$70 price for new Switch games to be ‘custom’

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be Nintendo’s first $70 game, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to have many companies anytime soon. The publisher says that instead of being a game-changer for premium Switch games, the $70 price tag will be reserved for certain titles.

“We determine the suggested retail price for any Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis,” a company spokesperson said. said Games Informant in a statement. Asked if this was part of a new trend for Switch games, Nintendo simply replied, “No.”

Pikmin 4 is one of the clearest examples of this. Set launch after Tears of the Kingdom On July 21, its price returns to the standard price of $60. Meanwhile, Metroid Prime Remasteredthe shadow dropped on Nitnendo Direct this week is only $40 (although some fans had previously hoped the entire trilogy would be available as part of one $60 collection).

When Nintendo first announced the $70 Zelda stick in early update of pre-order pages, some objected. On the one hand, it runs on the same hardware as Breath of the Wild did six years ago, which publishers usually cite to justify price increases. On the flip side, it would probably be better if companies experimented more with pricing rather than trying to make up for it on the backend with a plethora of paid DLCs, season passes, and expansions.

Nintendo is hardly alone in exploring higher prices, especially since many countries are experiencing record levels of inflation. Current versions of most games recently adopted a price cap of $70the move that Sony made for its first releases back when PS5 first debuted. Microsoft, which resisted the trend early in the Xbox Series X/S lifecycle, also announced an upcoming price hike late last year. Bye Halo Infinite And Forza Horizon 5 both cost $60, Redfall And Starfield both will cost $70.

Time will tell if Nintendo decides to take a similar stance when the Switch 2 is announced in the coming years or whatever its successor is. However, while it sounds like this The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom would be the exception rather than the rule.