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[Oppo]

I don't think they are reacting at all. They've already made the pricing scheme ahead of time (i.e. high at launch, then decrease after weeks), which has became the de facto standard. As consumers, let's not pretend that we're not anticipating the prices to go down. It's a given.

you are aware that Sony or Steam or Amazon or Google or Apple can put your game on sale all by themselves, right? or GameStop? there's not the level of control you are insinuating, unless you are Ubi or EA or Blizzard and have your own game portal.

The prices are constant because Nintendo has already valued their products prior to release. They do not adhere to the de facto pricing model. They want to place a premium to their products. It is a reflection of how they see themselves as movers of the industry. They are a proud company.

and yet they all launch at the same price for the most part, fascinating research. who cares if they are "proud"? you are being irrational.

 

[sixteen-bit]

As a consumer I value that Nintendo puts a premium on region lock

how can i really appreciate the import games if i don't buy additional hardware to play them?

 

[Sephzilla]

Stockholm Syndrome: Nintendo Edition

Pretty much this.

Nintendo's pricing policy ultimately cuts out the long-term legs of a game because it's scaring off the people who would buy the game if was on sale for $30-$40 instead of $60. A game staying $60 two years down the line is absurd.

 

[Jetku]

I like to trade in games, so I apreciste that Nintendo games hold value. I get 20% off with GCU (now Prime) and wait for gamestops +50% trade value deals. Often I'll get back what I paid (or more) for Nintendo games, even a year or two later.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

how can i really appreciate the import games if i don't buy additional hardware to play them?

It just makes the games that much more special

Thank god for Nintendo fam

 

[RedFury]

how can i really appreciate the import games if i don't buy additional hardware to play them?

It's hard to tell where the sarcasm is in posts but I can say without a doubt he's being a smart ass in that post.

It just makes the games that much more special

Thank god for Nintendo fam

Yup.

 

[Oppo]

I like to trade in games, so I apreciste that Nintendo games hold value. I get 20% off with GCU (now Prime) and wait for gamestops +50% trade value deals. Often I'll get back what I paid (or more) for Nintendo games, even a year or two later.

so you could have :

a) waited on launch for a non-nintendo game, saved money immediately, or
b) buy game at full price, hope the game retains value over time, sell later

doesn't matter how old the game is for b), you pay full price again, or close to it.

yeah this is crazyfan post-hoc justification

 

[Theognosis]

Of course giving consumers choice is good for them. You have the money and can`t wait? Buy at launch. You do not have the money for the launch price? Wait and buy discounted. This way, both consumers get what they want; in Nintendo's case, only the first consumer can play it, that is certainly less consumer friendly.

You are correct. But in fairness to Nintendo, the Wii U install base is so small that discounting its games or even the console itself will not make significant movement to their bottom line (in contrast to Steam games where discounts have a huge impact given the size of the PC market).

 

[Nightbird]

Well, it did help to get my PS4, so i appreciate that lol


But really, there are only two type of people who gain something positive from that practice:

1.) People who purchase their Games Day 1, because they can be sure that they haven't been ripped off since the price will stay the same

2.) People who re-sell their games, because you get the most Money back from Nintendo games

If you're not one of those two type of people, this practice is nothing more than a huge bother for you

 

[RedFury]

You are correct. But in fairness to Nintendo, the Wii U install base is so small that discounting its games or even the console itself will not make significant movement to their bottom line (in contrast to Steam games where discounts have a huge impact given the size of the PC market).

I disagree, it's all a cascading effect. 2 recent examples Vita(memory cards) and Wii U (game prices, shit add system price here too). If people don't buy into your product because of an issue (money in most casses) then you don't get a player base. No player base no support. Where's all the Wii U support despite it being a "premium" console? If anything it proves you lose much of the market. I myself own like 4 Wii U games because of price. Also despite its poor sales Vita has one of the highest attach rates of sales per system, console wise of course (I'm sure there's other steam users with 500+ games they won't ever have the time to beat).

 

[The Boat]

Pretty much this.

Nintendo's pricing policy ultimately cuts out the long-term legs of a game because it's scaring off the people who would buy the game if was on sale for $30-$40 instead of $60. A game staying $60 two years down the line is absurd.

I don't think this is true on a general basis with Nintendo games seeing that they have "lots" of evergreen titles that keep selling for a long time unlike most other games (just look at Animal Crossing or Splatoon in Japan).

