Are Nintendo's $80 online game prices a result of tariffs or is Nintendo just using them as an excuse to price gouge as corporations do?

Considering they are delaying pre orders due to the tariffs I do not think tariffs are the reason the price is so high. I think Nintendo is trying to set a new standard for game prices. If these games still sell at $80 then I wouldn’t be surprised to see GTA 6 release for $100. The whole gaming market will likely follow.

Just gouging us. Even on the 3DS before they shut the shop down, digital download games were the same price as buying them on a cart.

80? More like 90 if it's the physical version.

No this isn't because of tariffs. If anything tariffs will make it even worse (which will be painful.for americana to watch). This is just good ol' Nintendo greed.

There's zero justification for a Mario Kart game costing 80/90 dollars/euros. It's simply not a game with the kind of investment behind it to justify such a price home. IMO only GTA6 has a somewhat reasonable argument to get away with that. Yes they will make a ton of money but they also spent quite a lot making it.

Unpopular opinion:

They could probably charge $100 and people would still buy them, despite knowing the games aren’t worth that much. Consumers don’t really care; they just want their dopamine fixes. Nintendo could wrap a literal turd up and label it the next Zelda game, and people would bum rush stores with fistfuls of money to buy it; just because.

Not to be THAT GUY, but games haven't kept up with inflation or increasing development costs. Someone in these convos usually point out that, adjusted for inflation, that 80's Donkey Kong game actually costs more in today's money than $60-80. So I guess that's me today lol

Do I agree that they're worth that much? Ehhhh

But have we gotten massive improvements, longer games, more physics, graphics, etc? Yeah.

Games like GTA take half a decade or more to be made. If you want that kind of game development to continue, consessions need to be made somewhere. Now, maybe there's a better place to do it, but asking more for these games isn't completely unreasonable.

Edit: That Guy is back with some facts for y'all. In the 80's Nintendo charged $30-50 USD for a game. So let's take the middle of both(1985 and $40) and plug it into an inflation calculator. I did a few(two government websites and a random other one) and I got $116.93, $118.09, and $120.44 for today's dollar value.

That's how much Donkey Kong(the OG) would cost TODAY. Not Cyberpunk, not GTA, not Stardew Valley, but OG 16 bit Donkey Kong.

You really think prices shouldn't increase? Please explain then in a way that isn't just "but I want it cheap!". If that's your only argument, just pirate ffs. No one's stopping you.

Also, INDIE GAMES. THEY EXIST. THEYRE AWESOME. THEYRE CHEAP.

Honestly this discussion just feels like entitlement from a lot of people.

Edit again: Still waiting for someone to articulate why modern games should cost less than a 16-bit relic from the 80s when adjusting for inflation. Seeing a lot of downvotes poping in, but not much writing. Some actual facts would be nice instead of "but I can't afford it!". Should I do console prices next? Wanna see how much an NES should cost in today's money?

Edit again: oh look, here's console prices adjusted for inflation.... An original NES launched for $199 in 1985. In today's dollars.... $581.57. Hmm.... You could buy a Steam Deck for that price today.... It's almost like things have gotten really good for us compared to then. Woooooow. And that's not even mentioning that consoles used to be sold at a loss. Nintendo stopped selling consoles at a loss around the time of the Wii. So modern consoles actually cost what they take to make. Previous consoles were subsidized by the games and should have been more expensive. Y'all are also probably too young to remember when having a game console was a HUGE DEAL. It meant you were well off. Now everyone has 2 or 3.

Another edit for shits and giggles: if you're gonna bring up indie games, I'm gonna tell you to just go play them then. If you know you can play a better, cheaper game.... then do it. What are you here bitching about? "Oh no, I have so many options but one of them is too expensive so I can't have it and everything else too. Woe is me"

Like seriously "we have so many games now it's hard to afford all of the ones I want to play". Ummm yay? Videogames advanced as an art form so much that the choices are near endless and no one can really afford them all? GREAT!! WE DID IT! We made games so mainstream that everyone has access now!

I'm about done with this, but seriously, y'all need to chill a bit. I'm against the price increase too for the simple "I like having money" reason. But I don't think Nintendo or anyone else are monsters for raising their prices. It's been a long time coming and honestly surpising it didn't happen soon. Talks of it have been rumbling for years. Anyone shocked is either too young to remember or had their head in the sand.

