Nintendo Switch 2's Crazy Game Prices Could Be Terrible News For Xbox Fans

That's wild prices. Glad I can still get Game Pass for free with rewards.

That does it for me.

I was so hyped at the end of the Direct and now I'm looking at games that will rarely if ever go down in price costing £75.

Nah. I'm out.

That's gross and they refuse to mark down games. They will expect you to pay $80 when the games are 5+ years old. I'm on the fence for the switch 2 and this might sway me away from it.

At least with xbox, pc, etc you can expect substantial discounts after it's been on the market for a bit.

I mean, this is the same Nintendo that's charging for its tutorial game as well. People will moan but will still pay the prices, so I get why they do it. I really don't think this will impact Xbox players. Most will continue to play via Game Pass for the majority of their games and third party games are reduced within what feels like weeks these days

Joke prices, Mario Kart World, they want More for Physical '£75' than Digital!...

I thought that showing was truly awful. Where has the innovation gone? Chat locked behind an online sub wasn't it, and using a joycon as a mouse when most won't be anywhere near a desk? Was that it? Really disappointed, but at least I'll save my money...

Its worth noting that Nintendo is being more flexible on pricing. This game costs 80 dollars while Donkey Kong Banzana will be 70 dollars.

Still 80 dollars is a bit of a steep. Just makes me wonder how much GTA 6 will cost.

But regardless, people are still gonna be buying this.

@Titntin but there's a new button!!! 😂

People were fine paying Switch tax on PC games (especially visual novels) and full AAA prices for extremely cut-down mobile versions of games, so I don't think this is going to be an issue.

The question is, will the industry follow suit. You can most certainly assume that it will. All the while everyone was looking at Rockstar to be the next one to bump up the cost.

PS5 and Series X games can sometimes get away with their £/$70 price tags because you can see on the screen where the money has gone. Switch 2 games will be more comparable to PS4 games, which I don’t personally think justifies the hefty price tag.

@ButterySmooth30FPS I think its time to accept that since inflation is a thing, prices will go up in time. So we should stop being surprised if game prices do go up tbh.

Game price goes up, subscription will follow. And yes I expect both to now happen across all systems.

The console at 400 is affordable. The games for families? Maybe not so.

@Titntin I'm with you. The whole thing felt like a grubby cash grab.

And Nindy fans will gladly "Please Sir, may I have another?"- Nintendo can be really damn brutal to their fan base

@Kaloudz the only saving grace for xbox/PS is that their games hit sales and get a fairly decent price drop. That simply doesn't really happen on Nintendo titles. At least if they initially go up we know they will drop into a sale at some point that's more reasonable.

Folks will still be paying 89.99 for Mario kart world in 5, 6 years time. Even more wild is it will still be selling bucketloads at that point as well.

@Weebleman Really? I haven't owned a Nintendo since the Wii. Are the sales that bad? 😮

I wonder how costly the games are on key sites? Then again I imagine if the platform price is fairly static, there's not much key sites can do to lower their prices either due to needing to meet profit?

Honestly the way pricing is going on the console market.
I'm going all in on Steam.

@Kaloudz Nintendo prices are garbage. Hardly anything 1st party is discounted heavily.

@Sakko Exactly. Invest the money now in a solid PC and you'll never look back. A handful of exclusives over an entire generation is no reason to buy a console. The competition between storefronts despite Steams overall dominance plus the frequent and steep discounts means I've bought my last console. Only took 4 decades of gaming! Plus VR is excellent.

I'm typically Nintendo first gamer, but this has me very happy to keep paying for my Gamepass fee!

I've had gamepass on and off on the PC for over 2 years, but I've had ultimate going every month since December. I have no regrets. It has awesome value and I don't second guess it.

And Nintendo Switch 2 games will comparatively still be the least technically performing and smaller in scale. That's absolutely nuts. Even the console price threw me for a loop. Like I haven't seen a full breakdown but $450 for the base console at launch?? Seriously?? The cost of an all digital Xbox Series X or PS5? $150 more than the base Xbox Series S? More than the starting Steam Deck Price? What's even more crazy is the first article I saw about that (granted it popped up with I searched "Xbox" not "Nintendo Switch 2") had the headline that it's "surprisingly reasonable". I swear to God Nintendo stans grow a backbone before ya'll make us all suffer (lord that $80 price tag is coming, it was only like 2 years after Sony pushed $70 that Microsoft followed suit; eventually it'll be market standard and Nintendo just started the clock for the time bomb). I'm already praying that those stupid patents and Palworld court case doesn't go through and set a terrible precedent for game development.

Mario Kart should come free with it. I'd never pay £75 for a game. I'm out.

@Kaloudz it's wild man, truly wild.

