Pokémon Legends: Z-A's Switch 2 And Switch 1 Prices Have Been Revealed

This gives me some hope that Prime 4 won't be 80 on Switch 2 at least.

So much for the "All Switch 2 games are $80-90 OMG panic!" narrative.

“It'll be interesting to see if Metroid Prime 4: Beyond follows suit when it launches on both consoles later this year.“

Would definitely hope so for its sake. Metroid has never been and likely never will be a major seller so they’d do well to price it so it’s as accessible as possible. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the most expensive game Nintendo have ever produced (as far as just development costs go) so they could probably justify a higher cost but I don’t think that would do the game any good.

honestly, for a game like this still too much but for nintendos standards it actually is quite a good price

@PikminMarioKirby It's such a rushed product its had the longer than usual development time of 4 years.

Do we know if those prices are physical or digital? Because we might find ourselves that the price we're seeing is for the digital item, as they do use a physical cartridge.

But why is the S2 version more? Is it improved? Is there more content?

@PikminMarioKirby Because many people like to enjoy video games instead of complaining about them

@Haruki_NLI Are we pretending TPC isn’t primarily developing Gen 10 and this is a side project while they were working on SV/Gen 10? 2 mainline games in 2022, one in 2025, and another in 2026 isn’t healthy for a team and seems very EA-like

Okay so I don’t want to split hairs here but my understanding the Switch 2 version is same version of the switch 1 version, with the addition of access to the able patch that improves the graphics. They’re the same basic game rather than separate versions

Hm. I hope this is the standard for cross-gen games. Any more than £60 is way too expensive for me

@canaryfarmer Because the upgrade from Switch to Switch 2 will be sold £10.

@Bigmanfan
You know it will be!

They'll give some BS excuse of "it took forever and we had to scrap and restart a couple of times and we know it's a high demand game and has been for years" line of bull.

Expect $80 for Prime 4!

@mariomaster96 If we don’t criticize games and keep buying them, then they’ll get even lower quality because they know they can get away with it. I’m fine if people get this game, just isn’t the best if you want to see the series improve quality.

@ButterySmooth30FPS yeah, but outrage gets more clicks so I feel like gaming outlets will milk that cow as long as they can.

All according to plan. Pump the price to £80 so we'll be thanking them when a game comes out for £60 as if it's cheap.

@PikminMarioKirby You…do realize this is Pokemon right…? S/V also was a “low quality product” and it just recently sured Sword/Shield lifetime another high selling Pokemon game. So yeah…quite a bit of people will buy this game whether you like it or not.

If people already bought a $70 Zelda game (which btw Tears struggled on the Switch 1) which sold amazingly…it doesn’t require much critical thinking to come to the conclusion people are willing to buy a $70 Pokemon as well. Don’t take my word alone for it though. Just look at the inevitable sales this Fall.

Bout what I expected. I'll buy the Switch 1 version and get the upgrade pack bc the Switch 2 box art is hideous.

@PikminMarioKirby I agree that criticism is good

I just don't consider "product of this low quality" and "$80 would be hilarious, but $70 is still bad considering this is a rushed product" as criticism

@PikminMarioKirby Negativity for negativities sake, like what we mostly see online, is disingenuous and makes these troll farmers look petty and desperate for attention. Hence why I don't follow any and make up my own mind.

@PikminMarioKirby Totally agree. I'm not willing to spend $70 on a game that looks like it could run on a GameCube, a Wii if I'm feeling generous.

@Haruki_NLI Right?! I am very excited for this “rushed” game. 🤣🤣

@Bigmanfan considering how much time and money they’ve spent on it and the fact that Metroid isn’t guaranteed to sell millions of copies, I could see them having a $70 (switch) $80 (switch 2) price

@Athropos Right, I get that, but what are those ten extra bucks getting you, was the question.

Still greatly overpriced.

Anyone here that unironically thought that every Nintendo game was gonna be $80/90 was being intentionally disingenuous for the sake of spreading discourse.

