The Nintendo Switch 2 and Its Disappointing Issue with Game Pricing

With the release of Nintendo’s latest direct, a lot of new information and games were revealed. As a big fan of not only the Switch, its predecessors and game franchises like Pokemon, Super Smash bros, Animal crossing, Dark souls and Sid Meier's Civilization, I am fairly excited about the Switch 2!

Features

While the Switch 2’s design and UI is practically the same, long awaited features such as game chat, video sharing and a respectable upgrade in specs make it finally somewhat up to date with other consoles. Choppy framerates and poor performance have long plagued the Nintendo Switch’s existence. Take Gamefreaks latest release, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, for example. It was (and still is) often criticized for its horrible animation, Graphics and buggy gameplay.

Example of SV's graphics/buggy gameplay

With the release of the Switch 2’s specs, it will be able to reach 4k and 120 fps. This increase in specs will allow for a wider range of games being playable. This is evident with the announcement of games that are hardware intensive such as Elden Ring, Cyberpunk and The Duskbloods. Now, with the exciting features out of the way, let's get into Pricing. 

Pricing

While many fans are excited for the release of the switch 2, many more are disgusted with Nintendo's greed in terms of pricing. Nintendo as a whole has had a history of price gouging. With games that are 8+ years old still being released at full price …. What more can you expect from Nintendo? Physical copies of The Switch 2’s game are releasing at a crisp $80. 

Understandably, many Nintendo fans are disgruntled at the game prices. Then again, Nintendo as a whole has been a huge influence on unfair game prices. With pricing of new games mainly averaging out at about 80, it is evident that game’s as a whole are increasing in price. Now, this can happen for a multitude of reasons. Game studios could be setting what they feel is a fair price for the game, due to the time and effort it took to create it. But even then the standard has always been set at $60, even for AAA games (games developed by larger studios such as Bethesda). If you ask me, prices have only risen because spending more than the product is worth has been normalized.

In most cases, many games are platform exclusives. Meaning that if you want to play the game, you will have to pay for the console and then the game itself. Nintendo has some of the largest franchises of games out of all video game companies. Because of this, they have a much larger say in what they price their games at. If you don't want to buy the console and overpriced game, then you won't be able to play it anywhere else. 

While the Switch 2 seems to be a great console, the price of games alone can ruin the success of the platform. Although the switch platform as a whole has been a smash hit, the pricing of new games is getting ridiculous and its influence can be seen elsewhere in the market. Is Nintendo the sole reason? No, but as a collective, Nintendo has always stood out in recent years due to their firm prices on even older games.