Now. There is a lot to parse here.
Firstly, there are notable differences in price by region — which is not a surprise. This is how it’s always been with gaming hardware. And whilst we have seen many companies try to release products globally with smaller differences in price or be priced to have the same number, so it looks nicer and fairer — this is just how it is. But given the current economic climate, these prices are under more scrutiny than they would perhaps have been otherwise. And the economic climate is why these prices are what they are. The US is getting sucker punched the hardest and has everybody like ‘Damn’. And then everyone looks at the Switch 2 price in Japan and is like ‘Oh shit. So, we’re all getting robbed!?’
The tariffs being enforced by President Orange Cunt is going to be a problem for consoles sold in the US, unless consoles end up exempt from it the same way phones and PC’s have been. And the Japanese yen is in a Toto toilet with a heated seat, in a country where the average wage is already lower than that of the US, the UK and most of Europe. So there are legitimate economic reasons for the price differences of the Switch 2. But it doesn’t make it any less shitty for fans to see these prices laid out. But Nintendo seemed to go to lengths to not make this pricing information easy to find or see comparatively, which made it all worse. And we’ll get to that.
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| Even Bowser cannot believe |
But the price of the Switch 2 isn’t the only problem here. It’s Mario Kart 8 being $80 dollars, the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour not being free, Nintendo hiding this information and how everything looks as a whole. It’s raggedy and suspect. There didn’t seem to be any consideration of the consumer in any of these decisions. Everything was about Operation: Get money, bitch and not a damn thing else. And whilst Nintendo has always been about getting money (they are one of the richest companies in Japan for a reason), as a long-time fan, it’s definitely disheartening to see them so flagrantly display this as a focus for the Switch 2 and not even try to mask it. There’s no heart or consideration of us behind any of this. Satoru Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aimé would never.
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| Mario Kart World costs a whole lotta coins |
Variable pricing for games is not a new thing and it certainly isn’t new for Nintendo. Variable pricing has been a thing in Japan for ages. Nintendo 64 games had variable pricing globally way back when. Here’s what the still amusingly named President of Nintendo of America, Doug Bowser had to say about variable pricing when he spoke to the Washington Post.
What you see right there is variable pricing. We’ll look at each game, really look at the development that’s gone into the game, the breadth and depth of the gameplay, if you will, the durability over time and the repeatability of gameplay experiences. Those are all factors, and there’s many more that go into consideration of what is the right price point for the game. So I think you can anticipate that there will be variable pricing, and we haven’t set a benchmark.
Using these factors to determine the price of a game is a slippery slope, because it is all subjective. It results in games being lined up side-by-side and people asking the question ‘Why is game A more than game B, when game B had X,Y and Z more than game A?’. And because developers probably aren’t the ones setting the prices, it creates this contentious situation where you are pricing based on the perceived quality of a game, versus just a far fairer baseline price for all games. Even now, people are asking what it is about Mario Kart World that makes Nintendo feel that it should be $80. It can’t just be that it’s ‘open world’. To me it feels more like Nintendo making a choice to get more money out of people based on the insane popularity of Mario Kart 8 — which not only became one of the best-selling video games of all time, but seemed to shift the status of the Mario Kart franchise internally as something that sits alongside a main entry Super Mario or Legend of Zelda game.
Nintendo has more than enough historical data to show that their triple AAA titles sell systems and that those who already own their systems will absolutely buy future triple AAA releases for it. So we are about to enter a phase in gaming where new Super Mario, Legend of Zelda and Pokémon games could cost $80 and more. And this will make the Switch 2 a financial burden to own at a time when many of us are really feeling the pinch and already find gaming to be an increasingly expensive hobby to keep. And this could also price out parents, who were a huge market for the Switch 1 and Nintendo in general. $450 for a system and then $80 for a new Mario, Zelda or Pokémon game is a lot to ask of parents whose children already have them out of pocket.
Nintendo charging $80 for Mario Kart World sets a precedent which others will begin to follow. How much will Grand Theft Auto 6 cost? How much is the next God of War going to cost? How much is the next Final Fantasy going to cost? How much should the Resident Evil 3 remake have retailed for, given how slapdash and short it was? How much should Cyberpunk 2077 have cost, given the state in which it was released? How much should those asset swapped, barely quality controlled Pokémon Scarlet and Violet games have cost? The retail pricing of games is going to be so messy now. And if gamers do not feel that the price of a game is reflective of the quality and gameplay value, they are going to be VERY loud about it online.