Not every Switch 1 game turned out to be $70 post Tears of the Kingdom surprise surprise. Turns out it’s a case-by-case basis which anyone with half a brain would have figured out.

Nintendo knows people (I’m talking about the millions that will buy not the few dozen on these sites speaking otherwise) will pay $80-$90 for open world non port Mario Kart.

Mario Kart was literally their main bread from Switch 1. I don’t see those price tags happening on 2nd and 3rd string Nintendo titles or even some of their 1st strings. How many of you will actually bet money MP4 will be priced like Mario Kart?

@PikminMarioKirby I think it’s a better approach to criticize games once they’re released and reviewed. Not before.

@PikminMarioKirby I believe the gigaleak confirmed Scarlet/Violet only had roughly 2 and a half years of active development. Z-A is getting an additional year over that based on the general timeline from when Arceus wrapped to when the game will probably go gold sometime in July-August

@SplatRay001 I am worried that you're right. Hopefully game vouchers still work for the Switch 1 version at least, cause I'm pretty sure I still have one lol.

@canaryfarmer Might be improved graphics and framerate probably but not sure.

Spider-Man Miles Morales was 60 dollars on PS4, and 70 on PS5. Could be the same case here for a cross-gen title.

@Spider-Kev $20 upgrades are only for games with extensive new content as Switch 2 Editions. Prime 4 is getting new functionality and a performance boost with higher quality textures and lighting. That's in the same ballpark as the $10 Zelda upgrades with their Zelda Notes . Prime 4 will be $70, guaranteed. Especially because of how bad the optics of the game being double the price of Prime Remastered would be.

@PikminMarioKirby
I very firmly disagree. Nobody knows that this has been rushed. Heck, maybe it hasn't! but we all get an opinion...😮‍💨

I’m not going to reply to everyone because I just got 9 messages on this page alone already, but I will say that trailers reflect the game, and knowledge that the game had little time of full focus development (SV and Gen 10 take up majority of it’s dev cycle), and if the entirety of the Switch generation of pokemon games haven’t convinced you these are unfinished, I don’t know what will.

Would people make fun of me if a year ago I said we must defend game pricing so it doesn’t reach $80? Well it’s too late! Defending Pokemon will only make it worse.

I'm looking forward to the game.

Criticising the game will do nothing; not buying it has the biggest impact if you truly feel it's not worth it, or previous games haven't been worth it. For devs and publishers, money talks.

@ButterySmooth30FPS Pokémon is not an "evergreen" series. (Unlike MarioKart) So I didn't think that the price was going to be high on this one to begin with.

For the next Mario, Zelda or Animal Crossing game.. well.. expect an $80 or even $90 price. Other IPs are less established
and / or not evergreen* and are going to be in the $60-70 range.

*) Evergreen games usually are one or two games per generation. The likes of Breath of the Wild, Mario 3D, MarioKart, Tears of the Kingdom, Animal Crossing, Smash Bros...

to be honest, since i expected this to be some graphical and frame improvements taking advantage of the hardware, was expecting the 10 dollar upgrade/70 dollar upfront price

So in a nutshell, Switch 2 games will cost $70, $10 to upgrade, while Switch 1 games will remain at $60 all will a few exceptions. Makes sense, that's just the current industry standard. I expect this to be the same for Metroid Prime 4 & other games as well. As for why MK World is $80, it's a fomo tactic to scare people into buying the console bundle at $500. I really don't think Nintendo will revisit the $80 price tag very often except for some of their tentpole heavy hitters (like the next Legend of Zelda, Smash Bros, etc).

@canaryfarmer Switch 2 version runs at 60fps and can get higher resolutions than Switch 1. That's it really far as I know.

@PikminMarioKirby Legends: Arceus looked pretty rough when it was first shown but it turned out to be my favorite experience with the Pokémon franchise in years. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt here.

@PikminMarioKirby you have zero knowledge about the development of this game, though. gamefreak has multiple development teams (just like Nintendo).

