Why are Nintendo Switch games so expensive even when on sale?

Yeah, it's hard to avoid the nostalgia tax if you buy Nintendo products. It's like the hipster tax with Apple. They will eventually have Nintendo Selects or Players Choice, but it could be a few more years. The games are still selling.

Because no good substitute product. Outside of Nintendo offerings its a barren wasteland for good games on Switch so Nintendo can charge premium.

PC and Console competitors don't have this problem cause you have options. Like NFS go try forza. Dont like witcher 3 play horizon zero dawn or skyrim. Want more BB or DS3 go buy those Souls clone.

there are no games around that can match their quality.

mario and donkey kong is the best platformer period.

mario kart is the best racing battle game period.

splatoon is one of the top 3 third person shooter games around at 8M sold

zelda is arguably the best adventure game ever created.

also if it sells really well they dont lower the price. if the game sells poorly they will discount it.

usually metroid and starfox games get discount soon because they are not popular franchises.

I know the feeling. :P Think about me buying exclusively digital too. Oh well.

Because, Nintendo.

This is a good point. Most first party games have maintained high sales so far; one because the Switch was new, and two because they are mostly from Nintendo's top tier franchises. Now that the Switch is older and they are getting to second tier games, we will probably start to see better sales. And then third party partnerships like Astral Chain and Daemon X Machina will probably get discounted fairly quick.

The selects range will be for 5 year old games it's the way Nintendo do things. It's always been crazy prices.

Nintendo games can demand full or close to full price long after release. People want them and people will purchase them.

Because when you buy Nintendo...you buy “quality”...!

:p

When I see some Nintendo games, there’s something about the way they are that makes it seem pretty expected for the games, product and company. It just seems like they should be able to charge prices like that. I wish I could pin-point what it is that makes me feel this way, because I don’t think it’s just the quality of the games. It’s quite strange to me.

That being said I remember Wii being notoriously cheap and the Wii itself only costing like 100 dollars. This is like when Skyward Sword was released though.

I can’t believe it’s been that long ago.

You may be right that the Switch has some exclusives that command a premium because of the name. That being said, the PC has a lot of quality games, especially after patches that are heavily discounted after a few years. I bought up a whole bunch of PC games for under $10 each that were a few years old and I've really enjoyed them. For the Switch I only have a handful of games due to the price.

Because the demand for their games is high.

I will state, because they can.

A few other third party developers are on par with Nintendos "quality" of games but don't have the confidence to charging the premium.

As it shows Nintendo isn't afraid to say "pay-up or move along".

This isn't a switch phenomenon, it's been happening with Nintendo since the beginning. They hold their games at a high price because when someone buys a Nintendo system, whether it be at launch or 5 years in, what games do they buy? The first party games, mario kart, smash, zelda, and those games are waiting for them at a full price tag ;)

Look at the price of the wii u when it was failing it's always been the same since n64 days.

Pretty much... if it's Mario, DK, or Zelda, best believe you'll probably never see those at a discount. Honestly, every response I've seen so far is valid. Nintendo rarely drops prices on its first party titles

Zelda: BOTW is on sale now at the official site's Black Friday sale, along with Fire Emblem: Warriors. Must say I'm surprised because I've never seen their first-party games on sale either.

@sban83: Yeah and think about how long Zelda BOTW has been out lol. Nintendo knows they have their fan base by the balls. Good thing about it is you can always find discounts with private sellers and because their cartridges, it minimizes the risk of their being an issue with the game as compared to disc.

About half the switch games I own I bought on offerup at a discount with the original case. Zero issues and can't be MK8 and SSBB for $40 when they were still retailing for $60

I managed to pick up some through Amazon on sale during Black Friday. Basically a $10 discount on most titles but it’s better than nothing. Here in Australia depending on where you shop most newly released Switch games can be nearly $80. $79 to be exact. ;)

@robert_sparkes: I seem to recall all games being like that when I was a kid: games didn't start getting discounted until the newer system was either out or about to be released. (Could be wrong but that's what I remember).

Anyway, as a result, I kind of always thought it was just because of Nintendo being old and never getting around to "updating" their prices because "If-It-Ain't-Broke-Don't-Fix-It" kind of thinking. lol.

Whatever the reason though, I've always assumed that's one of the ways that they've been able to still stick around through all those years when sales sucked so I've always been kind of okay with the prices.

Cuz people buy that shit.

No need to lower prices when you're hitting your sales numbers.

Another option is wait for previously played games like those at GameStop. Even weather new or old the prices are still quite high.

@judaspete: Buy them in instantgaming.com . They're somewhat cheaper, or just look for indie gems like Hollow Knight, Celeste and Dead Cells.

They are priced the way they are because Nobody beats Nintendo when it comes to

There games.

It's Nintendo and these games will sell no matter if they are on sale or not.

Because you can't play those first party games outside of Nintendo. There is no Nintendo game pass or Nintendo Now right?

Surely they will start a players choice range on switch soon. I want Zelda but not for £59.99.

@judaspete: I have bought games from the eshop for as little as .05 cents it just seems to be hit or miss if you will like them.

In my experience I've got a few hidden gems and a lot of duds!

@rosefirelite: Ha! Yeah, half my dashboard is stuff Qubic games released for free or next to nothing. Some of them are actually pretty fun, like One Strike, Wrekt, or Revenge of the Bird King.

I mean where else can ya play them?

Nintendo is basically selling it brand, consistency, and legacy titles that nobody else can match in the gaming industry just like Disney in their own industry. Here is a nice video explaining that

@robert_sparkes:

Yeah I want Zelda Breathe of The Wild for $30 and Mario Odyssey.

Please don't bump old threads