Nintendo of America CEO Defends Breath of The Wild Sequel Price Hike

[T0@st]

Nintendo of America CEO Doug Bowser granted a rare interview to Associated Press, presumably as part of promotional duties prior to the February 17 opening of its Super Nintendo World theme park at Universal Studios Hollywood. In an article published on March 13, AP News journalist Greg Keller threw in a surprise query about the $70 asking price for Nintendo's upcoming sequel to 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Fan backlash to Nintendo of America's price hiking reached fever pitch earlier in 2023, and the company has not been very communicative with reasons for increasing the pricing of certain flagship Switch titles, until now.

Bowser's response was suitably neutral, but plenty can be read into it: "We look at what the game has to offer. I think fans will find this is an incredibly full, deeply immersive experience. The price point reflects the type of experience that fans can expect when it comes to playing this particular game. This isn't a price point that we'll necessarily have on all our titles. It's actually a fairly common pricing model either here or in Europe or other parts of the world, where the pricing may vary depending on the game itself." It is clear that he thinks that Tears of the Kingdom presents good value for money, given the standard of content being offered to the prospective player. It is possible that he is hinting that upcoming remakes of legacy Legend of Zelda games will be offered at sub-$70 prices. The recently released Metroid Prime Remastered debuted digitally at $39.99 on the Nintendo eShop, and physical copies have been sold for less at retailers.



Bowser was also asked about Nintendo's expectations regarding sales figures for the upcoming Zelda title, and it was clearly a topic he did not want to discuss in any great detail: "There are, but they're not publicly disclosed yet." He was happier to acknowledge that supply chain issues are no longer a big concern for the company: "Really coming out of the summer and into the final quarter of last year, the holiday period, we saw that that constriction, if you will, in chip supply reduce. So right now, from a supply chain perspective, we're able to supply the demand that's out there."



Nintendo has kept production values for their games relatively low this generation - its Switch hybrid console is famously not capable of outputting 4K in-game resolutions, and therefore developers are not required to produce ultra detailed assets and content. In contrast, budgets for AAA titles on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles have ballooned, in order to accommodate the manpower required to make sprawling and graphically ambitious games. Current generation console owners have become familiar with the resulting price hikes, so it will be interesting to see how things pan out for Nintendo, as their rumored Switch 2 model comes into focus. Is a regular MSRP of $70 a preview of the future, or should we expect a couple of sawbucks to be attached to that in 2024 and beyond?

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available to pre-order for $69.99. Pricing for the deluxe box set Collector's Edition is not yet confirmed for North America. UK retailers listed the Collector's Edition at £109.99 before all available pre-order allocations were sold out.

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[Steevo]

Unpopular opinion maybe, but games like BOTW, Skyrim, TW3 all may deserve a higher initial price for the masterpieces they were. The tough part is knowing if its going to be as good without reviews. Maybe before they ask for $70 and say they know what it has to offer they bring in some reviewers and let them offer up their thoughts, ya know, kinda like they used to do...... Then again I suppose thats what we get when worlds collide with gamergate-esque BS.

 

[Icon Charlie]

GREED.... IS.... GOOD....

It's really a simple thing... If you are weak of will, you will buy it just like the rest of the rabid gerbils that have no control of buying things. And you are most likely living the wage slave of life.

If you are strong of will you know that unless you have REAL disposable money on hand, you do not need it. You are most likely way ahead of the game and taking charge of your life.
You do not want to be a wage slave for "The Man".

 

[dgianstefani]

High initial prices would be fine, if Nintendo understood the concept of reductions once it's several years old...

 

[Space Lynx]

the game trailers look boring to me, such bland environments.

 

[natr0n]

The flash chips are probably multiple of gb for this tittle, so I think thats why price hike.

 

[evernessince]

Unpopular opinion maybe, but games like BOTW, Skyrim, TW3 all may deserve a higher initial price for the masterpieces they were. The tough part is knowing if its going to be as good without reviews. Maybe before they ask for $70 and say they know what it has to offer they bring in some reviewers and let them offer up their thoughts, ya know, kinda like they used to do...... Then again I suppose thats what we get when worlds collide with gamergate-esque BS.