So you think you know, but you don’t.

@Axecon I think you hit it out of the ballpark there / think you’re spot on. We’ll see!

Donkey Kong Bananaza is £58.99
Where is everyone getting £70 from?

Seems like a fair enough price (or rather is the expected price for Pokémon IMO), I’m not sure they can justify adding £10 for a smoother experience, but this isn’t new for cross gen titles.

On the plus, we know they took a lot longer to develop Z-A this than rush it out like Sc/Vi and Arceus, so hopefully it’ll be a game of higher quality from their team.

I guess we’ll know for sure in 5 months.

@Late That’s fair, while being unfinished Arceus was the best move Pokemon made in years and by far the best Switch Pokemon game.

@Friendly Pokemon has revealed a dev timeline (at least I’ve seen it before), I think after S/V. Do you think SV/Gen 10 have a completely different team than the Legends games? Based on what they’ve done before, Primary development (with most of their teams) are likely on the mainline games most of the time, especially since S/V, while some development is being done with Z-A. You cannot tell me they finished Z-A and Gen 10 since near the beginning of 2023 until this summer when the game most likely will be finished.

@canaryfarmer Yeah… 10 dollars seems a bit much for what is essentially just flicking on a setting to bump up the resolution and framerate

@PikminMarioKirby yes, legends has a different production team from the scarlet/violet and gen 10 games. Team B works on Pokemon spinoffs like Legends, team A works on the mainline games.

Also, the dev timeline is slowing down. It used to be 3 years between mainline games during the 3ds and switch era, and now it’s shifting to at least 4 years or more (2022-2026 for SV). https://gamerant.com/pokemon-franchises-development-cycle-game-release-order-explained/

But mate, if you want to be uninformed negative just for the sake of being negative, be my guest.

I’ll wait for the game to release before becoming negative.

Nintendo Switch 1 is the ultimate console for collecting physical games, because the Switch 2 covers are horrible, as well as empty cartridges!

I don't see if this is full cart game. Can anyone confirm this?

@sethfranum It is. It's a Nintendo published title afterall.

@Friendly As I said before, there were core teams working on both games and other teams on each different game, the teams weren’t completely unique as far as I know.

I was hoping for Pokemon to wait an extra year for the next game, so it could be less unfinished, and thankfully that was true!

I’m not uninformed, I stay informed so I don’t give $70 for an unfinished experience. I’m not waiting to play the game to decide how finished it is, that’s exactly what TPC wants/has it’s fanbase doing.

Glad it's not $80 for the Switch 2 Edition, cause that would be ridiculous.

@sethfranum Nintendo said themselves that their first-party games are NOT key card games.

Good to see the price differences as expected so far, but I'll still be happier to see official confirmation at USD$70.

Excited to jump in on day one! The short footage of the Switch 2 version looked to increase crowd density just like with Scarlet/Violet, so I'm excited to play it on the Switch 2.

@PikminMarioKirby Stop claiming secret knowledge abd show receipts, or be quiet.

You're talking completely out your backside.

You're claiming it's unfinished, on literally nothing of substance than the fact it's visually similar to SV, at best.

Wonder when we can pre-order. I got 2 game vouchers collecting dust waiting for this and metroid prime 4

@PikminMarioKirby You were given actual evidence to contradict your negative assumptions, and yet you double down and pretend to know otherwise for the sake of maintaining an irrationally negative stance on Pokemon.

Another example of Pokemon hate becoming an emotional and irrationally maintained vice. Outrage is cathartic and lots of people online have become hooked on hating on Pokemon.

@IronMan30 kinda like switch pro or all the pre launch switch 2 leaks. Folks really can’t wait a week?

These upgrades do leave digital loopholes though. Wait for a sale on switch then buy the 10 dollar upgrade. Shrinks the savings but does mean insta discount. Gonna be doing that with scarlet since I haven’t bought it yet.

@Ryu_Niiyama yeah, basically. People just want to say they did something first.

Seems reasonably priced for both versions.

