I’m not schocked by a game costing around 80$ as that’s already what a new game costs in my country.
I remember buying Final Fantasy 8 almost 30 years ago for above 90$ as a teenager.
I also kind of remember that NES and Super NES games were really expensive.
I’m not saying that I want the price of games to increase though and I think it’s weird that Nintendo is doing this when their games clearly aren’t the most expensive ones to create.
I know I won’t be buying a Switch 2and I think people should vote with their wallets.
Have you seen the average Nintendo game? Unless they’re buying all of their developers solid gold keyboards to work on, I’m not seeing where the price justification comes from.
Game pricing hasn’t changed much, sure. I paid $70 for n64 games in 1996. But volume sure has
FFVIII sold 6 million copies in its first year, a huge commercial success, and has sold 9.6 million lifetime Ever juggernaut games like Mario 64 - 12 million copies. FFVII - 12.6 million Pokemon red blue green combined - 30 million Madden 2007 - 7.7 million (interestingly EA does not release sales figures for modern madden games, probably because sports games seem to make far more money from micro transactions than sales. NBA 2k for example sells around 7m units a year but is one of the highest grossing franchises in gaming)
More recent games:
baldurs gate 3 sold 15 million copies Elden ring 20 million Pokémon sword and shield - 27 million Diablo 3 30 million The Witcher 3 50 million Skyrim 60 million Rdr2 70 million GTA 5 200 million
So when people cry “wahh, videogame prices need to rise because inflation” remember that they are stupid and overlook the very basic fact that 20-30 years ago gaming was a niche activity that got nowhere near the volume it gets today. Any single game selling 50 million copies in the 90s or early 2000s, let alone 200 fucking million, was an insane pipe dream
And he’s right. Switch 2 and its $80 games will not only sell like hot cakes, it will set the standard for AAA publishers going forward. I fully expect to see $100 base games as standard before the end of the next generational cycle, and they’ll still have microtransactions and endless special editions.
I’ll admit that I wasn’t sure about it at first and it was kind of an impulse buy, but I was hooked after my first couple of runs. Great game for the Steam Deck too.
Sure. Unless you have a gaming friend group that gets interested in some new multiplayer game. Then you either buy it so you can play with them, or you don’t play with them. If this continues for multiple games, you will slowly grow distant from your friend group.
That ought to be fine… it’s like saying your friends aren’t really your friends unless you play [x y or z]… In which case, I’m moving on to play what I enjoy.
Yup. Gamers, PC, console, mobile, all want their circus to escape reality, regardless of the cost short or long term.
I mean I keep hoping that gamers would have an epiphany and push back on these anti-consumer practices but I’ve seen nothing in the past twenty years, only desperate games defending being gouged.
Tangential but was at the hospital for an Endo appointment with my son and chuckled in our waiting room “I bet there’s an old white guy in a suit right now going ‘but what if we made these waiting rooms smaller?’”
It would be worth it if it cost $50. Of course it never would cost $50.
It would be worth it if it cost the same as the first switch and if the games weren’t so expensive. There is a price point at which it is actually a good value product, but it’s so far beyond that price point now, even without tariffs.
I mean, hating on Nintendo is a good idea, but their games distinctly do not suck (at least most of them). They only suck in so far as you have to pay Nintendo in some form to legally acquire and play them.
Yeah, no. It is not the only place to play Mario. There’s emulation and Piracy. I’m quite certain skilled people will try to hack the Switch 2 and sooner or later there will be a Switch 2 emulation (although might take a while). €80-90 euro for one single game is nuts.
The only reason I would purchase a Switch 2 is when it is capable of being hacked.
Don’t forget the other obvious option: we don’t have to play mario. Also, there’s a used game market with a ton of older games and Nintendo doesn’t get a cent from that anymore.
Sony: we’ll let the whole world pay astronomical amounts of money because it makes us rich! And if someone calls us on it, we’ll say it’s all because of the US!
Sony: we‘ll make it a little more expensive for everyone else, so no one feels left out
Let me fix that for you:
Sony: We‘ll make it a little more expensive for everyone else so our US sales don’t sink harder than a brick in a pond.
Companies really don’t care about people feeling left out. Company’s fear loss of sales. And that Trumps senseless antics by proxy of Sony make the PlayStation more expensive in my end of the world low key aggravates me, even if it’s only 50 bucks.
This is an odd place to put this complaint. You clicked on a post about the Switch. Make a post about struggling with money and the discussion should focus on that instead.
And there are those who have it even harder than YOU. Everyone’s station in life is different. They are allowed to experience that.
If they are being insensitive to your concerns, then maybe they are not a good friend, but it sounds like you’re the one insensitive to their concerns. You can both have different concerns.
Also this is literally a Switch post in a gaming community amd you self selected this complaint in here. It’s telling.
And there are those who have it even harder than YOU. Everyone’s station in life is different. They are allowed to experience that.