@FarmDog08 @Weebleman That sucks. I kinda get now why the cartridge prices are still quite bulky compared to disc prices - or why places like CEX offer more for Ninty games than others.

Mario Kart is essentially 50 if you buy the bundle. Not sure of quantity for the bundle or if it will be only available for a short window, but if I buy a switch 2, I'll do the bundle and not pay full price.

The bigger question for me is if they charge 80 and then charge for future course or character expansions, or if anything would be included (or no planned dlc) Because I've paid, what, 75 total for the base game plus the course pack for mario kart 8 deluxe

@Medic_alert yeah that's the key thing here, look at current gen Switch game prices, they do not get any cheaper over time.. so these are going to stay at £75 which for what they are is too IMO. I'll stick with my OLED switch and current games that I have thanks haha

The more I think on it, the more part of me has to wonder if this is at least somewhat influenced by Nintendo's desire to keep all their first party games exclusives. Even Playstation is porting their biggest games to PC and now sharing some with Nintendo. Those are brand new gamers, some of whom have never owned a Playstation and never planned on buying one, now able to purchase their first part developed games for not that much additional development cost. Nintendo probably ran the analytics and knows they'll mostly be selling Mario Kart World to the same people who bought Mario Kart 8 (as in Nintendo Switch Upgrades), so to make more money they have to charge more for the game.

I also imagine the ongoing conditions in the world are influencing things (those tarrifs and inflation can't be helping), but I also feel pretty certain that Nintendo knows they can either sell their games to more gamers not on Nintendo platforms or they can sell their games to their gamers (on Nintendo platforms) for more money. The switch 2 certainly isn't going to match the switch in terms of sales overnight (especially not at price tag that's nearly $200 more). And there probably won't be that many, if any, brand new gamers who didn't buy the previous Nintendo Switch. So what else can they do? (like I assume that's the question they asked themselves)

Does this suck? Yes, egregiously. Is it shocking? Not really when you consider that inflation in most of the world - especially in the West - has been pretty high for most of the past few years. I'm quite surprised they're going for $80, not $70, but I wouldn't shocked. Remember that Virtua Racing released for $100 on Genesis in 1994, and that's over $200 in today's money.

@Titntin
I was dissatisfied as well but I didn’t want to be I really wanted something special.

Yes the mouse thing is weird, I guess we gonna have joycon mouse mats now 🤣 as I don’t play near a desk, silly idea.

As for the games MK World, no mention of the great online like in MK8, just roam the world and take silly photos with friends.

And DK not sure on that game, definitely not on first showing the standard I was wanting, but it may have some good surprises.

But yes underwhelming for me.

Xbox you should have taken it to everyone with the series consoles and exclusive games and gamepass.
The other two are no where near as strong games wise etc as they used to be.
After what I watched today for switch 2 it will be the first Nintendo console I don’t have day one since the SNES and that includes the Wii U.

I mean, that does sound expensive and it’s annoying. But I do remember badgering my mum to buy me Street Fighter 2 for the SNES for Christmas 1992 (I think??) for about £65, which google says is about £150 in today’s money….

That's a 50% mark up in the UK on standard Switch game prices not including the two Zelda titles..

There's like no information for the games outside of the direct. We don't know if it includes a season pass or is just the base game. Also, there are rumors that physical games will cost more than digital and everyone is freaking out but they're just rumors. We should at least wait until official prices start coming out.

On the flip side, Xbox physical discs are cheaper than ever. Too bad Xbox has given up on disc drives.

So sticking with free gamepass and cheaper games on pc/ahoy matey switch on PC

I am SHOOK. GTA 6 will really be $100 now this new precedent will confirm that. Mark my words!

This will guarantee that GTA 6 is at least $80 and every other publisher will follow, Nintendo pretty much screwed everyone with this move. I have the original Switch and that's about the last system Nintendo will get out of me.

Here in switzerland base games already cost 80 chf so the nintendo prices are sadly just normal now. Gaming is now a luxury hobby. Rich people only. Yay.... I'm so tired of being price gouged at every corner. Even my little escapism is becoming unsustainable. Oh and lets not forget how often games are flatout broken on launch..... 😪

Hmmm so £5 more than the £70 that has become standard on Xbox/PlayStation. Could’ve been worse, could’ve been £80 I suppose. At least they aren’t doing a $1:£1 conversion ratio unlike Microsoft and Sony. Though it is close. The catch, of course, is that Nintendo first party games pretty much never get discounted by more than 33% on the eShop - which would be £50 (same price as original Switch games funnily enough).

With this kind of game pricing, Nnty are making my GamePass subscription even more incredible value than it already was.

I was planning to get a Switch 2 for the kids since it’s the only major console we don’t have in our household, but this whole reveal sure dampened my excitement for it.

Microsoft somehow looks like the good guy in all this.