So the game is $60. But we're expected to pay an extra $10 just to have it run properly. And this looks like it'll be a trend for most Switch 1 to Switch 2 conversions (granted that the Switch 1 game isn't already $70).
Idk, overpricing is a serious risk for killing this console's momentum out of the gate. After the initial push of sales from the die hard Nintendo fans, how many consoles do they reasonably expect to sell with these prices?
Mom and Dad aren't going to spend $500-$600 on a console and 1-2 games for little Timmy on Christmas.

@PikminMarioKirby If you don't have anything constructive to say, it's better to say nothing at all.

@MegaVel91 I don’t have secret knowledge, just public knowledge already released.

It looks like an unfinished game based on footage, and while that could very well change by release day, it seems like TPC are focusing on the new game now.

Also didn’t compare it to S/V, it looks like a dream compared to Scarlet and Violet and has a much better art style.

@BrazillianCara I don’t simply hate pokemon, I give them credit where credit is due as seen above, but there’s not that much positives to talk about at this point, sadly.
Honestly people are quite obsessive over people who dislike Pokemon, I got well over a dozen replies just because of my opinion.

Anyways, I’ve been looking for devs for Legends Arceus and ScarVi, and I’d say more than half of the developers I’ve seen so far worked on both games, often being the last 2 games they worked on, is that evidence enough?

As always, I do realize that the strength of the dollar, and a whole other bunch of economic factors means that everyone is -generally- paying the same amount across the board, but as a Canadian, seeing the Switch 2 price tag for the game being $110 before tax absolutely hurts and means I'm definitely not going to be buy the vast majority of games new, if any. I honestly feel like the +$100 price tag sticker shock for S2 games in Canada means that the S2 isn't going to sell as well as it may elsewhere - even though yeah, I do know the S2 is going to sell like hotcakes overall

@PikminMarioKirby Looks like an unfinished game based on what in the footage? What about it? What about the game in the footage makes it look "unfinished"?

All you've been doing this entire time is insisting, over, and over, and over, that it looks unfinished.

Yet you haven't even tried or bothered to elaborate on what.

And you keep talking about that they've moved on to the next game... Based on what? That it looks "unfinished" in a way you've yet to quantify in any way at all? You're basically claiming secret knowledge of TPC/Game Freak's operations, which, chances are, no, you don't.

So show receipts that prove they've already gone gold with the game and have ceased further development of Z-A, or stop claiming stuff you have no actual knowledge of.

And if you dare to go as far as saying "you can't see it, I can't help you" or any variant thereof, you'll have proven you're talking out your back end.

@MegaVel91 Well the graphics themselves are sub-par, and rushing pokemon to little caged wild areas feels rushed to me, personally. Also going off of the fact that SwSh, Arceus, BDSP, S/V, and Detective Pikachu (not all same teams btw, but likely had TPC rushing games to release by certain time), were rushed, can’t help think, along with the other things I’ve pointed out, that this will be another rushed game.

Are you suggesting Gen 10 hasn’t started development yet? It’s most likely coming out Holiday 2026, I can’t confirm but I think it’s a given. Even looking at the timeline of Arceus and ScarVi, it implies Gen 10 is well in the works.

Legends Z-A probably hasn’t ‘gone gold’, although it likely will within the next few months as games typically do before they print copies of the game.

@PikminMarioKirby So your idea that it is a rushed game is based entirely on it's graphics, even though this is probably the intended look for the game, and the fact they decided to make these little Wild Park like areas, even though the game is straight up said to take place entirely within Lumiose City?

Do you understand how little sense you've just made?

And "I'm going off the fact these other games were rushed..."

So you already had a bias, and you're just looking for reasons to justify it.

And you itting the game hasn't gone gold, implies they are still actively developing the game via giving it the finishing touches and further bug-testing before launch... Which is a completely normal thing for them to do as you've already stated.

Yeah. You're not a credible in the least.

@ButterySmooth30TFPS
This is why I'm distancing myself from Nintendo channels and communities they need a fake candle and act like it's a wild fire.