No Bethesda game is worth full price at launch, they are all buggy messes only justified by the amazing modding community. The Witcher 3 is the only game out of your list where you could justify a $70 asking price. While it had bugs at launch, the amount of high quality content it launched with was crazy. It took me 110 hours to finish all the side content in the witcher 3 base game and I wouldn't have bothered if the side-quests are anything like those in Skyrim of CP2077. BOTW is a watered down open world Zelda. The puzzles are extremely easy and the mythical beast dungeons are frankly a cake-walk. It's still a good game because the core of what make the franchise is still mostly intact but it's not worth more than $60 at launch. BOTW is not one the Zelda's I'd recommend to people who want to get into the franchise.

the game trailers look boring to me, such bland environments.

Unfortunately BOTW took the game in more generic open world direction, this new Zelda is just a continuation of that. Same thing is probably going to happen to animal crossing as well. Nintendo assumes everyone likes the direction they are taking with their games when in reality a big contributing factor was the pandemic.

 

[sLowEnd]

High initial prices would be fine, if Nintendo understood the concept of reductions once it's several years old...

Yeah lol

Even as the 3DS shop is in its final days, I don't think I've ever seen a price reduction on a Fire Emblem, Pokemon, or Zelda game.

 

[GoldenX]

I'm perfectly fine paying 70 bucks for a game like Breath of the Wild.

What I'm not fine with is paying that same amount for whatever garbage Gamefreaks considers a game now.

 

[Chomiq]

Unpopular opinion maybe, but games like BOTW, Skyrim, TW3 all may deserve a higher initial price for the masterpieces they were. The tough part is knowing if its going to be as good without reviews. Maybe before they ask for $70 and say they know what it has to offer they bring in some reviewers and let them offer up their thoughts, ya know, kinda like they used to do...... Then again I suppose thats what we get when worlds collide with gamergate-esque BS.

Your logic is flawed because Nintendo is notorious for not discounting Switch games after launch.

 

[Steevo]

Your logic is flawed because Nintendo is notorious for not discounting Switch games after launch.

No one forces anyone to buy it, my daughter still uses the WiiU for Zelda games.

 

[Lionheart]

"I like money, pay the Zelda TAX"

 

[MDWiley]

I agree with the people saying some games truly deserve a higher price tag. I’m hyped for this game. That said, DON’T PREORDER. We have no idea how good it’ll actually be and AAA releases are only getting worse. Wait for reviews!

 

[ZoneDymo]

easy to defend, they want more of your money and you are ok with that because you are going to buy it.
honestly looking forward to games costing over 100 dollars, Im way past caring about games because there is pretty much zero innovation, Ive played games and everything new is just more of the same or just actively inferior (yet still bewilderingly praised....Cyberpunk anyone) so yeah, I dont care about games but if consumers are so willing to spend all their money on videogames....go right ahead, the market decides and the market gives it a thumbs up.

 

[Lionheart]

No one forces anyone to buy it, my daughter still uses the WiiU for Zelda games.

Congrats to your daughter, but this "No one forces you to buy it" is such a weak argument.

 

[damric]

I remember paying $60 for NES The Legend of Zelda and $70 for The Adventure of Link back in the 80s at Toys 'R Us. I mowed a lot of neighbor's yards to afford those.

 

[skizzo]

Though I certainly do not want to pay more for games, people need to think for a moment and understand how much goes into these creations. This is def a personal pet peeve. Seeing snowflakes bitch about $20-25 for a new release arcade type game like Streets of Rage 4....blows my mind. Seeing someone bitch about a AAA game in the Zelda series going for $70...equally blows my mind. Inflation has impacted practically everything in life, but not so much video games over my entire lifetime.

I was a child scribbling out "christmas lists" asking for Sega Genesis video games. Christmas was the only time I got a new one. With the one exception being I somehow convinced my parents to get me Sonic the Hedgehog 2 when it came out. We went to Toys R Us, and I'll never forget that it was $70 because it was a special treat for me.