I’ve never understand the logic of the people who espouse that line of thinking. Is only the one single person alive who has it the literal worst out of all the billions of living human beings allowed to feel bad, and everyone else is obliged to look at them and say “well it could technically be worse so I guess I’m not allowed to feel bad”?
I think you’re taking the meaning too far. It’s not that someone in a bad position is not allowed to feel bad. Rather, you have to consider the context in each case. A friend could be having a hard time, and even if your situation is technically worse, that doesn’t invalidate theirs. Because if you are willing to invalidate your friend’s difficulties, by that same token you could say your own are invalidated by those in an even worse position than yours.
Essentially I’m saying that everyone’s life is different and their worries are valid. Yes, perhaps it can be a touch tone-deaf for one person in a privileged position to complain about something relatively trivial. But for someone to assert that their situation is infinitely more important, and that their friend shouldn’t be allowed to complain about their own experiences… it reeks of envy and narcissism.
Noone is disagreeing with your concerns. They are disagreeing with your selfrighteous stance that your problems are the most important.
Using a switch gaming thread for self pity is some major narcissism red flag.
And if you go to Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Congo, people are worried about losing limbs, life and actual stage 1 Maslow survival. They probably envy your problems right now. They keep focused on shit that actually matters, like not dying.
Yeah, people care about different things related to their circumstances. That’s life.
I’m in Australia and my spouse has been on the waiting list for surgery for nearly 3 years - unable to walk more than 20 metres, unable to work. I’m the sole earner for our household.
So yeah I get there are differences in privilege. What I’m saying is that I envy people who don’t have to worry about their survival. I am not sorry I came off harsh about it, I am hurting right now and the responses I’ve received have only affirmed that I am right to be angry about it.
I get it and yeah, it does sound like you have other things to worry about. Not everyone does though. Most people who are hurt by the pricing of a video game console are probably in a better position where their more basic needs are already met.
I’ve also seen this specific news story on multiple websites and on TV in the past 24 hours. I’m sure it was shared on Lemmy in goodwill, but the original news story is most likely from a marketing press release that was made to get us talking about the cost of the Nintendo Switch 2.
If Nintendo don’t like buzz this story creates, they will adjust the pricing accordingly. We’re all just cogs in a machine. I’m just a part that couldn’t take the stress and made a noise.
I think the takeaway is “The Nintendo Switch 2 isn’t the thing you should be pissed about when these tariffs are going to cause a lot more problems for way more people.”
I’m sorry to hear about your situation - I’m in a somewhat similar financial position myself - but people are people, and in any income bracket there are things to be concerned about.
For you and me, it’s getting enough money to eat. For someone else, it is affording a Switch. For others, it’s the rise in the price of caviar forcing them into cheaper options.
Interestingly enough, all of this causes a significant amount of stress, and should you eventually get more money to spare, then after a brief euphoria you’ll have the same worries about Switch prices and other things you don’t seem to care about now.
In any case, I wish you all the best and hope you’ll find your way out of a situation. Hope your spouse gets the surgery and becomes able to work, you have your teeth, and everyone lives a bit happier going forward.
Then why are you getting angry while checking this sub and this post? Seems like you’re also getting worked up over it.
I’m sorry you’re in a bad situation, I get it, I’m also not in a situation where I could even buy the switch 2 even if I wanted to. But this is a big deal, the USA have fucked themselves up in the ass so hard that people outside of it might get hit with it. The price of the switch 2 is just one of the tips of this iceberg, the price of the PS5 is another, but in a short while the same thing will start to happen to lots of electronics, including hospital ones, which could increase the price for everyone depending on how this plays out.
Unfortunately for the rest of us the US is a BIG extremely consumer market, and if they get taken off the picture the profit margin decreases and prices need to hike to keep up.
Then why are you getting angry while checking this sub and this post? Seems like you’re also getting worked up over it.
To be clear - this story came up in my feed because I have an interest in gaming, I wasn’t checking the sub directly nor looking to talk about the Nintendo Switch 2.
If I didn’t have my life’s struggles right now, I would still not be excited by the Nintendo Switch 2 because I think it’s a lacklustre upgrade. I’ve never been one to buy on launch and I know I will be able to afford the Switch 2 one day, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to save up or waiting for the price to drop…
I shared a story of how one of my longest friends ignores real problems myself and another friend live through because he’s sorted for life’s problems and doesn’t have to worry about anything other than buying himself a Switch 2. I said I envy people who have it that easy - and people decided to start personally attacking me before I decided to share my side. I’ve done my best to only reply to genuine people and not react, and I think I’ve done alright in that regard…
As for the economic angle - I really think that while a technically correct example, the Nintendo Switch 2 just doesn’t hold up because it’s not a necessary device for life. The iPhone is a far better example of necessary goods, that will suffer greatly etc. As I mentioned in another comment, this Switch 2 price story has been blasted across multiple channels so it seems to me like a stitch up by a marketing company - increasing my sense of cynicism about people discussing console launch prices like they’re a vital life problem.
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Aktywne