@PikminMarioKirby you can wait until it is released though before being negative.

Btw, i’ve given loads of criticism on scarlet and violet on this website. That game is so, so bad imo, both design wise (empty sandbox)!ánd technical wise (bugs, tedious menu systems, etc etc).

So i’m not preordering, but I’m hoping that the Legends game will be at least as good as the last Legends game, which I really enjoyed!

@MegaVel91 So I’m supposed to expect a finished game after all of these unfinished ones? That’s like expecting a 2 when given the number sequence 1, 1, 1, 1…

Also games often make decisions to take shortcuts or are done due to lack of time, like some of the things I suggested.

@Friendly That’s fair, the game could be better than initially perceived, but with Pokemon’s track record I have a hard time believing that.

@PikminMarioKirby actually, I think the legends game was good, but also Sword and Shield i think is better than perceived. Sure, it has some low textured areas, and a very bad story (imho) and not the best pokemon designs, and therefore it might have been a disappointment for the first home console outing of Pokémon.

But I’m now wrapping up the pokedex and when playing through the game, and especially the DLC, i really like the focused approach this game has. There are no weird distractions, it’s just a neat adventure. Heck, I even like the routes way more than the open areas of Scarlet Violet.

So yeah, Gamefreak has a sloppy track record as of late, but imo it’s mainly due to Scarlet and Violet, which is at the very least a technical disaster. (Even though some people are also really enjoying that game)

@Friendly Yeah when a lost parent of a character ask you to meet them in the game's final area, You bet it will have my attention especially when it turns out to be a Pokemon version of Made in the abyss.

@Cremia for my understanding, you’re referring to Eternatus, right?

Got a laugh reading here that graphics of all things is remotely an indicator for how “finished” a videogame is.

By that logic every Switch 1 game is “unfinished” if we are just gonna start arbitrarily comparing their graphic specs to the latest Ubislop AAAA game for example because of someone’s bias.

Which in itself is pure irony when Ubislop is infamous for releasing “unfinished” games anyway to the point that Ubislop had to that Shadows was totally gonna be a “finished” game on release as a selling point unlike their usual playbook of launch being a mess and they might slowly fix some of the issues post launch.

Oh, but their games have nice graphics though so that has to be a “complete” game still right?

That's too much considering the low quality of Pokemon games. Then again, they know that people will buy anything regardless of the price if it says Pokemon on it so it makes sense.

@Bigmanfan Why would Prime 4 be 80 dollars on Switch 2 when DK Bonanza isn't even 80?

RIP tedious internet discourse.

@ButterySmooth30FPS This is a cross-gen title, and it's still going to be more expensive on switch 2. The panic for $80 games made people forgot that $70 for a game was supposed to be an exception for Nintendo games only 2 years ago, but now it's the base price for Nintendo titles. Game freak is definitely going to charge 80 buck for switch 2 exclusive Pokemon games.

@fenlix same people who are still whining over $80 are considered hypocrites cause no one bat an eye wen N64 games were $70 a pop.

Makes sense, I think only the absolute biggest Nintendo games will be $80: Mario Kart, Smash Bros, 3D Zelda, and maybe 3D Mario if it goes open-world like Mario Kart/Zelda.

I still feel like the graphical and frame rate improved upgrades should be free.

Any confirmation about which Pokemon Generation will be used in this game?
I know it will be Gen 6 from X/Y, but what about the previous Gen?
Cross my fingers for Sawk in Legends Z-A.
I want my boy Sawk on this game.