Lets adjust for inflation, $70 dollars in 1992 money is $140 is today's money

How many games are being released for $140? None. How many people bitch about game prices? Too many. Is $70 reasonable for a AAA game from arguably one of the most popular and important franchises in video game history? Yes.

Gamers need to look at this stuff in a more global/high level picture. Video games have been an entertainment industry since the 70's and you cannot look at this like it's just a 2023 thing.

Again, I'd love to keep prices stagnant like they have been for practically THREE DECADES but for all the virtue signalers that pretend like they care about "crunch" in the game development world and they aren't paid a fair wage etc sorta stuff.....denying that they deserve to bump up the price just a hair (~16%) seems totally ridiculous. (but skizzo.....how do we know the money doesn't just end up in the CEO's pocket?....we don't know and that could happen) This price increase is totally reasonable from my logical thought process

I haven't bought a Nintendo console or game since the N64. I ain't no Nintendo fan.....in fact....I kinda hate the majority of their practices. But this isn't one of them.

I'm not implying any particular user on here has said anything negative either. But am generalizing the gaming public who apparently have tried to make their voice heard about such a price increase being something they would not tolerate. Games have become so large they rival or exceed budgets of Hollywood blockbuster films. There are X1000 more employees across multiple industries or companies. It takes a lot of work, lets be thankful we have reaped the benefits of reasonable game prices for so long, rather than throw a tantrum about a reasonable increase that is literally much, much, lower than inflation.

 

[sLowEnd]

I remember paying $60 for NES The Legend of Zelda and $70 for The Adventure of Link back in the 80s at Toys 'R Us. I mowed a lot of neighbor's yards to afford those.

Yeah those games weren't cheap. N64 games were pretty damn expensive too. $75 in 1996 dollars! ($143 adjusted for inflation today)

https://imgur.com/a/53UhrgX

 

[lexluthermiester]

GREED.... IS.... GOOD....

Oh please. Games back in the 8bit/16bit would regularly top $80 at retail. I paid $75 for Final Fantasy 3(SNES), $80 for Chrono Trigger and so on. And that was in Early 1990's money. Let that sink in. It's not greed, it called development costs.

But hey, if an extra $20 is too much for a game that is likely going to exceptional, that's ok, don't buy it and go cry in your milk...

 

[Easo]

You can forget about 59.99 games soonish, the new norm will be 69.99, and it is already spreading around.
Honestly, at least 15 years of 59.99 was surprising by itself.

 

[evernessince]

Oh please. Games back in the 8bit/16bit would regularly top $80 at retail. I paid $75 for Final Fantasy 3(SNES), $80 for Chrono Trigger and so on. And that was in Early 1990's money. Let that sink in. It's not greed, it called development costs.

But hey, if an extra $20 is too much for a game that is likely going to exceptional, that's ok, don't buy it and go cry in your milk...

The size of the market has massively increased since then, devs are making way more now at $60 then they ever did charging $80.

This is akin to the price of Anime DVDs. Often an entire series can cost $300+ and the price is high because so few people buy them. That's actually cheaper than the used to be given the market has increased a bit.

The price of a product is a calculation by companies, they have to determine the ideal intersection between price and how many units they will sell. There is a lot of competition in the gaming market nowdays too. It's hard to justify the price of a AAA game unless it's good. There are plenty of indie games coming out at $25 or less and there are more older games you can go back and play than ever. Plus you have past AAA titles that come at steep discounts.

I'm personally not a fan of the fixed price nature of AAA games, some don't deserve $60 and other's might justify $100.

 

[lexluthermiester]

The size of the market has massively increased since then

So has the cost of development.

I'm personally not a fan of the fixed price nature of AAA games, some don't deserve $60 and other's might justify $100.

With you on that one. But then, the power of the vote is still with us. If a game is crap, we don't buy it. If it's good or excellent, then we vote with our wallet.

 

[mechtech]

meh

I remember paying $70 for cartridge games 30 years ago.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Indefensible, let them burn.

Unninvest your money then re invest in your new sega overlords.


I'll stop.

 

[sLowEnd]

Indefensible, let them burn.

Unninvest your money then re invest in your new sega overlords.


I'll stop.

The Dreamcast was killed off too soon :/