Keeping good selling Mario games at higher prices might make them more money than if they dropped the price.
It's hard to debate this without data and it's impossible to know for sure, but it's likely this was their reasoning, although it might not apply in nowadays market.

In any case, they dropped the price for many of their main games like SM3DW, DKCTF or Pikmin 3 and have been doing promotions and discounts, even if not as big as we would like, so a lot of this thread reads like complaining about what they did and not what they do. Kind of like complaining about friend codes.

 

[Theognosis]

I disagree, it's all a cascading effect. 2 recent examples Vita(memory cards) and Wii U (game prices, shit add system price here too). People don't buy into your product because of an issue (money in most casses) then you don't get a player base. No player base no support. Where's all the Wii U support despite it being a "premium" console? If anything it proves you lose much of the market. I myself own like 4 Wii U games because of price. Also despite its poor sales Vita has one of the highest attach rates of sales per system, console wise of course (I'm sure there's other steam users with 500+ games they won't ever have the time to beat).

Most Vita games are ports of PS3 and PS4 titles. Hence, making a game for it doesn't cost as much as a game that's built specifically for the Wii U alone (with a little userbase at that). Hopefully, Wii U games that are ported to Switch won't be expensive. We'll see.

 

[Trojita]

Learn one gaffers secret to getting rich.

Wallstreet hates him!

 

[epmode]

you are aware that Sony or Steam or Amazon or Google or Apple can put your game on sale all by themselves, right?

I don't really know about most of those stores but please prove that Valve can put a game on sale without permission from a developer/publisher. There's no way.

 

[Jimrpg]

It doesn't make any sense in my opinion. It's counter to true free market conditions that would ultimately net the biggest revenue back to Nintendo.

A game that doesn't go on discount is one that is limiting its audience significantly. That strategy might be ok in the past when everything was $60 but now there are so many games and so many prices from $0-60 that the consumer is spoilt for choice. Thus we have a situation where only Nintendo fans buy their games but they miss out on sales to the average joe.

 

[SexyFish]

I get you OP. My entire retirement will be based on sealed copies of Earthbound and Pokemon games.

Truly a smart idea.

 

[PartTimeWarrior]

hail corporate

 

[Bowl0l]

Most Vita games are ports of PS3 and PS4 titles. Hence, making a game for it doesn't cost as much as a game that's built specifically for the Wii U alone (with a little userbase at that). Hopefully, Wii U games that are ported to Switch won't be expensive. We'll see.

Nintendo will charge $50 for each WiiU ports and everyone will praise them for the day one $10 discounts.

 

[Waaghals]

This only makes sense if you buy games to invest, rather than to actually play them.

That seems like a strange position to take on a gaming forum.

 

[M-PG71C]

This only makes sense if you buy games to invest, rather than to actually play them.

That seems like a strange position to take on a gaming forum.

Considering how many hoarders we have on GAF (and the plenty of people who buy games and never play them), nah.

Speaking as a long time Nintendo fan, video games make for a bad investment. If you want to invest, try stocks. I'll even send you a nice link to get started:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=749978

But OP, for real, don't buy any games from anybody with the idea that they increase in time. They might, but if that was the sole focus, that $60 can do much better with a much higher return elsewhere.

 

[Strangelove77]

Premium price for a premium product. That "Nintendo Magic" doesn't grow on trees, you know.

 

[Vampfox]

When you make the best games on the planet like Nintendo does, and they sell well there's no reason to lower the price.

 

[Gravy Boat]

Premium price for a premium product. That "Nintendo Magic" doesn't grow on trees, you know.

Not really a premium price when games like Captain Toad and Splatoon went on sale for almost half of what a AAA game normally goes for.

When you make the best games on the planet like Nintendo does, and they sell well there's no reason to lower the price.

Yeah, Star Fox and the latest Metriod were modern day classics.

 

[RandomHopeInc]

I think its hilarious how the nature of a constant price on the retail games front is such an issue to some people, when these are the same people that will complain about microtransactions in their games that they pay for.

Whenever the race is to the bottom when price is involved, things like micro-transactions help pad out the windfall of such a practice.

But Nintendo games don't employ that mindset. With the stable income from whole priced games, making extra free content to keep the multiplayer alive in Splatoon isn't such a financial risk and we all benefit from it.

Don't talk about wasting the least amount as possible and also complain about the quality of these games.

