What is your opinion of Nintendo's pricing strategy with their software?

[Lotus]

Really wish I can find a physical copy of Smash on sale so I can finally grab it and have a buffer for the Season Passes.

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This might be a reach, but if you have a Staples in your area (and has the game in stock), they currently got a coupon on the Staples app that takes $30 off that lasts until 5/11. YMMV but you can also have them price match a cheaper price elsewhere before applying the coupon.

 

[Gacha Santa Alter]

It pretty much guarantees I'll never have a Nintendo system as my main gaming platform.

 

[Mekanos]

Nintendo is a fascinating company because they are widely beloved despite being as profit-focused as any other publicly traded company. They charge what they charge because the demand is there, and I can't fault them for that. At least you never have to wait for a sale, because there won't be one.

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Nintendo is very much the Disney of the gaming world for better or worse. People associate their products with happy childhood nostalgia and then when they grow up, their kids become Nintendo fans. They have a very strong brand synergy that makes people think of their games and characters first before their practices as a company.

Of course I'm in the same boat. I've been a Nintendo fan since I could pick up a controller. But they are really, really good at embedding themselves into their consumers' lives, which is a big reason why they're pivoting to theme parks and merchandise.

 

[YohraUtopia]

i'm not sure I have an opinion on it? It's just a business decision like any other. Nintendo does value pricing (rare sales, rare coupons, etc.) because... it can; it's in a very unique position and has insanely powerful brand and IP recognition qua gaming (seriously, just look up best known entertainment IP and the only the gaming examples will be things like Mario and Pikachu; you can walk in like remote rural parts of India and kids will recognize Nintendo IP but wouldn't recognize like Kratos or MasterChief in a thousand years). It's obviously good for their bottom line and it allows them to break away from the hype cycle to a reinforcing degree: they're pulling in enough money to ensure those qualities and essentially buying time. value pricing only works if you trust the brand and with some exceptions most Nintendo first party are just insanely well-polished and very carefully designed (I'm not saying that = the best games but it does = very rarely an absolute, unconscionable stinker, it's why stuff like Wii Music and 1-2 Switch 2 or whatever it's called still stand out as so terrible). Value pricing is a smart choice for a company that doesn't want to incentivize consumers to wait for sales and does want to consistently sell a product at a large profit over a long period of time. Anyone who's ever looked at MK8 numbers sees probably the most hyperbolic example of this.

fwiw, I think FROM is also closish to this model at this point. Yes, you can get Dark Souls or Sekiro at like half price now regularly on sale but by and large the games are not discounted more than... half price I think? And ER, even many years out, is still usually MSRP or just like 10-20% off even with the dlc coming up. Why? Cause they know they can sell at that price and it will fund the dev cycle of their next game. And they know we'll pay cause the games have such strong positive reception.

EDIT: I am actually very much a cheapskate so it's funny personally to me to think about this. I generally get Nintendo first parties that I know I won't just want to return to constantly physical from GameFly and then just keep cause the initial used-sale price is at least $10-15 cheaper. It also really underscores the value of the vouchers if you're already subbed to NSO.

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

I'm more than willing to pay it repeatedly as Nintendo has a track record of very much appealing to my tastes across their various IP.

But I do also acknowledge that it's not the way that others in the video game space do things, and there are much better deals for games elsewhere.

I basically just feel like that for myself, it's worth the premium... but I don't feel comfortable or right insisting that this should be the way anyone else sees it.

 

[YohraUtopia]

For them is a valid strategy that works.. but is a backward pass in inclusion, specially where one game is equivalent to half a month salary of 70% of the population...

Edit: half was a exaggeration, it is more like one third.

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real question: where do you live? It's funny cause I mentioned rural India above and that's somewhere where indeed a $70 USD game is about a third of median monthly pay.

 

[jotun?]

I still break out the WiiU to play Mario Kart 8 because there's no way I'm paying $60+ to rebuy it on Switch

 

[YohraUtopia]

I understand why they do it, and they succeed at making me buy more full-priced games than any other company, but there are plenty of Nintendo games I refuse to buy due to the price being higher than I'm willing to spend. I love Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, but I'm not going to buy it again on the Switch for more money than what I paid for to get it on the Wii U (same for Mario Kart 8). When it comes to my purchases, the strategy both works and fails.

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I do this too (and skip whole franchises because of it) but their calculation, pretty obviously correct, is that for every 1 person like us, there are like 100 who aren't. And also that losing a handful of purchases is worth it to overall keep the games selling for a high profit year over year

 

[Alex840]

Honestly I think if the other publishers would hold as strong on price the industry would be in a better place.

People are just trained to wait for deep discounts (myself included) you don't have to wait very long nowadays either.

If I wasn't so sure that Ubisoft would have a sale within a month of release, I probably would have bought Prince of Persia at launch.

 

[TYRANITARR]

My opinion is they they are a business, this is America, and they are not violating consumer laws.

They can price those games $99.99 if they want to, I will buy them or I will not.

 

[PAFenix]

This might be a reach, but if you have a Staples in your area (and has the game in stock), they currently got a coupon on the Staples app that takes $30 off that lasts until 5/11. YMMV but you can also have them price match a cheaper price elsewhere before applying the coupon.

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Bruh I didn't even know Staples still existed lmao

 

[Gelf]

It means I just don't buy many Nintendo games at all.

I just don't value their games at the extra premium I'd have to pay relative to almost everything else. There are some I'd absolutely like to try, but that's the same for many other games too which are easier and more affordable for me to access.