Sony has endless $70 remakes and remasters, a stingy subscription service for first party games, along with live service missteps.

Nintendo has $80 games and charges for tech demos and resolution upgrades.

Meanwhile good guy Xbox gives out fps boost for free and all first party games are permanently on GP.

Game prices have already increased without people seeming to notice. But $80 appears to be only on Mario Kart, not necessarily every game. I know that because the new DK game is $70.

In any case, you're kidding yourself if you think Game Pass prices won't increase with time.

They'll be $100 a game by 2030 but that's inflation and the market. A haircut for guys costs $50 in some of the bigger cities when I remember it costing $15 less than 10 years ago, maybe $25 for a really nice spot. Sign of the crappy times y'all

I hear what y’all are saying and you are more than entitled to have your thoughts and opinions. But i will be there day 1 for Switch 2. A lot of work went into this system over the Switch. I am loving what they shown. Honestly if i could only have 1 console it would be Switch 2 and PC. Nintendo games are so fun that the smiles they bring to me and others playing with me is money well spent. But i understand everyone’s pockets are different and again i hear what some of you are saying. I was hoping the PS5 Pro was going to be $600 and the Switch 2 $400.

Mario Kart World looks great but the $70-$80 price tags per game have me second guessing if I’ll purchase a Switch 2 anytime soon. It’s simply too much for me to pay considering I don’t spend as much time gaming as I used to.

Yeah, I'm probably going to skip the S2. I already done with the whole Mario franchise. They keepilkikg it for all its worth. 😂

I might end up getting it later but the cost isn't worth it, as I play my current Switch the least of all my gaming systems. I'm more excited to see MS's own portable next year than anything else so far.

Until then I'll stick with Steam and Nvidia for my portable needs.

@Kaloudz 1st party Nintendo stuff does go on sale from time to time. While the default price generally remains high, you're best to wait for when they do have sales.

@WildConcept6 While I would've preferred $400 USD, $450 is not unreasonable. $300 USD in 2017, was a loooooooooooong time ago. Plus don't forget the chump tarrifs.

The software side however is looking more egregious though. I'll just have to be more selective with my S2 itles. 🤔

Xbox fans just sub to Gamepass, they don't buy games, so nothing to worry about.

@anoyonmus that's not flexible it's daylight robbery anybody defending nintendo needs have a good look at themselves

I have paid £99.99 for Doom The Dark Ages Premium Edition.

You can also pay £99.99 if you look at the store page. That how much the game costs. If you don't pay £99.99 you don't get the DLC.

In other words, if you don't pay £99.99 you don't get the full game.

I believe Microsoft own Bethesda now.
Therefore I think it is accurate to say that Microsoft are charging £100 for a game.

Nintendo games are no more expensive than Xbox games or Playstation games.

I think the prices for Switch 2 titles seem to be in line with everything else on the market these days.

Other companies rapidly drop the prices of their games because their games are not as good as Nintendo games.

I also think it's fair to offer a discount on a digital purchase. Their online is very cheap compared to rival consoles.

In my opinion Xbox is a console for adults (certainly in comparison to the Switch)
But by the looks of some of the comments on this page at the moment it seems Mummy and Daddy must still be buying a lot of games for these people that don't seem to be able to afford games.

Also Microsoft are not being "good guys" with Game Pass. It's one of the biggest companies in the world trying to cynically control the games industry because they can't make decent games themselves.

I won't be upgrading anytime soon, and to be honest, nothing in the showcase made me feel like I'd be missing out, other than not playing MarioKart World... but hey! I'll survive I think. Also, those game prices are just down right extortionate.
I'm not ashamed to say it, but I can't afford that, let alone justify paying those prices.

@EVIL-C Thanks bud. Just seems very freakin' steap, but then, it's a trend we're seeing in the market across the board isn't it?

I’m expecting that there will be a price bump for bigger AAA games to 80 bucks. But MK is in a bundle with the system and Nintendo will probably bring back their voucher program. If not just wait for the annual 33% off sales.

Either way I will have NSO and gamepass.

@Jenkinss Why on earth would Xbox owners with Ultimate Gamepass buy games separately if they are happy with the games on the subscription service they PAY for ?

No other subscription offers Day One First and 3rd Party games so obviously the people on those services have No choice but to buy the games if they want them, that is down to the poor value Premium subscription options offered on those consoles,nothing else.

I still plan to get the Switch 2. I tend to play the unique & weird games that the Switch gets but other consoles like Xbox/PlayStation don't. Indie games as well. The Square Enix & other Japanese games that don't hit Xbox/PS5. But in not paying £75 a game though.

It's not just the price of the Switch 2 games, it has a lack of storage , take a look at the prices of the 512GB and 1TB microSD Express cards it uses!!!.