 

[Acquiescence]

As a consumer, I tend not to buy Nintendo hardware because a lot of the software maintains its full price.

 

[borges]

value of something is defined by demand of consumers. Your rationale seems ilogical.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

When you make the best games on the planet like Nintendo does, and they sell well there's no reason to lower the price.

I've purchased several of the best games on the planet, not by Nintendo, for a fraction of their debut price.

 

[fireflame]

Nintendo prices feel very high and it can hurt when you compare with Steam. Fortunately i am one of th few people who play mainly 3rd party games on 3ds, a,d those at least get better discounts.

 

[Psychoward]

When you make the best games on the planet like Nintendo does, and they sell well there's no reason to lower the price.

I mean I've bought better games than a lot of Nintendo games for like 5 bucks.

Additionally even the mediocre or outright bad Nintendo games rarely fall in price.

 

[VDenter]

I think its hilarious how the nature of a constant price on the retail games front is such an issue to some people, when these are the same people that will complain about microtransactions in their games that they pay for.

Whenever the race is to the bottom when price is involved, things like micro-transactions help pad out the windfall of such a practice.

But Nintendo games don't employ that mindset. With the stable income from whole priced games, making extra free content to keep the multiplayer alive in Splatoon isn't such a financial risk and we all benefit from it.

Don't talk about wasting the least amount as possible and also complain about the quality of these games.

I would agree with this if amiibos did not exist. Witch are just overpriced microtransactions at the end of the day.

 

[RibMan]

Actually, there's more than emotions involved. The publishers bringing the prices down hurts the second-hand market, i.e. consumers who already have the product would have to resell their games at a great loss.

The practice of lowering the price after launch is anti-consumer. The publishers should have released the product at a low price to begin with.

By providing a product at a lower price, more people are able to consume it. I am very confused about your anti-consumer conclusion.

Value of something is defined by demand of consumers. Your rationale seems illogical.

Yep.

 

[redcrayon]

It doesn't make any sense in my opinion. It's counter to true free market conditions that would ultimately net the biggest revenue back to Nintendo.

A game that doesn't go on discount is one that is limiting its audience significantly. That strategy might be ok in the past when everything was $60 but now there are so many games and so many prices from $0-60 that the consumer is spoilt for choice. Thus we have a situation where only Nintendo fans buy their games but they miss out on sales to the average joe.

Pretty much this.

Nintendo's pricing policy ultimately cuts out the long-term legs of a game because it's scaring off the people who would buy the game if was on sale for $30-$40 instead of $60. A game staying $60 two years down the line is absurd.

I don't really think this is necessarily true, especially when combined with Nintendo only doing one of each of its major series on each device. Stuff like Mario Kart and NSMB has insane legs compared to other software, some of the games are still being printed five or six years later, whereas a five-or-six year old copy of CoD or Assassins Creed is pretty much in the realm of second-hand shops (with no more money going to the publisher) by then.

 

[Lothars]

But Nintendo games don't employ that mindset. With the stable income from whole priced games, making extra free content to keep the multiplayer alive in Splatoon isn't such a financial risk and we all benefit from it.

Don't talk about wasting the least amount as possible and also complain about the quality of these games.

The thing is about Splatoon, the majority of the content in that game was already on the disc and was drip fed to everyone. That's not something you should be celebrating.

 

[Vampfox]

Additionally even the mediocre or outright bad Nintendo games rarely fall in price.

Really? Cause I remember that the price on "Metroid Other M" fell pretty quickly.

 

[King_Moc]

I just sold Splatoon and Smash Bros for £25 and £28 respectively, ahead of the inevitable Switch versions, so it's all good by me. I buy pretty much all their major games on launch anyway, I wouldn't even benefit from price drops.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

The idea that lowering the price of a product is anti-consumer has to be the dumbest thing I've ever read on the Gaming side of this forum.

 

[Corto]

The problem is that consumers with the similar point of view of "games as investment" are fewer and fewer. So this strategy of Nintendo only loses them potential buyers and if they maintain this going forward then Nintendo will become more and more a niche boutique company instead of the wide reaching multimedia company that they aim to be. And I can't think of a viable long term future to a video game niche boutique company.

 

[The Boat]

The thing is about Splatoon, the majority of the content in that game was already on the disc and was drip fed to everyone. That's not something you should be celebrating.