 

[Pancracio17]

Good for their business overall maybe, but personally I spend less there because of it. Never bought many of their games because they never dropped in price. Especially for a game like DK TF which was a port that launched at an even higher price than its original release, it just sucks.

 

[ScOULaris]

Bruh I didn't even know Staples still existed lmao

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And they sell games?!

 

[blamite]

I like that when I buy a game at or near launch but can't make time to play it for a while, I don't feel like I wasted money by buying it too soon.

 

[Derbel McDillet]

My opinion is they they are a business, this is America, and they are not violating consumer laws.

They can price those games $99.99 if they want to, I will buy them or I will not.

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Do they not operate in other countries?

 

[blueredandgold]

They can do it, because the fanbase allows it, so why wouldn't they? Personally I hate that their games never go down in price significantly.

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It sucks and it's the motive why piracy exists and are prevalent in Nintendo platforms

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I think these contrasts are worth highlighting.

I'm not casting any aspersions on either remark, but I'm just saying there's many varying ways to look at this, or even understand it.

It's why I cautioned against going too much into my first post when I thought it there was something strange related to the US-centric demographic we have here.

 

[Ostrav]

I end up buying less from them since many of their games never reach a price I'm willing to pay for them.

 

[Lotus]

Bruh I didn't even know Staples still existed lmao

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And they sell games?!

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Yes and yes haha

The game part in particular I was surprised by

 

[evilromero]

Well my opinion is it has kept me from buying any of it.

 

[Kenai]

It does make me more critical of my day 1 purchases for them (same as any full price purchase) but by and large I get my money's worth so it's fine. And it probably has the desired effect for them since so many other games drop in price so rapidly that I feel burned vs if I had just waited a bit.

 

[StrappingYoungLance]

When I look at the way this forum talks about Ubisoft releases it's hard not to blame Nintendo for avoiding sales on their games or more permanent price drops. People had little issue forking over a full $60 for Metroid Dread. Era's reaction to Prince of Persia The Lost Crown at $50 even after an extremely positive reception? "Nah I'll wait for the price drop"

 

[Axisofweevils]

It honestly suits me, because I know i can buy it instantly without the fear that the game will be instantly devalued, plus i can trade it in / resell when im done and almost get the full price back.

 

[Theory]

It's the reason I will probably never play many of their games (like Metroid Dread you mentioned), I don't have $60 for games I'm not sure I'll love. I don't mind it though, there are tons of other things to play.

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If you're being honest here, and that's "the" reason why you'll never play many of their games-

GameFly.

There. Now play them all lol

 

[Willin]

I hate it but it fucking works. I almost always buy first party Nintendo games at or near release cause I know it won't go on sale for years. Basterds.

 

[Madao]

their strategy is very good for the company and very bad for the consumer for simple reasons.

the business wants to earn as much as they can and the consumer wants to pay as low as they can.

 

[coolasj19]

It's their strategy and it works for them and they can do whatever they want.

It just results in me taking absolutely zero risks on their games in the future. IPs I'm not familiar with, I have no way in to try. And IPs I've soured on (or only had a medium time with) I'm extremely unlikely to give another chance. It protects their revenue for sure but it hinders their IPs growth. All in all I've bought less and spent less on Nintendo games because they don't go on good enough sale.

If that's fine with them it's fine with me

 

[Pargon]

I probably won't be buying a Switch 2 because of it.
Switch games were far too expensive for what they were - whether they were Nintendo games or third-party.

Nintendo has a terrible reputation for backwards compatibility, and now they're working to get emulation shut down because it does a better job than they can.
Switch games might run on Switch 2, but I don't expect to see any improvements/enhancements despite the hardware being much faster.
I would not be surprised to see a revision that drops card support, or the next system after that dropping support for the games entirely.

It's for people with money to burn.

 

[blueredandgold]

I probably won't be buying a Switch 2 because of it.
Switch games were far too expensive for what they were - whether they were Nintendo games or third-party.

Nintendo has a terrible reputation for backwards compatibility, and now they're working to get emulation shut down because it does a better job than they can.
Switch games might run on Switch 2, but I don't expect to see any improvements/enhancements despite the hardware being much faster.
I would not be surprised to see a revision that drops card support, or the next system after that dropping support for the games entirely.

It's for people with money to burn.

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The hardware developer should think about software development in terms of something other than integrating it into its own hardware, essentially.

 

[Pargon]

The hardware developer should think about software development in terms of something other than integrating it into its own hardware, essentially.

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That's a weird read on what I wrote.

Essentially, Nintendo games have even less value to me now, if I am going to be stuck to running them on their own platforms - because they sure don't care about providing anything but the bare minimum support, rather than enhancing the games when running on faster hardware - and that backwards compatibility is not likely to last.
We saw it with the Wii to Wii U, and then Wii U to Switch. And that was before they decided to charge these ridiculously high prices.

Meanwhile, the emulation projects they have been working to shut down, had been adding value to the games for years.
I can't even play games like Breath of the Wild without experiencing severe motion sickness if it's running on the Wii U/Switch hardware.

I'm not saying that Nintendo has to support anything like that - but working to get it shut down is reducing the value of owning their games for me.
The easy solution would be releasing their games on PC and ignoring emulation, but you know that is not going to happen.

 

[blueredandgold]

At those same price point and strategies as the traditional way? I think we're seeing that play out in real time how that becomes anything but 'the easy solution' - but I'm loathe to draw any comparisons.

The rest of your post is tangentially splitting off into a range of other matters which I recognise are part of a wider discussion, is what I meant. I was trying to tie it back into the main topic that's all.