The Mario Kart World focused Nintendo Direct on the 17th of April is going to be more than just fans tuning in to get an extensive look at the game. It’s going to be everybody sizing up if what they see warrants an $80 price tag. This is the position Nintendo have put their games in now. It’s not just about ‘Does the game look good?’. It’s now gonna be ‘Does the game look $80 good?’.
And whilst the inevitable global normalisation of variable pricing will not solely be Nintendo’s fault, I do think that Mario Kart World’s pricing is going to be used as a marker when we look back on the history of variable game pricing years from now. And we know Nintendo is a company that Microsoft and Sony look at and try to emulate their successes to a degree. So expect to see some of their first party titles with $80 price tags.
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| The Switch 2’s digital instruction manual. Available for $10. |
Nintendo charging $80 for Mario Kart World and $10 for Welcome Tour stems from Nintendo’s own ethos that the hard work which goes into developing their games should not be given away for free or have its price undercut — which is why their first party titles never drop in price no matter how old they are. Breath of the Wild costs the same amount now for Switch 1 that it did when it first released in 2017. And the Switch 2 edition of Breath of the Wild will keep that same price of $69.99 / £66.99 / 89,99 € and not come with the DLC included.
News of the Welcome Tour not being free has had everybody citing how Wii Sports came as a pack-in game with the Wii and how on earth could Nintendo charge for Welcome Tour in the wake of this. But Wii Sports being a pack-in with Wii’s at launch was something that the then president of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aimé, had to fight for and the folk in Japan at Nintendo HQ were reportedly not happy about it. Which is why in Japan, Wii Sports did not come as a pack-in and had to be purchased separately. I get that some may see it as apples and oranges. Comparatively, the Wii had a whole new control scheme for home consoles, which Wii Sports expertly demonstrated and sold owners on the concept of. Switch 2 is releasing as a follow-up to a system which has shipped 150 million units. It’s pretty safe to say that most who are going to be picking up a Switch 2 already own a Switch. They get how it works. But that said, it is still a new system with a premium price point which has a whole bunch of new features and a new Joy-Con control scheme that the first Switch does not have. Making people pay for an interactive instruction manual is dirtier than a set of Mario Kart tyres after a lap of Wario Stadium. It’s foul.
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| Go on an adventure to find Switch 2 pricing |
Go to the official Nintendo websites and see how many clicks, scrolls and pages you have to get through just to see prices for anything relating to the Switch 2. It’s ridiculous.
I completely understand not putting the Switch 2 price in the Direct which was aired on the Nintendo of America YouTube channel, because of the whole tariffs situation and that the system price could end up changing and Nintendo wouldn’t want something which has been seen by millions of people and shared like crazy to have an incorrect price in it. But DAMN. Y’all couldn’t have put the prices on the homepages of the official Nintendo websites? Or in the YouTube video about copy of the Nintendo Directs?
Mess.
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| A message from Nintendo of America |
Listen. I’m not here to defend an $11 billion company, but there really is only so much Nintendo can do about the price of the Switch 2 in the US. However, they didn’t need to charge $80 for Mario Kart World. And they could have made the Nintendo Switch 2 Tour free or just not bothered with it all.
I get that Nintendo is a company — one of the richest in Japan, no less — so I can’t say I’m surprised by their choice to just fleece as much money out of everybody as possible. But Nintendo doing so in such a flagrant fashion is a surprise from a company who has — up until this point — always been about delivering great gaming experiences at prices which always felt reasonable compared to the competition. Their pricing made more sense than not. And that’s changed now. It’s shifted a lot of people’s perceptions of Nintendo, even mine. Somebody who was a long-time fan.
All this said, I will still buy a Switch 2 and Mario Kart World and I hate myself for it. But Nintendo are really going to have to put in some work to shift their image. Unless they’re fine with now being closely compared to Microsoft and Sony, who have been getting dragged left and right for years over being money hungry, out of touch and not caring about the people working on their games or those who are buying them.