Actually, it was a pretty well received idea by those who played it despite the initial backlash and might have contributed to a healthier online player base and more sales long term. I'm not sure it's correct to say it was the majority of content either.

 

[ViolentP]

Let me see if I understand this correctly:

I pay premium price for a game so I can eventually resell it and put that money towards another premium price game.

Or

I pay a discounted price for a game so I can resell it and put that money towards another discounted game.

How the fuck is being forced to use more out of pocket for the same end result optimal?

 

[30yearsofhurt]

Oh the humanity.
nintendogaf never disappoints.

 

[blankempathy]

Let me see if I understand this correctly:

I pay premium price for a game so I can eventually resell it and put that money towards another premium price game.

Or

I pay a discounted price for a game so I can resell it and put that money towards another discounted game.

How the fuck is being forced to use more out of pocket for the same end result optimal?

Depends on how long you're waiting. If you're reselling via ebay and craigslist you'll take less of a loss but places like gamestop gives you like less then 15 dollars for mgsv+fallout 4+battlefront combined. 3 aaa titles from last fall. on the other hand you can get 75 dollars for smash+mk8+ splatoon. throw in the 50% extra promo going on right now and you're looking at 113ish dollars. For the 3 non nintendo aaa games I listed earlier you'd get like $22. And that's only after 1 year.

 

[Trojita]

Their policy really only helps people that buy day one and plan on selling their games and Nintendo themselves.

Doesn't benefit someone never planning on selling their games
Doesn't benefit someone that waits for a game to lower in price or is a thrifty gamer
Doesn't benefit people that are dealing with the upfront cost and not sure if they will sell or not.

And it's not even like Nintendo's prices always stay high as of the last two generations. Shit is random on whether they will be one of those Nintendo titles that goes on a deep discount while the rest never make it below $40.

 

[swipe]

With one kid in college and another starting next year, I have to wait a week or two for a cheaper price. I just can't fathom loving higher prices as an investment.

 

[Doc_Drop]

Depends on how long you're waiting. If you're reselling via ebay and craigslist you'll take less of a loss but places like gamestop gives you like less then 15 dollars for mgsv+fallout 4+battlefront combined. 3 aaa titles from last fall. on the other hand you can get 75 dollars for smash+mk8+ splatoon. throw in the 50% extra promo going on right now and you're looking at 113ish dollars. For the 3 non nintendo aaa games I listed earlier you'd get like $22. And that's only after 1 year.

For the sake of argument let's forget the extra 50% deal.

How much would smash,mk8, amd splatoon cost new? And the same for fallout,MGSV, and battlefront?

Yes you get $75 for the Nintendo games and $22 for the others, but what are the gains in terms of % comparing the two sets?

 

[Unit24]

The idea that Nintendo never dropping their prices is pro consumer because it encourages you to buy on day 1 is utterly baffling to me. Other people not getting a better deal than you later is not the same as you getting a good deal.

 

[chemicals]

back when Nintendo used cartridges, the value was real and the small number of cartridges was real... now? fuck them. It doesn't cost anything to print more copies of stuff to regulate the cost... they just see people continuing to buy the shit like it's rare and they reap the benefits. Fuck em.

 

[Mahonay]

What? No.

My girlfriend was curious about the Wii U recently because she liked what she saw of Mario Kart 8 in a video, so I went online and saw it was still $350. For a console that Nintendo themselves have moved past. Fuck that.

 

[Gtagentleman]

What the fuck is going on here? -Every PC gamer

 

[Mahonay]

Seriously OP. Whatever you're smoking, I want some.

 

[blankempathy]

For the sake of argument let's forget the extra 50% deal.

How much would smash,mk8, amd splatoon cost new? And the same for fallout,MGSV, and battlefront?

Yes you get $75 for the Nintendo games and $22 for the others, but what are the gains in terms of % comparing the two sets?

You can't just forget about maximizing trade in values when plenty of folks wait for these deals just like people wait for games to go on sale. I could wait for a b2g1 free sale and pay 120 for those 3 nintendo games. Same thing goes for third party games. Right now those three third party games can be had for 20 each thanks to sales running. How cheap do you think they'll be next year? Or the year after that? I fully expect them to end up as part of those buy 3 for 10 dollar deals that gamestop runs on old games. With that said I don't expect those Wii u games to maintain the value they normally would once the switch versions hit as well. In this case if was a good thing that those games held their value if you want to get rid of them before the switch versions drop.