Calling it now, GTAVI will be EXPENSIVE. Willing to bet base $80 and at least one $200+ Shark Card/in game assets bundle. And when Rockstar does it, you bet your ass the rest will follow. If anything Nintendo is just prepping for that inevitably themselves.

I can't help myself edit: someone said the 80s are a bad time to compare. Sure video game crash, electronics still being relatively new.... Ok.

So the PS1 released in 1994 for US $299, equivalent to $621.53 today. I can get a PS5 today, depending on version, for $499-$699, with objectively better everything. So again, cheaper than it was.

Just to be clear: they're asking for a $20 raise in prices. Inflation says it's should be a $60 increase. How are they monsters?

This is the problem with tariffs, it's an opportunity for greedy corporations to increase prices MORE than the tariffs or on products not covered by the tariffs and no one will be the wiser.

As someone who's bought games for the last 30+ years, the fact that, relative to inflation, they got cheaper surprised me (for physical games, in any case). For those physical games, one might think of it as a correction. Yeah, the number of buyers is up, but so are production costs. Now, is some of that greed with the top taking those profits? Absolutely and I hate it. Still, I'm surprised it took this long

Well I've had essentially every console Nintendo has ever produced, but at least for now I'm not excited about the switch 2 for this very reason, I'm fairly put off about it.

I'm either going to buy a steamdeck or wait for the cost to go down (Nintendo is usually firm with their pricing though) on the Switch 2 before I'll ever buy it or any games.

Especially while the US languishes under trump for the next nearly four years. I'm not going to have a lot of extra space for added expenses and price gouging.

Ocarina of Time cost $116.91 at launch, accounting for inflation.

Edit: the original Legend of Zelda cost $144.89 at launch, also after inflation.

The prices are still calculated pre-tariffs, thats why they stopped preorders because the price will go up most likely.

I think asking for high prices for both the console and the games is a big mistake.

Vote with your wallet, and don't let the FOMO pull you in.

Nintendo is just a small slice of the gaming industry. If you don't like what you see there are other platforms and game developers.

For 80 usd you can buy a handful of bigger titles during a Steam sale. Just saying.

Okay, here's a slightly hot take.

I'd rather the price go up and the games remain ad free and high quality (not you, pokemon, you can get fucked) than become enshittified with micro transactions, ads, etc

I don't like it. But it's much more acceptable to me

Nintendo just greedy, always have been, always will be. Don't buy their trash, just emulate it.

I have a story. About 30 years ago Sonic & Knuckles was launched for Mega Drive. "I" bought that for 17.000$00 (Portuguese escudos). That roughly translates to 85€ without accounting for inflation.

So although the price hike is unfortunate, I'm actually surprised the prices of the games remained stable for so long.

Nothing to do with tariffs, just a reflection of higher development cost and, and that's perfectly fine to an extent, the very core principle of capitalism.

Let's please not discuss if capitalism is good. It's just the way it is.

Let's put it this way, the market price for the Switch 2 is roughly the same converted price in the UK. Now, to my knowledge, the UK hasn't also introduced these tariffs quietly so I can't, in good conscience, blame ol' Delusional Donald for this one.

The increased price is not the result of tariffs, neither for the games nor console. That's pretty much confirmed by them costing the same amount (converted + sales tax) in Europe. The console is (was, before tariffs) fairly priced imo, it is comparable to the steam deck + dock.

Is 80$ Mario Kart price gouging? Eh. The edit maniac in the comments here is right that video games have become cheap, maybe even too cheap, and that a price increase at some point was inevitable. 60$ was set as the AAA price before the smartphone existed, and was not always profitable as we've seen with the recent lay-offs.

My own 2 cents: I'm glad some company broke that unspoken rule (we ignore skull and bones for obvious reasons), so big releases have more options in pricing, too long have we accepted 60$ games with 20$ DLC, I'm glad if this means devs can just charge 80$ for a full game. Oh, and it's good for indie games too. People may actually buy the shorter games with worse graphics they wanted so badly a few months ago.

IIRC the price was announced first, and it's the same in other countries so I don't think that's the reason. Which means that lets asume they will use Japan's tariffs of 24% on them their base price goes from 80 to 99.2, plus in the USA prices are usually pre-tax so you also add tax on top of that, this varies from state to state, but a quick Google puts it at around 5%, so you will actually be paying $104.16 for them, and $117.18 for physical copies, or $126.63 if they're manufactured in China and you get that tariff instead. This is just one example of what these isolationist policies will cause, be prepared to have that happen to everything.