These prices are wild, no doubt about it. But we have to be clever : as I was on the fence to go with the Mario kart Bundle to save some money (and despite the fact that I love to buy my games on physical format), I just managed to secure a preorder of the game at my local store at the price of 69€. So 10 bucks cheaper than the digital version, and 20 bucks cheaper than that insane price that is given on the official website.

I won't buy my games at 90 bucks, that's for sure.

@Weebleman it sucks with the pricing but you have to give them credit for making a game that would sell a console to many, will be best selling thruout the whole switch 2 gen and basically endless hours of fun.

I paid $70 for wukong but dropped it soon and never coming back. I would rather pay $80 for MK world that I would be playing solo, online and local co-op for years.

Its about the games and thats why I think nintendo can always get away with being greedy. People just love their games.

Really wish editors would point out that SNES and N64 games cost about the same back in the 90s, and given inflation in the states, we’d be looking at $130 per game if the game prices rose with the inflation over the years.

Granted im not happy to be paying more per game nowdays, already strapped for cash as is, but it could be so much worse….

Edit - adding a link for anyone curious as to what a 1996 TRU ad looked like….

https://www.gamingbible.com/news/1996-ad-shows-ps1-n64-games-stupidly-expensive-647465-20230104

@Dan1283 where did I say I am defending Nintendo? All I said is that “flexible” meaning the game price vary depending on them, some are 70, some are 60, one is 80, and some are lower? And I did say the price of MK World is a bit steep.

It’s also just a fact that despite the price, people will still buy it.

@cragis0001 exactly. will happily enjoy GP and bigger games on xbox and switch 2 for nin exclusvies and indies and some AA in between like THPS 3+4.

@Justifier I'm assuming that's because their sales are always fairly decent year round, year in and year out?

Gamepass Ultimate has already become too expensive for me to justify anymore.

@Rog-X that's the point, or at least half of it. MS has conditioned a huge portion of Xbox's user base to think exactly like you. And when everyone thinks like you, what incentive is there for a 3rd party to put their game on Xbox without a Gamepass deal?

@Millionski aye their is definitely still good reasons to own a Switch 2 even if some games will be £75.

@Jenkinss in this current climate you can't blame people to solely rely on Games Pass & PlayStation Plus. Gaming is getting so expensive. With Mario Kart World £75 & GTA 6 being rumoured to be £80+. It's the industry as a whole that's pushing people to subscription services as if they didn't exist those prices probably would have pushed those gamers away.

@cragis0001 I don't blame people for subbing to game pass and I don't blame 3rd parties for skipping Xbox if they don't have a game pass deal because the install base is small and those users now by and large don't buy games. Both things make sense.

@Kaloudz You're welcome. And yeah, PS5/XSX games are a bit more expensive than the previous gen. I fully understand why many are upset at some S2 games hitting $80 USD, that's $100 CAD 😵. I still am hyped for S2, and for me I don't mind the hardware cost itself, but ffs that software pricing is expensive.

@anoyonmus sorry don't want you think I'm being funny or attacking you I was just stating my opinion how nintendo are ripping people off that's all

@Jenkinss only problem with your argument is that big AAA games have been struggling to sell even on PlayStation & that has an install base of 75 million players. So even a large install base like PlayStation's doesn't automatically mean success. Microsoft's new strategy of putting the games where the gamer wants rather than forcing them to where they don't want to is a better strategy.

Also look at Monster Hunter Wilds. It's sold 10 million in a month!!! How many of those players played Worlds or Rise through Games Pass or PlayStation Plus. Enjoyed them & saw the value of the previous games then decided purchased new ones. Sega & Atlus have used sub services to get several franchises to gamers before then charging for new entries to general success.

@cragis0001 It's not really an argument, it's just numbers and what is actually happening. Things have gotten worse this gen, but last gen was already terrible. Look at FFXV sales, a game that Xbox had exclusive marketing rights for. It's bad.

So even a large install base like PlayStation's doesn't automatically mean success.

This is obvious. The vast majority of Android and iphone games fail. And yet (while it was around) almost no one ported their games to Windows phone.

How many of those players played Worlds or Rise through Games Pass or PlayStation Plus. Enjoyed them & saw the value of the previous games then decided purchased new ones.

I don't know and neither do you. I'd love to know the breakdown in players by platform.

@EVIL-C Oh yeah, but I think Ninty will sell well regardless. I cant see them having another Wii-U moment any time soon haha.

@Kaloudz There are certainly those like me who'll bite early, lol. 😂 I just likely won't buy as much for S2 as I have for S1 without either some discounts, used physical games, or Nintendo decides to listen to the criticism and reduce the software a bit. But I agree with you that S2 will probably do alright, certainly not Wii U territory, lol. 😅

(RIP Wii U ❤️😭)