The Nintendo Switch 2 event held today offered up heaps of details about Nintendo’s upcoming console which is due to release on June 5 for $449.99 / €469.99 / £395.99. However, Nintendo has also sparked some controversy with how it’s pricing its games. Well, one game, to be exact.
As part of the event, Nintendo lifted the hood of Mario Kart: World, the long-awaited sequel to Mario Kart 8. It’ll be available on the same day as the Switch 2, and features a new open world to drive around. It looks pretty damn cool, actually.
The pricing isn’t as cool, though, because the game’s official MSRP (Manafacturer’s Suggested Retail Price), as listed on Nintendo’s own site, is $80 / £75 for the physical edition. It wasn’t that long ago the industry shifted toward $70/£70 becoming the norm, so this is quite a leap.
Except, it isn’t quite as simple as all that. You see, the digital version is priced at £66.99. I haven’t been able to confirm US pricing for the digital version yet, though I’m guessing at around $70. In other words, you’re being charged quite a lot extra if you want to own the physical edition of the game.
You can get a fairly large discount by buying Mario Kart: World with the Switch 2 console itself, though. Grabbing it as.part of the bundle knocks around $30 off the price, so it seems like Nintendo fully expect most people to get the game this way.
For context, most first party Switch games last generation came with an MSRP of $60, although The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived with a $70 price tag.
It seems like Nintendo doesn’t plan on charging the same base price for all of its first party games, either, as Donkey Kong: Bananza is priced at £58.99/ $59.99 for the digital version and £66.99 for the physical version. Note, I haven’t been able to confirm physical pricing in the US.
It’s worth noting that these are just the MSRPs and while they will apply when buying directly from Nintendo, other retailers will probably be selling it at far less. For example, while Tears of the Kingdom was recommended at £59.99 here in the UK, I bought it for £50, and it was even possible to get it for as low as £44.
So, does this mean Nintendo is shifting to $80 as the baseline for all of its games? Well, the evidence seems to suggest not, but that certain big releases will be. It’s a scary thought and for very good reason: while games are actually quite cheap when you take inflation into account, the economic situation right now for most people means games are already a pricey luxury. Raising prices to $80 risks alienating a lot of people.
The second thing to consider is the physical tax being imposed. It looks like Nintendo might be doing this to combat the pre-owned market. Nintendo likes to keep its perceived value high, which is why Nintendo games rarely get discounted and even when they do the discount is minimal. That means on the second-hand market, Nintendo games retain a lot of their value, but of course, Nintendo doesn’t get a penny from second-hand sales. By ramping up the initial purchase price of physical games, Nintendo would mitigate the “lost” sales somewhat.
What do you guys think about the pricing? There’s been a lot of knee-jerk panicking out there, but it seems a tad more complicated than the headlines would suggest. Are you worried that this $80 MSRP could also lead to other publishers following suit, too?