If I cannot pick up Metroid Prime 4 on switch 1 for $59.99 I think I will officially be done with Nintendo 😂

@canaryfarmer Yes actually! Not more content but the game will look and feel significantly better. The switch version is expected to feel somewhat similar in of lag and visuals to Scarlet/Violet which was nutritiously bad, but the Switch 2 version has none of those errors and bugs

@PikminMarioKirby You do realize that Legends ZA is not made by any of the people involved with Sword/Shield or Scarlet/Violet, right? It's a completely separate group. The people put on SV are the division of GameFreak that nutoriously dislikes Pokemon. That's why X and Y were so unbearably bad, NOBODY wanted to make them but when they blew their entire bi-yearly budget on their ion projects all they all bombed anyways, they were forced to rush through Gen 6 last second. They were also bummed because Gen 5 (their most ionate pokemon project of the 2D era) were by far the worst received games they had put out in years.
The Legends team was compiled after the original Sun/Moon release, meant to gather GameFreak's most ionate devs to create a side series that prioritizes Gameplay over Marketability, and Long term fans over Children. Their first project was Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, known for being by far the most polished and fleshed out of the 3D games.

@browneyes My main reason that I'm concerned is I'm worried the switch 1 version might be 70 like Totk, this an 80 dollar Switch 2 edition (not saying this will definitely happen or is even likely, but it could)

Interestingly (and a little annoyingly), the Switch 1 version will be retailing for AU$89.95 rather than the usual AU$79.95 of games past.

I don't think it's even been officially confirmed yet, but I hope these "Switch 2 Edition" cartridges will be cross-compatible with the Switch 1, which would also make the higher cost of entry easier to Swellow if it means that I can also have a Switch Lite playthrough, if I am so inclined.

Also, bring back custom Chatot Chatter cries, you cowards!

@Sensible

“Anyone that thinks buying physical games for the switch 2 is a good idea deserves to be penalised for their idiocy.”

This is… a rather loaded statement. Certainly not a universally accepted position, at any rate.

We could get into the nuances between ‘ownership’ and ‘right of access’ (i.e. can I sell/trade/give away the item I have purchased?) …But I’m not sure that’s necessary. The point is that Nintendo is selling the physical version of this game for £66.99 on their official store (£64.99 on Amazon) and this is the version a lot of people will opt for. With respect, it doesn’t matter what you think those people deserve, or whether you think their purchasing decisions are ‘sensible’, this is simply a straightforward observation.

A similarly straightforward observation is that, as you’ve noted, the game doesn’t cost £70. Not on any major storefront. One could argue that the £3.01 difference is insignificant, and in a casual conversation if someone said “70 quid” I probably wouldn’t correct them, but in a widely circulated piece of journalism I’m not entirely comfortable with it. “£67”? Fine, I’m not going to quibble over a penny. “Nearly 70 quid”? Fair enough, at least degree of imprecision is acknowledged. But stating as fact that we live “in a world of £70 Donkey Kong Bananzas” (especially in an article where most prices are given to the penny/yen) feels like stretching things to the point of misinformation.

So yeah, I agree that it should be corrected; not based on the argument that “physical media is for idiots who deserve to be punished” but because… well, the game doesn’t cost 70GBP.

@JimNorman

@Arawn93 Who's to say the original plan wasn't to charge more for games like this? Nintendo could've easily seen the backlash from MK World and, while not wanting to appear weak and giving in to fans on that game, dialed back on later games to earn back goodwill. Which would of course illicit the response from some that "Oh good, big N wasn't really going to increase game prices".

Purely hypothetical, and no way to prove or disprove either way, but still well within the realm of possibility.

I like the box art.

So will there be a free upgrade if you buy on Switch 1?

@Maxz I simply find it ridiculous that Nintendo seem to be getting hit with the blame for rising game costs.

New games have generally been £70 on PS5 for quite some time now.

I've paid £99.99 for Monster Hunter Wilds and Doom The Dark Ages this year.
I've paid £79.99 for Death Stranding 2.
These are digital and preorder/release day prices.
They are the editions with the most content.

Donkey Kong is £58.99.
Mario Kart World is £66.99
These are the only versions of these games, so I consider them to be comparable to the versions of the PS5 games I mentioned.

When compared to other AAA titles on PS5, Switch 2 games seem relatively low cost to me.

I will buy the Switch 2 Version on Catdridge. Its usable for the old Switch too and in its about 75 €.

