Yesterday’s highly anticipated Nintendo Direct generated a ton of consumer excitement, but alongside new title announcements were some other, more eye-opening confirmations: pricing.
Amid sweeping global tariffs and cost-of-living concerns, gamers’ wallets face added stress as price hikes won’t spare imported tech products like Nintendo’s upcoming Switch 2 console.
The Japanese entertainment enterprise’s jam-packed presentation floated a few figures before fans, starting with the console’s staggering $449.99 retail value — $500 for fans hoping to get the Mario Kart-themed bundle.
As if that weren’t painful enough for many players already pinching pennies, Nintendo announced that copies of many of its ultra-hyped AAA titles — Mario Kart World, Kirby and The Forgotten Land, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, among other notable entries — will sell for $80. The latter two aren’t Switch 2 exclusives; these games have been on shelves for a few years already, but Nintendo asserts the Switch 2 titles will boast higher resolution, improved performance, and other improvements.
Physical copies of these games will retail for around $90, a number worrisome enough to send shockwaves through social media.
Many millennial gamers can remember the consumer sticker shock after big releases hit $60 for the first time, before bumping up to $70 not too long ago. However, selling Switch 2 cartridges — some of which don’t even have a game on them (?!) — for nearly $100 leaves mouths agape on those who swore they’d seen it all.
Video game fan or not, $90 for a new game is enough to drum up uncomfy feelings in shoppers’ bellies. In recent months, apprehensive consumers have upended the “lipstick effect,” a term used to describe the economic phenomenon of buyers nabbing small, inexpensive splurges during uncertain economic times, like cosmetics. Recent data shows some of the beauty industry’s most affordable drugstore brands reporting sub-par performance. If shoppers continue to pass on mini-luxuries like lipgloss, tossing Nintendo a crisp $100 bill for games they probably already have seems even less likely.
Uninhibited price hikes like these pose threats for fans of small luxuries everywhere; as we approach the abstract release date for Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto VI, players might have to put even more money aside than anticipated.
While Nintendo’s new console won’t come to consumers until June 5, vocal fans’ outrage might dull the shine of what little hype remains.
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A lifelong gamer raised on classic titles like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, and Croc, Stephanie brings her expertise of gaming and pop culture to deliver unique, refreshing views on the world of video games, complete with references to absurd and obscure media.
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