The other thing about this price point is that it's a headline grabber - and then once people find out more, they will spot that if you buy a Switch with MK preinstalled, the game costs half that.

So suddenly it feels like, "oh hey, that's a great deal, and I was obviously going to buy a Switch 2 anyway" - and Nintendo get the sales and the decreased cost of manufacturing the physical game.

$80 was before the tariffs....

They're holding pre-orders due to tariffs so expect prices to increase further.

I know y'all love Nintendo, but they're no different than any other giant corporation; greed is the reason prices go up.

They test out the water how much will the consumer spend.

If you don't like the price wait for a sale or coupons.

I’d love to blame him but that seems like Nintendo’s choice. Yeah, I’m not fucking spending $80 on a game, especially when I have a gaming PC

Games have been around the $50-$70 mark my entire life.

It's a sad reality, but I expect prices of major mainstream games to go up, regardless of tariffs.

I'm always a few years behind on consoles and enjoy the robust secondary market, so to me, it doesn't matter much.

Outside of Zelda and Mario Kart, there isn't much these days that's exclusive to Nintendo that I give a damn about anyway.

According to a post I found on that shitty alien site, An AAA game has to sell 10 million copies to break even around 6 months ago. That means at $70 dollars each. They can cost $700 million to make, market and distribute. The money has to typically be recouped within a certain time frame to keep the lights on and invest in the next 700 mil project. The successful games also have to carry the weight of the failures too, so you probably aren't getting that bad a deal.

I'm not saying the price isn't inflated, just that it can cost a lot more than you might think to make this stuff, and it's all on a gamble that it will sell.

I remember buying mortal kombat ii on the megadrive/genesis with saved up pocket money for £45 ($58). That was in 1994, I think I maxed out at about 10 games. I'm seeing assassins creed shadows on the xbox at £56.99 ($74) today (ignoring online digital shops because they didn't exist in 1994.) So in 31 years inflation on the price of a premium video game has been 0.75% annually vs 2.5% for all goods and that has resulted in a small 20% increase in the price over 30 years.

Closest link I could find to back up the inflation rate. If games increased in price Inline with inflation, they'd cost about £96 ($123) today.

Games have always been expensive, but less so now than 30 years ago.

P.s. If I don't ignore online digital shops, I can actually get it cheaper the that 1994 price. Only £40 ($51). I mean come on its not like suddenly we have a bad deal on video games. Also if it really bothers you stop buying games at launch. I rarely spend more than a third of those prices now just by waiting a year or two.

Price gouging. Mk8 has been a best seller for 8 years. If you can raise default price and sale down to 60, you're going to make a lot more over years.

I inherited a switch from someone who wasn't using it and was blown away by the prices for the majority of games on it. They were charging AAA prices for Mario titles. If they had priced their Mario. Zelda titles at half the price, those things would have dominated before the SteamDeck's came out. The switch is barely used.

Honest question because I'm OOTL, but haven't games been this price for a long time now and weren't Switch games even more expensive than this?

I'm a bit confused.

Considering Nintendo has an eShop, I doubt it is tariffs. Hopefully they don't try to tax digital goods next as it appears they have everything else.

The Taxer-in-Cheif can be a moron at the same time that corporations rape our wallets without either of them excusing the other.

Prices are set by graphing a demand schedule and the supply. You graph how many sales you will get at each price point (sales go up as price goes down). Then you graph how many a company will produce at each price point (the more it costs, the less they will be willing to make/risk). The point where those two graphs intersect is the equilibrium. Which is the best price to charge. Taxes shift the cost, increase the price where they intersect.

Digital is weird. Iirc, the risk is more in pirating. The more copies that exist, or the easier they are to access, the more pirated content will be out there. Don't forget to include shareholder profits in cost, and the cost of other parts of the business (like a beloved endeavor that doesn't turn a profit, Costco hot dogs for example).

I'm not an economist and welcome any better explanations or corrections to this. It's been a while since I took that class. But I love the topic.

Based on what little I know that goes into video game development, $80 seems cheap - assuming no mtx.

But if it's $80 + mtx? Fuck that.