@BFahey3 When you get the normal Switch Version you need to buy an extra upgrade pack for the Switch 2 enhancements.

Eh, isn’t this just the normal price? It’s the usual 60 plus 10 for the new gen patch.

If this makes you “pleasantly surprised” you must’ve been bracing for a doom scenario…

I just want them to make it available for digital preorder already. I have a voucher that will expire in September that I'd rather use on this...!

@Sensible Nintendo isn’t even the only one in the party for the “$80 club” as well already. More and more in the industry is hopping on board and using “Tariffs” as a get-out-of-jail free card to justify increased pricing.

End of the day people criticize based on biases. People will hate on one game’s price choice, but defend another game with the same price because of subjective sense of “it’s worth it”. There are gonna be more BL4 types of fiascos. GTAVI price reveal is gonna be popcorn material for sure.

Guess they did not want the same reception as MKW got with the $80 price.

@Yokaisou For me I will have to go for the Switch version then buy the upgrade later. Reason is that the only shop that sells games near me is selling Legends for €60.

Now they don't have the switch 2 version up but knowing them they will be selling it for €80 as that is what they are selling all the other switch 2 games that have the switch 1 cartridge with the upgrade code. The upgrade code shouldn't cost €20 and even if they do I will still have a cleaner looking box cover compared to the switch 2 one.

There are people willing to pay over a million rupees for a Pokemon card, so in that context, I think this is an absolute bargain.

$70 works out at around only 5 cents per glitch.

Great move.

Will it make people stop complaining about game prices ? Nope.

Youtubers have to make some clicks after all !!

Depending on who you ask, Pokémon is somewhat last generation in its construction

@Sensible I don’t disagree! I can’t say I like that games costs more than they did a decade ago, but I won’t pretend that all of the narrative surrounding pricing is very cogent.

If anything, the fact that it’s taken this long for ‘variable pricing’ to really establish itself (for first party titles) is somewhat surprising. Mario Tennis Aces and Breath of the Wild are both $60 on the US eShop which seems a bit… wild to me.

I’m not saying Aces is bad — this isn’t really about ‘quality’ so much as development costs. ittedly, I am completely ignorant about how much time and most each title costs to produce (so should probably shut up), but I can’t imagine they were on anywhere near the same scale.

Aces had some new mechanics over Power Tennis, but was very much in the same vein. Every character shares the same basic move-set, and the courts are all variations on a theme with some gimmicks thrown in.

Zelda was a complete reimagining of the franchise on a preposterously epic scale that took the best part of a decade to develop. Of course, it made that money back by selling significantly more copies than Aces, but the fact they’re still on the same ‘tier’ feels like having the Mr. Men books sitting next to War and Peace and priced equally at a book shop.

@ButterySmooth30FPS indeed childlike behaviour from some media and commenters

@ButterySmooth30FPS one nintendoom at a time.

These Switch 2 editions appear to be similar to releases from the change over from the PS4 to the PS5 in that you are getting both versions of the game in one sale.

It was used to justify price rises at the time but also cover this period while people switch console.

To be honest though the price rises just seem wholly consistent with much more expensive carts. Without the rumoured $15 for an S2 cart i'm sure the prices would be lower

@Maxz Regarding pricing keep in mind that more popular games are effectively subsidised by sales volumes. Like BOTW needed to sell 2million at $60 just to break even. if Zelda wasn't as popular as it was even before BOTW there was no way Nintendo would have been able to justify its dev costs, or it may have had to have been $70.

If Mario Tennis had the same development costs as BOTW, in any generation other than the Switch Mario Tennis would have failed to break even because it routinely sells less than 2million.

To keep development studios running they HAVE to make a healthy profit so the game prices can't just be exactly proportional to development costs otherwise studios would constantly be on a knives edge between success
and failure.

We've seen in the 3DS gen Alphadream become bankrupt due to going massively overbudget for for Mario & Luigi despite for Dream Team and falling into deep debt despite selling 2.5million copies. If they priced Mario Tennis Aces too low then Camelot would end up having the same trouble with Mario Sports.

So in short less popular games with smaller budgets will still need to have fairly high prices in order to be successful.

@Bigmanfan It was always clear that Prime 4 would be 70 on Switch 2, just like DK Bananza.

@Dr_Lugae All very well made points! Still, it’s interesting that we seem to be shifting away from a ‘retail games cost this much’ kind of model to a more finely graded system. On the UK store there seem to be a few pricing ‘rungs’ that have been been established for physical Switch 2 releases.

Mario Kart sits on the top rung at £75, then the rest of the major first party releases are £67 (DK and the spruced Switch games). Then you have 3rd party games which are all over the place (and currently all on game keys).

Given that, it’s interesting that Z-A doesn’t seem to sit on any of these existing rungs. Joe Merrick’s post doesn’t mention a physical/digital pricing split. If there is one (which seems likely) then I imagine the price we’re looking at is the cheaper of the two.

Something interesting I've noticed, at least in the UK, is that while pre-orders of the Switch 2 - both standalone and bundled with Mario Kart World are all sold out, the pre-orders for MKW by itself are not sold out, which might tell us something about how people are responding to $80 / £75 price tags for games.

why should the switch 2 version of the same game be more expensive, when already paid to the new console?

especially if it really is the same game on there with a different patch available, as has been suggested.

@JohnnyMind

"World's price most likely being a strategy to make people get the bundle"

when I worked as a pawnbroker, many moons ago, we called that a "'f*ck you' price," because we expected people to be turned off/not buy it.

I will not accept a 'FU price' from the company I've been doing business with since years before adulthood, and I find this practice insulting, at best.

I agree with you that long term, new pricing doesnt matter, but marketing strategies certainly do. and this is a real stinker, imo. ✌️ It reminds me of being a young/early SNES-to-PSX convert and seeing the first copies of MK64 hit the shelves at ~90 dollars, when I had become accustomed to never paying over 50. even as a 12 year old I was like, "🙄 ok."

Even 50 is too much for how these games look

@Cry_Zero go watch a movie or play outside if how things look are the only metric. Gaming is supposed to be about fun factor first. If things have to be the prettiest for you to enjoy it, it says more about you than the games you comment on.

@HamKnight It'd probably be impossible for Mario Kart World to sell out. I for the Switch Nintendo had like 2.7 million launch month Switches while at the same time revealed had shipped over 3million copies of BOTW on Switch.

Because Mario Kart tends to never stop selling Nintendo will very likely ship more copies of the game than there are non-bundled consoles, everyone who didn't get the bundle could buy Mario Kart World and they conceivably wouldn't run out of copies, as was the case with BOTW.

@ButterySmooth30FPS

Right? Imagine not being able to afford a game so you take it out online.

@B_Lindz doubt you got 70 bucks

@GCBB I mean, I'm a working professional, so, umm, yeah, I have $70, but not for a game like this.

@canaryfarmer Likely better performance and resolution.

@Bigmanfan 80 what, dollars? If so, that will all depend on how a certain president feels that day with his tariff policies.

@Bigmanfan It's going to be a split release on both.

@Dizavid a game should look presentable so I know it was given care by a ionate team. Find me uglier buildings in a game from the last 20 years, I dare you. That's indicative of yet another rush job, you'll see that same low-energy incompetence in many other areas of the game design guaranteed, and I've learned my lesson with this company way too many times to not take hints when I see them. Spend your money how you like but I'm too old to be tricked into thinking dopamine = joy.

I've played pretty much every Pokémon game and they have yet to make a game since moving from handheld to console that I'm willing to pay full price for. Arceus, sword and scarlet I feel like are forty dollar games. I used to get Pokémon games at launch but ever since sword I wait till black Friday or something. I love Pokémon but this game doesn't look like it's improved much upon anything that they had in scarlet.

Just you're going to own nothing and you're going to like it.

@Dizavid bot